Weekend Listen: A South Seattle family self-deported to Guatemala and a bid rigging scandal in Bellingham may involve ChatGPT

Seattle Now

KUOW News and Information

Daily News, News

4.7 • 670 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we’re bringing you the best from the KUOW Newsroom… We’ll start with a story about a local family who self-deported to Guatemala earlier this week. The family of 3 and their cat left on Wednesday after losing their asylum case. Casey Martin has the story. Our other story comes from Bellingham. The city of Bellingham is conducting an internal investigation after evidence was uncovered that a staffer may have rigged a bidding process for a city contract to favor one vendor over another. What is new, though, is that the city employee allegedly used ChatGPT to skew the outcome. At least one expert says it may be the first time AI has been at the center of this kind of scandal. KNKX reporter Nate Sanford talked about it with KUOW’s Kim Malcolm in a recent interview.

Transcript

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0:00.0	How does AI even work?
0:03.0	Where does creativity come from?
0:05.5	What's the secret to living longer?
0:07.8	Ted Radio Hour explores the biggest questions with some of the world's greatest thinkers.
0:12.8	They will surprise, challenge, and even change you.
0:16.4	Listen to NPR's TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.3	Hey. to NPR's TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, good morning. Paige Browning here. It's Saturday. This is Seattle now. Today we're bringing
0:31.1	you the best from the KUOW Newsroom. We'll start with a story about a South Seattle family
0:36.9	who self-deported to Guatemala
0:39.3	earlier this week. The family of three with their cat in tow left on Wednesday after losing
0:44.9	their asylum case. Casey Martin has their story. Dylan has never been on an airplane before.
0:57.1	And before his very first flight, the 10-year-old is bawling.
1:01.5	It's early on Wednesday morning at C-TAC Airport.
1:05.2	Dylan, his three-year-old sister, and his mother, Darlene, are pulling some suitcases.
1:10.4	Their gray cat, Luna, peeks out from a carrier.
1:13.7	The family is headed back to Guatemala after losing their asylum case.
1:18.1	We're only using their first names because of their legal status.
1:21.5	Here's Darlene, speaking through an interpreter.
1:25.9	I'm so sad this morning, and I honestly don't know how to describe all the things that we're
1:30.9	feeling.
1:31.7	Darline says she left Guatemala in 2021 after getting robbed and physically threatened.
1:37.6	She and her kids lived in South Seattle, where Dylan went to school.
	...

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