In the News

In a statement released on Friday, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced he has partnered state Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, and state Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Anacortes, to propose legislation creating a Cold Case Investigations Unit focused on solving cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Should the legal system treat drug possession as a crime? How can society compel people with serious substance-use disorders to get treatment? And how do elected officials handle those questions? It’s been nearly two years since the state Supreme Court’s February 2021 ruling, known as the Blake decision, struck down Washington’s felony drug possession ...

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — Arizona is renowned for its red, desert terrain, the striking beauty of the Grand Canyon and — perhaps less well known — one of the best mental health crisis response systems in the country. For more than 20 years, the state has been building an integrated crisis ...

Sen. Manka Dhingra (D-Redmond) represents Washington State’s 45th Legislative District. She’s a member of the Senate Behavioral Health Subcommittee and has helped pass legislation to transform the state’s behavioral health system—reorienting it around prevention rather than crisis response—during her time in the Senate. Dhingra traveled to Arizona this month to learn ...

Most trips that lawmakers take to “listen and learn” about “best practices” in other states usually amount to nothing more than poorly disguised vacations, but every once in a while there’s an exception that proves the rule. Washington State legislators Manka Dhingra and Tina Orwall led one such excursion this month ...

Behavioral health officials discussed the implementation of the 988 suicide prevention call line at a meeting on Tuesday. Get the latest state-specific policy intelligence for the health care sector delivered to your inbox.