In the News

It was a year ago this month when Haven Hepner, 10, was flown by medevac from her home in East Wenatchee to Seattle Children’s hospital. After a case of COVID-19, she had a headache and was very lethargic. When the doctor measured her blood sugar, it was nearly off the charts. She had diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition caused by a ...

This is the second year that farmworkers are eligible for overtime. Right now, if they work more than 48 hours in a week, they get paid time and half. Next year, they’ll be the same as everyone else — anything past 40 hours would count as overtime. But new proposed legislation in Olympia is trying to re-negotiate that.

Washington state Democrats want to add abortion rights to the state's Constitution, but they need Republican votes to make that happen. A resolution to amend the state Constitution is currently winding its way through committees in Olympia. The resolution would need to win a two-thirds vote in both the state Senate and House before it can be put on a ballot ...

People who perform female genital mutilation on a minor could face criminal and civil penalties if a bill now in the state senate becomes law. Female genital mutilation, or FGM, involves removal or injury to female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. It is a cultural procedure for young girls more commonly practiced in some African countries but instances of it in ...

OLYMPIA – More than a decade after voters legalized marijuana under Washington law, some state lawmakers hope to end the use of testing for the drug as a condition for getting hired. Recreational use of marijuana is legal under state law for adults over the age of 21 in Washington, but legalization hasn’t stopped some employers from making hiring decisions based ...

Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, was unanimously reelected in Olympia as Senate president pro tempore, a role she has served in since 2018. Keiser also serves as vice chair to the Senate Rules Committee and presides as chair when the lieutenant governor is not available.

Cannabis is legal in Washington, but so is employment discrimination against cannabis users. A new bill in the state Senate looks to address that issue. The bill, Senate Bill 5123, was filed by state Sen. Karen Keiser, a Des Moines Democrat, and had its first public hearing earlier this week. If signed into law, the legislation would add protections for workers ...

What started as a fight in the states between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retailers over how to address the epidemic of organized retail theft has become a joint lobbying campaign aimed at spurring Congress to action in the lame-duck session. 

More than 70 companies and organizations – including many that frequently find themselves on opposing sides, like Amazon ...