Patty In The News

Homes, jobs, and sobriety are three solutions lawmakers and homeless advocates argue will help house Washington’s homeless population who both groups agree the state is failing to serve. In past years, states around the country have begun revising laws on homeless camps in response to a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which upheld a 9th Circuit Court decision, Martin v. ...

Legislation that would provide Washingtonians $2.2 billion worth of federal funding passed the Senate floor Wednesday in a 47-2 vote. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk. House Bill 1368 would allocate $2.2 billion to K-12 public schools, public health, individuals and families, as well as housing and business assistance, according to the bill’s text. Click here to read more...

Photo: Rogelio V. Solis The Associated Press
Edward Jaros lost his job on a Los Angeles movie set during the pandemic and has been unable to find work, leaving him facing hunger and eviction. “I owe about $21,000 and there’s no hope of me paying that,” Jaros said this week. “I’ve applied for and have [rent] relief, but it goes ...

As we’ve seen throughout last year’s unrest and up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, public demonstrations — where passions and personal convictions were already running hot — became an even more volatile and too often deadly mix when firearms and other weapons were brandished. Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Illinois resident, crossed state lines, armed with an AR-15-style ...

A Senate committee on Thursday approved a measure that would ban the open carry of guns and other weapons on the Capitol campus and at or near any permitted public demonstration across Washington state. The measure passed the Senate Law and Justice committee on a 5-4 party line vote and now heads to the Senate Rules Committee, the last stop before ...

OLYMPIA — A proposed ban on open-carry weapons during public demonstrations sparked a heated debate on whether the bill unreasonably restricts the Second Amendment to secure the protections of the First. The Senate Law & Justice Committee voted Jan. 28 to send Senate Bill 5038 to the House in a 5-4 vote, with Democrat committee members voting together in the majority. Sen. ...

PHOTO: CREDIT: KUOW PHOTO/MEGAN FARMER First of all, the eviction process is a civil lawsuit. So, the answer to dealing with the potential surge in evictions had to do with the court process out of the gate. I am an attorney by trade. I know the value of having good representation when you're in court. We looked at the data from other ...

In each of the last four years, some state lawmakers have blocked the path of firearms laws that would make Washington a safer place. Lawmakers must now get it right and approve bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Washington should finally join the growing list of states that prohibit these potentially destructive devices. Nine other states, including California, have laws ...

As people continue to gather for political protests outside of the state Capitol, lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban the open carry of firearms on Capitol grounds and at other public demonstrations. The Capitol has long been the site of armed and unarmed protests, but the bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, said that an increase in armed ...

Washington could become the first state in the country to provide a right to legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in housing court. The measure is part of a Senate bill introduced last week that pairs temporary tenant protections aimed at staving off mass evictions with permanent changes to ensure tenants have equal access to the housing court system. "If I've ...