Author Archives: rickm

Friends: When the 2022 legislative session convenes Monday, response and recovery from the pandemic remains our prime concern. Beyond that, I’ve drafted a baker’s dozen bills and drawn up about half a dozen budget requests. My priorities include proposals involving ...

Friends: During a typical legislative session, my colleagues and I cast all kinds of votes for all kinds of bills and budgets and, more often than not, hear little about the actual results. I mean, we know we’re voting for ...

Friends: In these pandemic-heavy times, it can seem like little good is going on around us. It might be only human to feel that way, but it’s not accurate. Plenty of good things are going on — they’re just not ...

Friends: Forty-six years ago, upon the fall of Saigon, thousands of Southeast Asian refugees fled violence and persecution in their home countries. Like the governors of other states at the time, Dan Evans could have ignored their plight. The Vietnam ...

Friends: Though the COVID-19 pandemic presented enormous challenges to Washingtonians both at home and in the workplace, our state has weathered the hardships better than most if not all other states. As businesses closed and people faced losing their homes, ...

Friends: When a bill passes the Legislature and is signed into law by the governor, people tend to credit its success to the lawmaker who sponsored it. But one of the bills I sponsored this past session demonstrates just the ...