OLYMPIA — A college wrestling grant bill spurred by late firefighter Charles “Chad” Cate’s pleas days before he died sailed quickly through the state Senate this week. SSB 5687’s progress Thursday marked heightened activity in Olympia as the 105-day legislative session moved further past its halfway point.
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OLYMPIA, Feb. 13, 2023 — Happy Monday. We’ve got a holiday tomorrow and a legislative cut-off come Friday. That’s a recipe for a few broken hearts. Valentines Day will begin with an early morning show of love for taxing the super wealthy. It will come in the form of an 8 ...
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The Washington State Patrol permanently stripped its staff psychologist of his power to approve or reject trooper candidates, a role that for nearly 30 years shaped the agency’s ranks. Under criticism for a lack of progress to diversify the force, WSP Chief John Batiste recently made the long-term shift to an ...
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A state senator from Sequim says police accountability laws passed in 2021 would be improved in several areas by legislation introduced early this legislative session. “Every year the Legislature passes laws that wind up getting adjusted and updated with clean-up legislation in subsequent years, and it’s no different with the police ...
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OLYMPIA, WA — New legislation introduced in Olympia Tuesday would increase state lawmakers' authority over the governor's emergency powers while the legislature is not in session. Sen. Emily Randall (D-Bremerton)'s Senate Bill 5909 would add legislative checks to state of emergency declarations and "prohibitive emergency orders" after 90 days. "The pandemic made it ...
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A new bill in the Washington Senate aims to stop a controversial policy in Klickitat County, where the sheriff deputized six hound handlers to track and kill any cougars he deemed to be a safety threat. In 2019, Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer established the posse who are dispatched to calls ...
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Sen. Kevin Van De Wege
Two former state officials’ recent proposal to discontinue timber harvests on trust lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources would be bold, ambitious and a game-changer.
It would also be a disaster — not just for our post-pandemic economy but for our efforts to reduce carbon ...
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Two former state officials’ recent proposal to discontinue timber harvests on trust lands managed by the Department of Natural Resources would be bold, ambitious and a game-changer.
It would also be a disaster — not just for our post-pandemic economy but for our efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
I don’t say this ...
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A bill moving through the Washington legislature may make the state only the second in the U.S. with hopes of distributing its own line of generic drugs, an idea hatched last year in California as a way to combat the rising cost of prescription medicines that are straining government budgets.
The ...
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OLYMPIA — Washington would be the first state in the nation to bring the 40-hour work week to agricultural workers, some of the nation’s lowest-paid workers, under a bill passed by the state Senate.
Farmworkers were exempted from the original federal Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938.
A late compromise negotiated ...
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