In The News

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

On Wednesday, the Daily World of Aberdeen published an op-ed in which my 24th District seatmates, Rep. Mike Chapman and Rep. Steve Tharinger, called on Republicans to join Democrats in voting to postpone the so-called levy cliff that would force draconian cuts on K-12 schools. You can read the full ...