Local News

UPDATED 8:09 P.M.: A spokesman for Service Employees International Union 775 guided me to a few additional donations that union made, so I updated their chart to include those. ORIGINAL POST: OLYMPIA — We wrote a story for Wednesday about Republican Party lawmakers’ skepticism over state-employee raises legislators will approve, deny or disregard this session, which comes in More

UPDATE, 12:22 p.m.: Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, Tuesday afternoon announced that the bill to stop the Highway 99 tunnel project and tunnel drill Bertha would not get a hearing in the state Senate. “While I understand my colleagues’ concerns regarding the Seattle tunnel project, a bill to shut down a project of this size is not realistic,” said King, who…

OLYMPIA – Just when you started getting bored by all the budget talk down here comes the Washington state incandescent light bulb freedom act. If light bulb freedom rings a bell for you, recall in 2008 and 2011 a movement by then-Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., calling on the federal government to stop telling people what light bulbs they can…

While you were obsessing over the State of the Union or Deflategate, Washington state politics moved forward. Here’s what you may have missed: 1. Seattle City Councilmembers Nick Licata and Tom Rasmussen to retire 2. Truth Needle: GOP leader is right, Inslee polluter list tags UW, WSU 3. On Muslim Lobby Day, Muslim residents march through…

OLYMPIA – State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to announce a bill to raise the smoking age in Washington to 21 from 18. Most states have allow people to buy cigarettes once they reach 18, though in at least two states, Utah and New Jersey, the age is 19, according to Beverly May,…

OLYMPIA — Now that we’re into the second week of the legislative session, lawmakers are digging into various issues. GOP members of the House and Senate held forth on a bunch of issues Tuesday at a media availability. 1. On bills that would raise the minimum wage (SB 5285, HB 1355), Republican Deputy Leader Sen. Jon…

OLYMPIA — As speakers and protesters here celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some sobering new numbers are out on student homelessness in Washington state. Black and Native American K-12 students in Washington state are three times more likely to be homeless than white students, according to numbers by the state Office of Superintendent of Public…

It’s been a head-spinning week keeping up with the tangled-web problems and solutions that lawmakers began fiddling with in Olympia during the 2015 state Legislature’s first week. Here’s what happened: 1. Senate Republicans add big hurdle for new taxes 2. State at critical crossroads, Inslee tells split lawmakers 3. Republican Rep. Manweller on why he dissed Supreme Court at Inslee’s speech 4. Bill…

With the first week of the legislative session in the bag, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee held a news conference Friday morning to give his thoughts on guns, taxes, football and other issues. The highlights: 1. The governor said he supports legislation to provide a one-year “cooling off” period before elected officials and top-level government workers can…

OLYMPIA — With pistols holstered at their hips or rifles slung across their shoulders, gun-rights supporters Thursday morning filled the Capitol steps. The “594 Rally for Sanity” was primarily aimed at protesting Initiative 594, which voters passed in November with 59 percent of the vote. I-594 expands background checks beyond the current federal standard to…