Washington Democrats: half of initiatives will get hearings, half will not; Republicans in Washington Legislature bristle over collapse of rural housing bills

THE WEEK AHEAD

• The Week Ahead in the House | February 19 – 23

THE CURRENT | A WASHINGTON HOUSE REPUBLICAN EMAIL UPDATE

• February 18: Initiatives, bill updates, and state budgets

CAPITOL CALENDAR RADIO/AUDIO

• Capitol Calendar | February 19 – 23

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• ‘Our Voices are not being heard in Olympia’: Red Apple Orchards shutters due to rising costs (The Wenatchee World)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• New WA bill would crack down on sexually explicit, fabricated photos of minors (KOMO TV)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Consumers sentiment edges higher as economic growth accelerates and inflation fades (AP)
• Seattle pizzeria owner says new gig ordinance is slicing sales (KING TV)
• Grape expectations. $9.5B WA wine industry wants to put the crush on the gloom and doom (Tri-City Herald)
• COLUMN: Why a dancer with Tacoma ties is fighting for WA’s ‘Stripper Bill of Rights’ (Matt Driscoll/The News Tribune)

CANNABIS

• Legislative proposals on marijuana might surprise some older residents (The Spokesman-Review)

CHILD CARE

• King County says its contractor failed to pay $1.1 million to child care providers in subsidy program (KUOW Radio)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Washington bill restricting book bans introduced in Senate (KNDO/KNDU)

CONGRESS

• After leading trip to southern border, Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse says immigration reform can’t wait (The Spokesman-Review)
• 3rd District Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez co-introduces border bill (The Columbian)

COURTS (STATE)

• State AG charges Tacoma seafood wholesaler with felonies over failure to report purchases (The News Tribune)

CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY

• WA Republicans outraged over bill allowing felons to ask for reduced prison time (KPQ Radio)
• Over a thousand drunk driving arrests in Washington so far in 2024 (KHQ TV)
• The Spotlight: Solutions to youth crime come under scrutiny (FOX 13)
• More charges recommended for protesters who shut down I-5 in Seattle (MyNorthwest)
• Seattle Pro-Palestine protestors say they’ll continue to cause disruption (FOX 13)
• King County youth jail closure deferred to 2028 amid rising youth crime rates (KOMO TV)

DAMS

• Judge orders breach of dam at hydroelectric project on Puyallup River (The Seattle Times)
• ‘Monumental decision.’ Controversial dam on Puyallup River suffers another legal setback (The News Tribune)

DRUG CRISIS

• Curriculum about fentanyl, other opioids could come to Washington junior high classrooms (KUOW Radio)
• Washington tribes look to Iceland for help getting teens off drugs (Washington State Standard)

EARLY LEARNING

• ‘When services decline, it’s the kids who pay the price’ (Snoqualmie Valley Record)

EDUCATION

• Most Tri-Cities students still half year behind in math, reading. How 2 schools caught up (Tri-City Herald)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Legislature could be closer to ending PSE’s natural gas obligations (KIRO TV)
• Washington Senate committee advances natural gas bill (The Center Square)
• Puget Sound Energy files two-year rate plan for electric, natural gas (Snoqualmie Valley Record)

ENVIRONMENT

• Dept. of Ecology seeks to limit toxic chemicals in state water bodies (KGMI Radio/My Bellingham Now)
• Pollution is problematic for pollinators — and perhaps your produce (KUOW Radio)
• Pollinator legislation proposed by Mt. Spokane senior buzzes through the Senate (The Spokesman-Review)
• Spokane Valley legislator’s bill: ‘bee’ helpful to pollinators (The Center Square)
• Seattle air quality predicted to worsen due to wildfire smoke (Axios – Seattle)
• Return to Quincy: A history of heavy metals in fertilizer and the companies who manufacture them (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Return to Quincy: Former mayor Patty Martin’s fight against heavy metals in fertilizers came at a cost (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• What does Lake Washington’s warming mean for its future? (The Seattle Times)

FISH

• Boldt decision affirms tribal fishing rights, sovereignty (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Pacific salmon face no shortage of challenges, shrinking snowpack high among them (KREM TV)
• Fish and Wildlife asking for feedback on updated fishing app (Columbia Basin Herald)

GUN RIGHTS

• Washington lawmakers consider more modest set of gun restrictions (The Seattle Times)
• Washington gun laws in 2024: Legislators still weighing several bills (FOX 13)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• OPINION: Fentanyl, mental health, homelessness: They intersect in the ER (Ketul J. Patel, CEO of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and chair-elect of the Washington State Hospital Association, and Christine Gregoire, CEO of Challenge Seattle and former Washington state governor and attorney general/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Decay of ethical leadership is clear as Providence gouges the vulnerable (The Seattle Times)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• Original sin of land-grant university system (The Lewiston Tribune/Grist)

HOMELESSNESS

• Is Seattle finally making progress on homelessness? (KNWN Radio)
• Public health adds porta potties following unhoused residents’ move to Clarkston park (Northwest Public Broadcasting)

HOUSING

• Republicans in Washington Legislature bristle over collapse of rural housing bills (Washington State Standard)
• An affordable housing tax break on public lands (The Washington Observer)
• Are WA housing affordability and climate change on a collision course? Some think they are (The Olympian)
• Pierce County Housing Authority lagging in financial control fix, state says (The Center Square)
• Rent prices have soared in Tri-Cities so WA is giving $8.5M for 2 new housing projects (Tri-City Herald)
• Smaller units the future of American housing (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Using housing fund outside city worth studying (The Columbian)
• EDITORIAL: Cap on rent can keep more people in their homes (The Everett Herald)

IMMIGRATION

• Biden’s rightward shift on immigration angers advocates. But it’s resonating with many Democrats (AP)
• Asylum-seekers with shelter in WA face ticking clock to stay inside (The Seattle Times)
• Japanese Americans call for closure of Tacoma’s immigration prison (The Seattle Times)
• OPINION: On Remembrance Day, call for end to immigrant detention (Mike Ishii and Stan Shikuma, leaders in Tsuru for Solidarity/The Seattle Times)

INSURANCE

• As home insurance bills go up, owners’ coverage is going down (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Bill increasing penalty for assaulting an officer moves through Washington Legislature (KHQ TV)
• WSP trooper shot multiple times during Kent traffic stop, suspect in custody (KOMO TV)
• Woman hits Washington State Patrol vehicle on I-5, injuring herself, trooper (The Columbian)
• SPD officers suspended after waiting 20 minutes to respond to shooting (The Seattle Times)

LEGISLATURE

• Washington Democrats: half of initiatives will get hearings, half will not (The Center Square)
• 3 of Washington’s 6 citizen initiatives will get legislative hearings (MyNorthwest)
• Initiatives on climate action, WA Cares Fund and capital gains to go to November ballot (KING TV)
• Lawmakers won’t act on WA long-term care ballot initiative (The Seattle Times)
• Some bills survive, others don’t after WA Legislature chamber deadline (The Seattle Times)
• In Session: Legislators will discuss 3 initiatives, budget details coming (KING TV)
• Bill swap, money talks, and initiative hints: A look at week 6 of WA’s legislative session (NW News Network)
• BLOG: GOP Representative Keith Goehner shares insights into the 2024 legislative session (Shift)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Harrell administration touts progress on homelessness (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Whatcom County joins Bellingham in suspending remote commenting following interruptions (The Bellingham Herald)
• Tensions high at Mabton Council meetings over water distribution and utility bills (Yakima Herald-Republic)

MENTAL HEALTH

• For WA patients with serious mental illness, this little-known right may get stronger (The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• A quarter of military families struggle to afford enough food. Northwest lawmakers are trying to help (The Spokesman-Review)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon House passes bill to fix law that forces state to refund child labor fines (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• Oregon Legislature considers $30 million for semiconductor workforce training (The Oregonian)
• California’s war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired. Lawmakers are trying again (Los Angeles Times/The Columbian)

PARKS

• This gateway park to Tacoma is an ‘embarrassment’ and ‘painful to see.’ Is there a solution? (The News Tribune)

RURAL BROADBAND

• Incoming Washington Broadband Office director highlights rural internet access (KHQ TV)

SCHOOL SAFETY

• Seattle-area schools see spike in students caught with guns on campus (The Seattle Times)
• Davis student charged with bringing firearm on campus (Yakima Herald-Republic)

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Americans divided on TikTok ban even as Biden campaign joins the app, AP-NORC poll shows (AP)

SPORTS

• Bill that proposes stiffer penalties for threats to school, sports officials advances (The Center Square)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• Gov. Inslee talks fentanyl, clean energy in Walla Walla (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• Governor Inslee honors fallen firefighter, addresses opioid crisis in Walla Walla (KEPR TV)

TAXES

• Fewer households impacted by capital gains tax than originally estimated (The Center Square)
• OPINION: Democrats are wrong to use children as defense of income tax (Sen. John Braun/The Chronicle)

TRANSPORTATION

• Letters to Inslee: More passenger-only ferries could be among solutions to Washington ferry woes (KUOW Radio)
• Parking closes for two years at Sound Transit station to build $50 million garage (The News Tribune)

TRIBAL ISSUES

• Funding for Northwest tribes to help challenges with housing, climate change (Northwest Public Broadcasting)
• Washington state police delayed investigation on missing Indigenous teen for more than a year (Investigate West/Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• EDITORIAL: Virginia Beavert leaves a legacy of language (Yakima Herald-Republic)

WEATHER & CLIMATE

• Winter’s still here, but the weather will reflect a sense spring is coming (MyNorthwest)

WILDLIFE

• Cougar attacks cyclists on trail northeast of Fall City, one hurt (The Seattle Times)
• Snohomish County partners with feds on North Cascades grizzly plan (The Everett Herald)