DCYF loses court battle amid crisis, residents return to local facility; Washington’s bag ban, meant to reduce waste, hasn’t made much of a dent in discarded plastic

TAKE THE CAPITOL BUZZ SURVEY

• Take the Capitol Buzz Survey (Washington House Republicans)

AGRICULTURE

• NW wheat harvest: Yields and exports up, prices down (Capital Press)
• Oregon cherry crop strong; Washington crop sustains weather damage (Capital Press)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• Secretaries of state urge Musk to fix AI chatbot spreading false election info (The Seattle Times)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Dow drops 860 points, and Japanese stocks suffer worst crash since 1987 amid U.S. economy worries (AP)
• New normal for pay raises takes hold as companies budget for 2025 (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Dollar Tree required to reform testing process after WA finds toxic children’s products (Washington State Standard)
• Chevron to quit California for Texas after warning on rules (Bloomberg/The Spokesman-Review)

CAP-AND-TRADE PROGRAM

• Latest fight over farm fuel exemptions dismissed in court (Washington State Standard)
• Washington judge tosses Farm Bureau’s suit against cap-and-trade (Capital Press)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Why are so many Americans choosing to not have children? (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)

CORRECTIONS & JAILS

• DCYF loses court battle amid crisis, residents return to local facility (FOX 13)
• Medicine garden at Washington Corrections Center brings healing and connection for Indigenous inmates (KING TV)
• Possible new jail site ID’d in update of King County’s civic campus plan (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• OPINION: No good answers: Why I moved 43 men from youth lockup to prison (Ross Hunter, secretary of the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families/The Seattle Times)

CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY

• WA teen still waiting for justice after being trafficked via Tinder (Cascade PBS)
• Are more license plate readers coming to Pierce County? Here’s where they would be (The News Tribune)
• Federal Way HOA deploys license plate reading cameras to deter criminals (KOMO TV)
• COLUMN: King County Public Defender director aims to stop many prosecutions, pay criminals instead (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

CYBERSECURITY

• CrowdStrike fires back against Delta threat over flight outages (FOX 13)

DAMS

• COLUMN: ‘Mama, where did all of our fish, electricity and jobs go?’ (Marvin F. Dugger/The Lewiston Tribune)

EDUCATION

• Here’s what SPS will look at in deciding which schools to close (The Seattle Times)
• How closures would affect demographics of Seattle schools (The Seattle Times)
• Declining enrollment: What it means for NCW schools and communities (The Wenatchee World)
• ‘Open and accepted’: Delta Garage helps youth through motorcycles (The Everett Herald)
• OPINION: WA’s charter schools can be a game-changer for special needs students (Ashley Jochim, education researcher and mom to a child with a disability in a Washington public school/The Seattle Times)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• NorthWestern to acquire more of Colstrip while other utilities unload coal (Washington State Standard)
• Inslee likens EV rebate program to signing of Declaration of Independence (The Center Square)
• Snohomish County PUD to start distributing bill credits this month (The Everett Herald)
• Energy production focus of Newhouse visit (Columbia Basin Herald)
• BLOG: As state studies ‘modular’ nuke plants, history worth remembering (Jim Camden/The Spokesman-Review)

ENVIRONMENT

• Washington’s bag ban, meant to reduce waste, hasn’t made much of a dent in discarded plastic (The Columbian)
• WSU training to teach locals about what is truly recyclable (The Everett Herald)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & THE WHITE HOUSE

• OPINION: Medicare is putting the care of our aging population at risk (Namrata Singh, practicing rheumatologist with UW Medicine and member of the American College of Rheumatology, and Dominique Feterman, rheumatology fellow and physician with UW Medicine and member of the American College of Rheumatology/The Seattle Times)

HANFORD

• Record funding. $3.3B budget proposed for Hanford site radioactive cleanup next year (Tri-City Herald)
• EDITORIAL: Hanford’s solar, battery project carries eastern Washington’s energy legacy forward (Tri-City Herald)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• OPINION: Reduction of family medicine residency program is tragic loss to Spokane community (Dr. David V. Evans; Dr. Russell Maier; Dr. Glen Stream/The Spokesman-Review)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• ‘Magic happens’: Paine Field aerospace center dedicates new hands-on lab (The Everett Herald)

HOMELESSNESS

• They have jobs, but no homes. Inside America’s unseen homelessness crisis (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)
• Tacoma daycare parents concerned for child safety due to nearby encampment (KIRO TV)

HOUSING

• How new real estate industry rules around brokers’ commissions will impact home buyers and sellers (AP)
• Thurston County to help save affordable housing units on Olympia’s west side (The Olympian)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Spokane interim police chief comments on lack of law enforcement responses (The Center Square)

LEGISLATURE

• Washington nonprofit goes public with claims against state lawmaker and founder (KUOW Radio)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Hollingsworth withdraws bill that would have slowed minimum wage increases (MyNorthwest)
• Pierce County executive says funds better spent on housing, not ‘a tent city’ (The Center Square)
• Medical Lake’s Pine Lodge building won’t become a homeless shelter, mayors assure (The Spokesman-Review)
• Franklin County lost 2 administrators in 2 years. Now they want to cut the job (Tri-City Herald)

MENTAL HEALTH

• WA Olympians say conversations on sports, mental health are changing (The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• ‘We are America’s best’: 116th Air Refueling Squadron celebrates 100 years of service in Spokane (The Spokesman-Review)

OTHER STATES

• Environmentalists, customers raise concerns over NW Natural hydrogen project (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

SCHOOL SAFETY

• Garfield teacher was target of rubber bullets minutes before fatal shooting (The Seattle Times)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• ESD: One quarter of WA Cares revenue goes to administrative costs (The Center Square)
• Paid Family and Medical Leave milestones celebrated as program faces deficit (The Center Square)
• EDITORIAL: Keeping kids safe requires working across government silos (The Seattle Times)

TAXES

• Data centers got a huge tax break to create WA jobs. Is it paying off? (The Seattle Times)
• Are we on the brink of a tax revolt in Washington state? (KUOW Radio)

TECHNOLOGY

• States compete for quantum supremacy (Pluribus News)

TRANSPORTATION

• Tacoma could soon make big changes to parking rules. What will it mean for drivers? (The News Tribune)
• Take a look: Updated plans for new Washington State Ferries hybrid-electric boats (KING TV)
• Kitsap passenger-only ferry service at risk after part failure (The Seattle Times)

TRIBAL ISSUES

• Lackluster investigations may perpetuate high Native infant mortality rate (Stateline/Yakima Herald-Republic)

WATER

• County Commissioner Al French fights back with newly released documents muddling the waters in PFAS saga (The Spokesman-Review)

WILDFIRE PREVENTION & RESPONSE

• State mobilizes National Guard to combat escalating wildfire dangers and fuel issues (KOMO TV)
• Fire Report: Triple-digit temperatures blaze through Washington (Columbia Basin Herald)
• North Cascades Highway stretch closes again due to wildfire (The Seattle Times)
• Swawilla Fire 85% contained as leadership for wildfire shifts (KHQ TV)
• EDITORIAL: Fire marshal’s burn ban is a no-brainer (Yakima Herald-Republic)

WILDLIFE

• The race to save our orcas: How the Southern Resident population reached an alarming low point (KING TV)
• Deer with chronic wasting disease found in Washington (Capital Press)