Inslee’s effort to cut pay, oust regulatory leader falters; A law to protect WA health care workers keeps patients in crisis

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• How to opt out of having your data ‘train’ ChatGPT and other AI chatbots (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Solid job gains clash with U.S. economic pessimism (FOX 13)
• Nearly two-thirds of middle-class Americans say they’re ‘struggling financially’: poll (FOX 13)

CANNABIS

• WA medical cannabis users get break from the nation’s highest pot taxes (The Seattle Times)

CORONAVIRUS

• Summer Covid surge hits Washington state (KUOW Radio)

COURTS (FEDERAL)

• Supreme Court justices disclose how many gifts they received (FOX 13)
• Supreme Court will take up Meta’s bid to end lawsuit over Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal (AP)
• Judge in Seattle tosses lawsuit filed for man who served decades for murder he didn’t commit (The Seattle Times)
• Judge rejects U.S. government liability for $47 million Washington ranch fire (Capital Press)
• Multiple suspected criminals released from Benton County jail over federal court ruling (KAPP/KVEW)

COURTS (STATE)

• Veterans nonprofit to pay $1.5M to 12 women (The Center Square)

CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY

• Missing Pullman girl, 2, likely with couple who fled to Mexico (MyNorthwest)
• OPINION: Should we legalize the sex trade like we did marijuana?  Emphatically, no (Rebekah Fonden, member of the WASE Forward leadership team and survivor of commercial sexual exploitation, and Noel Gomez, co-founder of Organization for Prostitution Survivors and survivor of commercial sexual exploitation/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Law enforcement fighting organized retail theft (The Columbian)

DRUG CRISIS

• How fentanyl’s despair ravages the streets of Spokane: ‘This doesn’t mean I want to die’ (The Spokesman-Review)
• Spokane ratifies state of emergency over opioid crisis; what happens next? (The Center Square)

EDUCATION

• Controversial ‘inclusive’ curriculum now required for WA school districts (The Center Square)
• Seattle school closures: Why almost every student would be affected (The Seattle Times)
• Seattle Public Schools postpones next step in school closures (Cascade PBS)
• Spokane’s Salk Middle School enforces phone prohibition this year, ‘a marked change’ (The Spokesman-Review)

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & SERVICES

• Scientists map one of Earth’s top hazards in the Pacific Northwest (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)
• Crews respond to overnight fires in Seattle, other cities in WA (FOX 13)

ENVIRONMENT

• PNW coast suffers from low oxygen, study finds. It’s becoming the norm (The Seattle Times)
• Sanitation breakthrough in Seattle could change the design of toilets (FOX 13)
• Is Puget Sound sewer sludge headed to Tri-Cities for disposal? What we found out (Tri-City Herald)
• A soil farm project near Connell may be a solution to Bellingham’s sewage-treatment woes (The Bellingham Herald)

GUN RIGHTS

• Washington Supreme Court to hear case on high-capacity ammo magazine ban (The Everett Herald)
• Spokane tiptoeing around state preemption on local firearm regulations (The Center Square)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• A law to protect WA health care workers keeps patients in crisis (The Seattle Times)
• PeaceHealth nurses ratify new contract with Vancouver hospital (The Columbian)
• Here’s what you need to know about bird flu in the U.S., abroad (AP/The Seattle Times)

HOMELESSNESS

• Some homeless folks to get portable toilets. Will they help curb disease, pollution? (The News Tribune)
• Health experts: Syphillis is a prevalent infection in Clark County homeless camps (The Columbian)
• Will Whatcom County operate a year-round homeless shelter? A proposal is in the works (The Bellingham Herald)

IMMIGRATION

• Where unaccompanied migrant children in the PNW come from (Axios – Seattle)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• The Spotlight: It took a new sheriff to catch an accused killer (FOX 13)
• Vancouver police shoot, kill man who pointed ‘what appeared to be a firearm’ (The Columbian)
• Local police sergeant fired after intervening in sick man’s life. Was he in the wrong? (The News Tribune)

LGBTQ

• Thief caught on camera stealing, vandalizing pride flags in Burien (FOX 13)

MEDIA

• COLUMN: Congress fiddles as local news industry burns (Brier Dudley/The Seattle Times)

OPEN GOVERNMENT

• Lawsuit filed against WA state, several agencies for automatically deleting messages (The News Tribune)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon closes more coastal shellfish harvesting due to ‘historic high levels’ of toxins (AP)

RURAL BROADBAND

• Officials say new broadband system in Spokane County will be a boost to rural communities (The Spokesman-Review)

SCHOOL SAFETY

• What to know about the shooting outside Garfield High School (The Seattle Times)
• Father of teen killed outside Garfield High School calls for justice (The Seattle Times)
• Teen killed in Seattle has officials calling for gun safety laws (The Center Square)
• ‘It’s not just a Garfield problem.’ Students, families push for community safety measures following school shooting (KUOW Radio)
• COLUMN: Seattle Progressive activism enabled Garfield HS murder (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• Inslee’s effort to cut pay, oust regulatory leader falters (Washington State Standard)

TRANSPORTATION

• Highway 529 squeeze starts now between Everett, Marysville (The Everett Herald)
• Trains up and running on Lynnwood Link — but no passengers quite yet (The Everett Herald)
• Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders killed in WA plane crash (The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: Let the rich pay the exorbitant ‘luxury lane’ toll prices (Dave Ross/MyNorthwest)
• COLUMN: The new $15 ‘Lexus lane’ tolls? They’re already too low for rich Seattle (Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times)

TRIBAL ISSUES

• ‘Historic’ agreement establishes government-to-government relations between Department of Commerce, Chehalis Tribe (The Chronicle)
• Documentary on missing and murdered Indigenous people premieres at Tribeca Film Festival (Yakima Herald-Republic)

WATER

• Central Washington irrigators placed on half rations (Capital Press)

WILDFIRE PREVENTION & RESPONSE

• Local fire jurisdictions to see quicker air support — at no cost to them (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Level 3 Evacuation issued in Rex Creek area of Lake Chelan due to Pioneer Fire (KING TV)