No good news about student learning on 4-year anniversary of COVID school closures; WA’s unemployment rate at its highest point since COVID-19 spike. Here are the numbers

ABORTION

• Supreme Court again confronts the issue of abortion, this time over access to widely used medication (AP/KREM TV)

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• Fight for farm workers’ rights continues in Sunnyside (KNDO/KNDU)
• Inslee signs water rights bill (Columbia Basin Herald)
• OPINION: State wetland actions go beyond bounds of law (John Stuhlmiller, consultant for the Kings with 39 years of agricultural, environmental and land use public policy experience/Capital Press)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• WA’s unemployment rate at its highest point since COVID-19 spike. Here are the numbers (The Olympian)
• Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down in leadership shake-up (The Seattle Times)
• Boeing sees massive cash drain as 737 Max episode takes toll (Bloomberg News/The Columbian)
• COLUMN: Inslee signs Strippers’ Bill of Rights today. When booze will hit WA clubs is uncertain (Matt Driscoll/The News Tribune)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• ‘Solemn promise’ kept with opening of memorial to Oso landslide victims (The Seattle Times)
• ‘I can feel them all here’: Oso memorial park dedicated on 10-year anniversary of deadly landslide (KING TV)
• #OsoStrong, 10 years later (KNWN Radio)

CONGRESS

• How Patty Murray helped craft a compromise to fund the government despite chaos in Congress: ‘Nobody thought we could get this done’ (The Spokesman-Review)
• Remembering Oso: Lawmakers look to reauthorize National Landslide Preparedness Act (KING TV)
• COLUMN: Rep. DelBene fights to prevent landslides and restore governance to House (Kate Riley/The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: Channeling old political spirits, Sen. Murray rains money on WA (Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times)

CORRECTIONS & JAILS

• Washington State Penitentiary inmate dies one week after assault (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

COURTS (STATE)

• New lower passing rate for Washington’s bar exam opens possibilities, but also leads to questions (The Spokesman-Review)
• Protesters arrested in Seattle City Hall charged by city attorney (The Seattle Times)
• 18-year-old charged in Renton crash that killed 3 children, 1 mother (MyNorthwest)
• Camas-Washougal fire battalion chief faces murder allegation in wife’s January death (The Columbian)
• Fired after maternity leave, local eye doctor sues surgery clinics (The Everett Herald)

CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY

• WA courts are meant to fine convicted sex buyers. Most don’t (Crosscut)
• More than 300 cars were stolen in Olympia last year. What’s OPD doing to reverse the trend? (The Olympian)
• Charges: Man was driving 112 mph before crashing into Marysville trooper (The Everett Herald)

DAMS

• U.S. energy secretary and Rep. Newhouse spar over ‘catastrophic’ Snake dam agreement (Tri-City Herald)

DRUG CRISIS

• Fentanyl crisis descends on jail in a small WA town short on treatment (The Seattle Times)
• Whatcom County agencies conduct major drug bust following dozens of overdoses (MyNorthwest)
• WA passes bills to fight addiction in tribal communities (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Tri-Cities will get $16M from latest WA opioid settlement. How will it be spent? (Tri-City Herald)

EDUCATION

• No good news about student learning on 4-year anniversary of COVID school closures (The Center Square)
• ‘Really troubling:’ Survey finds poor outcomes for students with disabilities after high school (Washington State Standard)
• Schools need more money, so why did some districts lobby against freeing up local cash? (The Washington Observer)
• Lawmakers weigh in on cellphones in schools, say if school leaders won’t ban them, they will (Stateline.org/The Columbian)
• Clark County’s small school districts feel financial pinch, too (The Columbian)
• Evergreen Public Schools final plan for cuts includes 22 elementary teacher librarians (The Columbian)
• Yakima Valley program levels the playing field for migrant students (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Wilson Elementary teacher on leave in response to school newsletter item calling for students to dress as ‘slaves and hobos’ for jazz event (The Spokesman-Review)
• COLUMN: Teachers who came through CKSD, and have stayed for the next generation (Niran Al-Agba/Kitsap Sun)

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & SERVICES

• OPINION: Seawalls offer a false sense of security as oceans rise (Stephen Robert Miller, journalist and author/The Seattle Times)

ENVIRONMENT

• As WA tackles PFAS pollution, some worry about ‘piecemeal’ approach (The Seattle Times)
• OPINION: Forests can generate revenue while serving ecosystems, salmon and people (Justin Hall, executive director of the Nisqually River Foundation/The Olympian)
• OPINION: Timber sales in county would destory mature forests (Karen Crowley, president of the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County, and others/The Everett Herald)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & THE WHITE HOUSE

• Biden signs $1.2 trillion funding package after Senate’s early-morning passage ended shutdown threat (AP)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• Anna Schindler Foundation gives hope and a place to stay for families who have a child getting cancer treatment in Spokane (The Spokesman-Review)
• EDITORIAL: Lower Valley hospital district is still a valid idea (Yakima Herald-Republic)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• UW’s $340 million finance upgrade is still struggling, despite progress (The Seattle Times)
• Amid financial crisis, Saint Martin’s University in Lacey names new president (The Olympian)
• Faculty, students speak out after 14 Saint Martin’s professors get ‘terminal appointment letters’ (The Olympian)

HOUSING

• Co-living residential housing is coming to Washington after Inslee signs bill into law (The Spokesman-Review)
• Micro-apartments are back after nearly a century, as need for affordable housing soars in Northwest (AP)
• Rising closing costs present new challenge for homebuyers (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)
• OPINION: We’re not going to achieve a million new homes. Here’s what we can do (Barney Burke, retired city planner, journalist and longtime mom-and-pop landlord/The Seattle Times)

LAND USE & PROPERTY RIGHTS

• It was planned as a psychiatric hospital in Tacoma. So why is the land headed to sale? (The News Tribune)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• New Prosser police chief named a month after controversial chief resigns (Tri-City Herald)
• OPINION: Work of police reforms needs a year-round conversation (Juan Peralez, President of Unidos, Snohomish County/The Everett Herald)

LGBTQ

• New Washington law requires LGBTQ+ history education in schools (KGMI Radio/My Bellingham Now)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Legislature passes bills that may help King County’s budget crisis (The Seattle Times)
• Mayor Brown proposes over $11 million investment in Spokane’s health and human services (KXLY TV)
• New Thurston County manager responds to past controversy in interview with The Olympian (The Olympian)

MEDIA

• COLUMN: Troubling defections from AP not a surprise as newspapers struggle (Brier Dudley/The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• Governor Inslee signs Washington National Guard recruitment bill (KHQ TV)
• Kitsap veterans with highest military awards are profiled in Colorado historian’s new book (Kitsap Sun)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon’s First Lady gets new state-funded adviser amid departure of Kotek’s top aides (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• Spike in fatal teen ODs shows need for education on fentanyl risks, access to Narcan (The Oregonian)

REDISTRICTING

• New voting map could mean new lawmakers in the Lower Yakima Valley (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Lawmakers, candidates react to new WA district voting maps (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

SCHOOL SAFETY

• Put cops back in school and shut down the street, Garfield High parents say after another Seattle shooting (KUOW Radio)
• SPS says it will respond to parent concerns about Rainier View Elementary principal (The Seattle Times)
• School resource officers offer human connections at MLSD campuses (Columbia Basin Herald)

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Instagram stopped recommending political content – now social media users are noticing (AP/FOX 13)

TAXES

• Property tax exemption bill to be expanded (The Wenatchee World)

TRANSPORTATION

• Washington looks at new ways to clean up graffiti along state highways (Washington State Standard)
• Inslee signs legislation creating pilot program for graffiti solutions (The Chronicle)
• Third Columbia bridge explored in new transportation study (NCW Life Channel)
• WSDOT crews ready to begin annual spring clearing of North Cascades Highway (The Bellingham Herald)
• COLUMN: Are we killing car culture? Or is car culture killing the US? (Dave Ross/MyNorthwest)

WEATHER & CLIMATE

• How the drought hit WA’s farms, forests, fisheries and drinking water (The Seattle Times)

WILDLIFE

• Feds release final study on importing grizzlies into North Cascades (Capital Press)
• Newhouse reacts to final impact statement on grizzlies (KPQ Radio)