Pipeline that Inslee blames for gas price spike has been open for nearly a month; State’s 988 crisis line sees calls spike 75% in first year

ABORTION

• Walla Walla Planned Parenthood sees rise in services in wake of new Idaho abortion laws (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Amazon is asking some corporate workers to relocate as part of its return-to-office policy (KOMO TV)
• Report: Washington has 16th-worst unemployment rate change in the nation (The Center Square)

CONGRESS

• Rep. Newhouse moves to stall Biden public land usage restriction (The Center Square)

CRIME

• Seattle increases patrols amid surge in tourism, retail theft during busy weekend events (KOMO TV)
• Seattle Fire Department continues to grapple with theft amid emergency responses (KOMO TV)
• Former Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith accused of paying girls to provide him sexually explicit videos (The Spokesman-Review)

DAMS

• ‘Hot water pollution’ lawsuit threat aims to remove 4 Eastern WA dams to save salmon (Tri-City Herald)
• Conservation groups intend to ask judge to breach Snake River dams (Moscow-Pullman Daily News)
• OPINION: Despite the controversy, these Idaho lawmakers support keeping WA’s Snake River dams (U.S. Senator Jim Risch, R-Idaho and Jason Mercier, Vice President and Director of Research for the Mountain States Policy Center/Tri-City Herald)

EDUCATION

• WA is one of only 11 states that met special ed requirements. That’s just a first step (The Seattle Times)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Pipeline that Inslee blames for gas price spike has been open for nearly a month (Washington State Standard)
• Industry says pipeline repair didn’t hike Washington gas prices (Capital Press)
• Inslee blasts oil industry, defends cap-and-trade (Capital Press)
• Feds propose $2B in PNW energy grid upgrades to meet rising demand (The Seattle Times)
• PNNL researchers are mining minerals from the sea for vital energy independence research (Tri-City Herald)

ENVIRONMENT

• New law pushes Washington cities and counties to plan for climate change (Washington State Standard)

HANFORD

• Oppenheimer sparks interest in Hanford tours (KONA Radio)
• Changes proposed to help past & present Hanford site workers exposed to toxic metal (Tri-City Herald)
• Hanford site contractor wins $6M dispute over whether some worker wages were too high (Tri-City Herald)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• EDITORIAL: For diverse college campuses, focus on student outreach (The Seattle Times)

HOMELESSNESS

• Initiative to house people displaced by freeway cleanups gains momentum in Thurston County (The Olympian)
• OPINION: The nearly impossible challenge of unexpected homelessness (Charmaine Doherty and Ruth Westergaard are members of the Kingston Affordable Housing Working Group/Kitsap Sun)

HOUSING

• WA housing shortfall exceeds 250,000 homes, says study (KONA Radio)
• Affordable housing a critical ongoing concern (Daily Record)
• Homebuyers face supply and pricing challenges. What can unlock the housing market’s tight inventory? (The Business Journals/Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Turning unused office space into housing could solve 2 problems, but it’s tricky (NPR/KUOW)
• Everett passes code changes that could boost ADU construction (The Everett Herald)
• Housing hard to find for those with intellectual, developmental disabilities in Clark County (The Columbian)

IMMIGRATION

• Private detention center operator files suit against Washington state (Northwest Public Broadcasting)

LAND USE & PROPERTY RIGHTS

• Land use fight over Tacoma mega-warehouse project set for this week. Here’s what’s at stake (The News Tribune)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Seattle police staffing was reportedly down 50% during busy weekend, union says (KOMO TV)
• Ferry County Sheriff’s Office facing severe staffing shortage, calls on community for support (KREM TV)
• Walla Walla County commissioners, deputies’ union reach verbal deal about pay raises (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• COLUMN: ‘Sick out’ likely gutted Seattle police weekend patrol, special events (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

LEGISLATURE

• New Washington state laws go into effect Sunday. Here are some of the key ones (The News Tribune)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Seattle committee votes 3-2 against rent control (Axios – Seattle)
• Kshama Sawant’s rent-control bill still alive despite rejection by council committee (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Inflation, $50M budget gap has King County Public Health predicting deep cuts (The Center Square)
• EDITORIAL: County salary increases is money well-spent (The Columbian)

MEDIA

• ‘It’s really a crisis’: The fight to save small town newspapers (KNKX Radio)
• COLUMN: If we let journalism die, our democracy won’t be too far behind ( Marcus Harrison Green/The Seattle Times)

MENTAL HEALTH

• State’s 988 crisis line sees calls spike 75% in first year (Axios – Seattle)
• BLOG: Rep. Schmick: The state’s mental health failures are due to “a lack of leadership” from the Inslee Administration (Shift)

OTHER STATES

• Oregonians with disabilities struggle amid homeless crisis: ‘It was just impossible’ (The Oregonian)

PRIVACY

• Health-related ‘geofencing’ banned in Wash. as new law takes effect (Pluribus News)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• Attorney General’s Office accused of impeding WSU ethics investigation in ‘wider conspiracy’ (The Center Square)

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• Is WA’s health ‘hub’ model the ‘secret sauce’ in treating fentanyl addiction? (The Seattle Times)
• Legislature’s two-year experiment with weak, unenforceable laws against hard drugs brings death across the state, say members of Senate Freedom Caucus (KIHR Radio)
• New Poulsbo Health and Resource Center to offer treatment resource for addiction (Kitsap Sun)

TECHNOLOGY

• Seattle cloud computing giants spur the next wave of satellite tech (Puget Sound Business Journal)

TRANSPORTATION

• Sound Transit settles whistleblower case over safety complaints (Crosscut)

TRIBAL ISSUES

• Coastal tribes link, paddle east as canoe journey continues (The Daily World)

WILDFIRE PREVENTION & RESPONSE

• Wine industry braces against impacts of wildfire smoke (Axios – Seattle)
• ‘This is our family’: Fire boss crew stays ready to douse wildfires throughout Inland Northwest (The Spokesman-Review)
• Newell Road wildfire burning near Goldendale explodes to 50,000 acres, 0% containment (FOX 13)
• New evacuations issued for Bickleton and Cleveland due to Newell Road fire (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Fire in southcentral Washington spurs evacuations (Oregon Public Broadcasting)