Washington House Passes Bill Banning Masked Law Enforcement Officers
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street] — A prohibition on law enforcement covering their faces, motivated by masked federal immigration agents, is one step closer to becoming Washington law. The state House passed the legislation along party lines Tuesday with Democrats in support. The Senate approved it in January. It now heads back to the Senate, which will need […]
WA Democrats drop push for business tax to cover Medicaid costs
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Washington state Democrats are likely abandoning plans for a new tax on employers like Walmart and Amazon, whose workers get health coverage through Medicaid. The proposal came amid recent federal cuts to the program, which provides insurance for low-income Americans. The Senate’s budget committee was set to vote on advancing the legislation last […]
Budget bills in WA Legislature would tap rainy day fund, spend heavily on legal payouts
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street and Bill Lucia] —Democrats in the Washington Legislature on Sunday proposed tapping the state’s rainy day savings account and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars for a child care program for low-income families to balance the state’s budget into next year. But under their plans, the state’s main operating account would have a more […]
WA lawmakers want to restrict ICE access to schools, health facilities
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Legislation to force U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to get court approval before entering schools and health care facilities cleared the Washington state Senate on Thursday. Senate Bill 5906 covers “nonpublic areas” of preschools, K-12 schools, health facilities, adult family homes, higher education institutions and election offices. It also prohibits early learning providers and […]
Push for youth social media safeguards revived in WA Legislature
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Avery Ping had a knack for noticing who in a room might be having a bad day and checking in on them. He wanted to be a psychiatrist. But the Olympia teen was addicted to his screen, his father Aaron said. He wanted to get away from his phone, and Aaron was adamant […]
Road damage from WA flooding to cost at least $40M
[Jake Goldstein-Street]—Last month’s heavy flooding inflicted at least $40 million to $50 million of damage on Washington’s highways, state transportation officials estimated to lawmakers Monday. The state Department of Transportation has responded to dozens of locations due to flooding, officials told lawmakers. The state has signed 16 contracts for emergency repairs. A few more are […]
WA state wrongly gave 685 noncitizens a CDL, including Florida trucker who killed three
[JAKE GOLDSTEIN-STREET]—Washington state mistakenly issued nearly 700 commercial licenses to drive trucks and buses to noncitizens who don’t qualify over the past seven years. This issue has drawn heavy criticism from the Trump administration and others after a semitruck driver, Harjinder Singh, allegedly made an illegal U-turn and killed three people in Florida. Singh wrongfully […]
Washington lawmakers want to regulate license plate readers
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Washington state lawmakers next year hope to rein in law enforcement’s use of automated license plate readers amid revelations federal immigration authorities are using the data. The readers are mounted everywhere from street poles to police patrol cars. They take pictures of vehicles and use artificial intelligence to analyze the data. Police can […]
Trump admin moves to gut Washington’s new medical debt protection
OLYMPIA [Jake Goldstein-Street]—Just months after Governor Bob Ferguson signed a Washington law to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports, the Trump administration is looking to block such policies. The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now says federal law preempts laws like Washington’s. The federal agency’s position is a reversal from the Biden era. Backers of Senate […]
Billions of dollars in new sales tax on services take effect on Oct 1
A contentious new sales tax on services that Democratic state lawmakers relied on to pay for Washington’s latest 2025-2027 biennium state budget—former Governor Jay Inslee (D) last proposed state budget before leaving office— is set to take effect Wednesday, October 1. Senate Bill 5814 is one of the biggest moneymakers used to bring in an estimated […]
