Capitol Buzz

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• Counties waiting for well-drilling direction (The Wenatchee World)

BORDER STATES

• Oregon driver’s license holders get reprieve as state moves toward Real ID compliance (The Oregonian)
• Right 2 Dream Too, homeless ‘rest stop,’ opens to public at new spot (The Oregonian)
• 27,000 gallons of sewage spill into Portland creek (AP/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• OPINION: Oregon’s environment is counting on us to work together (Andrea Durbin, executive director of Oregon Environmental Council/The Oregonian)
• EDITORIAL: Bipartisan success from the past; partisan bias in the present (The Oregonian)

BUDGET & TAXES

• COLUMN: GOP property-tax plan will only widen the urban-rural divide (Jonathan Martin/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Budget wins outweigh the wait (Kitsap Sun)

BUSINESS, LABOR & ECONOMY

• Microsoft proposing $10B program to bring broadband internet to rural America (The Seattle Times)
• Microsoft posts more than 300 sales jobs after reorganization’s layoffs (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• B-21 bomber maker Northrop Grumman seeks aerospace suppliers in Puget Sound region (Puget Sound Business Journal)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Big wins for kids caught in foster care crisis (InvestigateWest/Crosscut)

CONGRESS & FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

• Cantwell to hold Wenatchee town hall (The Wenatchee World)
• Congress unnerved by energy grid hack (CQ-Roll Call/The Daily World)
• EDITORIAL: State right to join suit on EPA pesticide approval (The Everett Herald)

COURTS, CRIME & LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Investigation begins into shooting by state trooper on I-5 in Lacey (The News Tribune)
• Child sex sting in Tri-Cities nets 26 arrests over five days (Tri-City Herald)
• Olympia man charged in mailing of severed finger, fake bomb to IRS (AP/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• College Place police ramp up code enforcement (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Solar incentives bill has industry seeing sunny days (The Seattle Times)
• Edmonds takes clean-energy pledge, but is that achievable? (The Everett Herald)
• Final study released for Tesoro refinery xylene project (Skagit Valley Herald)

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL RESOURCES

• Skagit Wildlife Area’s Leque Island to close for restoration work (Skagit Valley Herald)
• Snipes Mountain Dairy cited in Outlook flood incident; no penalty issued (Yakima Herald)

FISH

• A slow run for sockeye, but summer chinook holding steady (The Wenatchee World)

HEALTH CARE

• Providence Health planning layoffs; Spokane impact unclear (The Spokesman-Review)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• OPINION: Walla Walla University helps grads tread life’s ‘grand highways’ (John McVay, Walla Walla University President/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Seattle City Council approves income tax on the rich, but quick legal challenge likely (The Seattle Times)
• Seattle passes income tax. Next: lawsuits? (Crosscut)
• Seattle City Council passes income tax on wealthy residents (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn proposes new and increased business taxes (Puget Sound Business Journal)

MARIJUANA

• Initiative targeting marijuana businesses near Spokane churches fails to receive enough signatures (The Spokesman-Review)

MEDIA

• Mercer Island student newspaper lands interview with U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis (The Seattle Times)

MILITARY

• This traveling wall memorial evokes so much emotion, some people can’t walk up to it (The Olympian)

POLITICS

BALLOT MEASURES

• Eyman to file another $30 car tabs initiative, would repeal Sound Transit taxes (NW News Network)

LOCAL

Olympia could join other cities asking for investigation, impeachment of Trump (The Olympian)
COLUMN: Offensive tweets damaged his port commission campaign. Voters should finish the job. (Matt Driscoll/The News Tribune)

TRANSPORTATION 

• Blasting to delay I-90 traffic (Columbia Basin Herald)
• King County officials hope to reopen flawed bridge (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Southbound I-5 will get local/express division in Tacoma (The News Tribune)

TRIBES

• Federal agency approves Swinomish amendment vote (Skagit Valley Herald)

WILDFIRES

• Investigation into recent fires continues (Yakima Herald)
• Several fires near Soap Lake stomped out safely (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Fire chars areas of Columbia National Wildlife Refuge (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Wildfire threat raises Umatilla National Forest restrictions (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• Rare plant, found only near Tri-Cities, damaged in wildfire (Tri-City Herald)