Capitol Buzz

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• Outlook dairy required to pay $20,000 into local safe drinking water project (Yakima Herald)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• US trade deficit narrows in November (AP/The Columbian)
• Window, door maker Jeld-Wen announces plans to close Yakima plant; 180 jobs affected (Yakima Herald)
• T-Mobile promises to freeze prices and create 5,600 jobs in pleas for Sprint takeover approval (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Boeing’s big investment in Aerion Supersonic could signal boom for the sector (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• EDITORIAL: Extend ‘right to repair’ to phones, other devices (The Everett Herald)

CONGRESS & FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

• Text of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address (AP/The News Tribune)
• Trump urges America to ‘choose greatness’ in State of the Union address (AP/The Spokesman-Review)
• Washington lawmakers react to Trump’s State of the Union address (KING TV)
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers responds to State of the Union address (KHQ TV)
• Newhouse and Murray react to President Trump’s State of the Union address (iFiberOne TV)
• Senator Murray blocks after-birth abortion bill (NCW Life Channel)

COURTS, CRIME & LAW ENFORCEMENT

• New effort to abolish the death penalty in Washington state (KING TV)
• Washington death penalty slated for execution (The Chronicle)
• Inmates at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center on hunger strike over quality of breakfast food (The Spokesman-Review)
• Washington inmates go on hunger strike over breakfast food (AP/KCPQ TV)
• Report: Seattle police use low levels of force, but racial disparity remains (The Seattle Times)

CYBERSECURITY

• Bad guys had a good year in 2018, record number of consumer files stolen (KOMO Radio)

EDUCATION & SCHOOL SAFETY

• Proposed bill seeks to address special education funding crisis in Washington (KING TV)
• Students learn leadership, discipline in Everett NJROTC (The Everett Herald)
• Drug education night draws attention (The Wenatchee World)
• OPINION: Washington state needs to understand what constitutes basic education (Zachary DeWolf, citizen of the Chippewa Cree nation of Rocky Boy, Montana, District 5 Director on the Seattle School Board, and program manager with All Home, and Sharonne Navas, co-founder of the Equity in Education Coalition and member of the Board of Trustee of Green River College/Crosscut)
• EDITORIAL: Tacoma’s charter school experiment is evolving, not imploding, through trial and error (The News Tribune)
• EDITORIAL: Test all Washington schools for lead in water (The Seattle Tiems)
• EDITORIAL: Despite state increases, local school levies are still needed (Kitsap Sun)

ENVIRONMENT, NATURAL RESOURCES & PARKS

• What the death of WA’s carbon tax says about the future (Crosscut)
• Washington snowpack remains ho-hum (Washington Ag Network/KONA Radio)
• COLUMN: Politics has science on the run — and not just in the other Washington (Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: Petition seeks upgrades to Puget Sound sewage treatment plants (Christopher Dunagan/Kitsap Sun)

GUN RIGHTS

• Training required for concealed gun owners with proposed bill in Washington (KOMO TV)
• Spokane County detectives investigating Facebook threats against Washington sheriffs (The Spokesman-Review)
• Man accused of making threats to Sheriff Knezovich about I-1639 identified (KHQ TV)
• Sheriffs threatened for not supporting gun measure (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Stevens county commissioners pass resolution formally opposing state’s new gun laws (KXLY)
• Cowlitz commissioners oppose new gun control law (The Reflector)
• EDITORIAL: Best if initiative’s fate resolved quickly (Daily Record)
• EDITORIAL: Gun-control initiative is the law even if we don’t like it (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

HEALTH CARE

• 49 measles cases now confirmed as local legislators hope to tighten exemption laws (The Reflector)
• Clark County report shows influenza on rise (The Columbian)
• COLUMN: Are measles a risk at your kid’s school? Explore vaccination-exemption data with our new tool (Gene Balk/The Seattle Times)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• COLUMN: UW tried to derail Republican group speech at last minute (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)
• COLUMN: Gonzaga relents, permits Ben Shapiro to appear on campus after ban (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

HOMELESSNESS

• Study: Youth homelessness often follows mental health, addiction treatment (KNKX Radio)
• Homeless camp sites pitched for Kelso, Longview (The Daily News)

HOUSING

• Eviction reforms in Olympia get a boost from Seattle’s tech giants (The Seattle Times)

LAND USE & PROPERTY RIGHTS

• • State transfers local forest into school trust (Skagit Valley Herald)
  • Forgotten state park land in Packwood a haven for locals (The Chronicle)

  LEGISLATURE

  • Anacortes City Council member chosen to replace senator who stepped down amid harassment investigation (The Seattle Times)
  • Lovelett appointed to replace Ranker (Skagit Valley Herald)
  • Yakima area state reps to hold telephone town hall (KIT Radio)
  • Research dogs and cats from UW, WSU and other institutions deserve second chance, advocates tell Washington Legislature (The Spokesman-Review)
  • Apply to be a page for the House or Senate (The Wenatchee World)

  LOCAL GOVERNMENT

  • Port finds a partner for major upgrade that would bring huge next-generation cargo ships to Terminal 5 (The Seattle Times)
  • Veterans, homeless could be casualties of Benton-Franklin standoff (Tri-City Herald)

  MARIJUANA

  • Ban on billboards for pot stores considered by Washington House committee (The Spokesman-Review)

  MEDIA

  • Ansel Herz, Stranger veteran, is new editor at Real Change (Seattle P-I)

  MENTAL HEALTH

  • Parents would have more rights to help mentally ill teens if this bill passes (KOUW Radio)

  OTHER STATES

  • Want proof climate change is here? Look at Oregon in 2018, report says (Northwest Public Broadcasting)
  • Oregon’s care for elderly and disabled needs improvement (AP/The Columbian)

  STATE GOVERNMENT

  • Five employees laid off at MAC in museum cost-cutting move (The Spokesman-Review)

  TRANSPORTATION

  • Over 22,000 trips taken through the SR 99 tunnel on opening day (KING TV)
  • State seeks comments on deer collisions (The Wenatchee World)
  • EDITORIAL: Emissions testing’s end shows regulations work (The Columbian)

  WILDLIFE

  • Southern Resident orca hunting behavior studied for clues to survival (KING TV)

  WOLVES

  • UW researcher: Washington wolf population could be much larger (Washington Ag Network/KONA Radio)