Capitol Buzz

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Waiting for unemployment check: ‘Your case is being processed’ (The Everett Herald)
• Will downtown Seattle bounce back? (The Seattle Times)
• Seattle and Tacoma are a rarity among U.S. ports right now, with room for more ships (Bloomberg/The Seattle Times)
• Older Boeing 777s grounded for inspections following engine explosion over Denver (The Seattle Times)
• How is Whatcom’s economy performing? It ranks high, but new study warns of these problems (The Bellingham Herald)
• Bankruptcies low in Clark County during pandemic (The Columbian)
• Seattle QFC store closures will affect 109 employees (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• State Senate passes bill to prevent sub-minimum pay for persons with disabilities (KGMI Radio)
• COLUMN: WA legislature takes on systemic racism in insurance rates (Clyde W. Ford/Crosscut)
• COLUMN: People aren’t fleeing Seattle. They just aren’t moving here anymore. (Gene Balk/The Seattle Times)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Child care costs in Washington have gone up by 55% during coronavirus pandemic: report (Seattle P-I)
• COLUMN: Admit it, racism a real problem (Greg Jayne/The Columbian)
• EDITORIAL: Black History Month has us learning about racial equity, but can we make real change? (The Olympian)

CONGRESS

• Biden’s stimulus plan will add $1.9 trillion to deficit, Budget Office finds (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: In a time of false patriots, Herrera Beutler showed she’s the real thing (Shawn Vestal/The Spokesman-Review)

CORONAVIRUS

• Inslee signs $2.2B relief package to support schools, businesses, renters and immigrants (NW News Network)
• Aiming for ‘relief, recovery and resilience,’ Inslee signs $2.2 billion COVID-19 relief package (The Spokesman-Review)
• Not out of the woods yet: ‘It’s looking increasingly like we will have to contend with a new wave’ (KNKX Radio)
• Washington hospitals look at ways to make distribution more equitable (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• ‘Ridiculous’: Down syndrome community feels left out of Washington’s COVID-19 vaccine plan (KING TV)
• Washington seniors increasingly frustrated by limited COVID-19 vaccine appointments (KING TV)
• Washington’s vaccine rollout slower for communities of color (Crosscut)
• Washington taps pastors to overcome racial divide on vaccine (The Seattle Times)
• Groups address racial gaps in Kitsap’s COVID-19 vaccination drive (Kitsap Sun)
• Clark County mass vaccine site at the fairgrounds to reopen Tuesday (The Columbian)
• COLUMN: Prioritize COVID vaccine for Washingtonians age 80 and up. I’d want it for my parents (Matt Misterek/The News Tribune)
• COLUMN: How we’re handling the ‘have-shots’ vs. ‘have-nots’ vaccine divide (just guess) (Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Phase 2 delay could have been avoided (Yakima Herald-Republic)

COURTS (FEDERAL)

• Supreme Court won’t halt turnover of Trump’s tax records (AP/The Seattle Times)

CRIME & LAW ENFORCEMENT

• State Democrats score first victory of session in bid to overhaul police accountability (MyNortwhest)
• Local law enforcement officials concerned over proposed police reform legislation (KOHO Radio)
• Tacoma on track to finish deploying police body cameras early (KNKX Radio)
• Former Whatcom corrections deputy, county sued for deputy’s alleged relationship with inmate (The Bellingham Herald)
• Spokane Major Crimes detectives overwhelmed by number of homicides in 2020 (The Spokesman-Review)
• The retiring and incoming directors of Washington’s training arm for peace officers talk policing (The Spokesman-Review)
• Report on I-5 shooting indicates K9 Arlo was hit by friendly fire from law enforcement (The Olympian)
• OPINION: National crime study recommends urgent action (Lisa Herbold, Seattle City Council member/The Seattle Times)

CYBERSECURITY

• Hack of Seattle payments processing firm puts local governments on alert (The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Legislature should back Washington Privacy Act (The Columbian)

DAMS

• Idaho Farm Bureau Federation opposes any plan to remove Snake River Dams (Pacific Northwest Ag Network)
• Local leaders speak out against Rep. Simpson’s plan to breach Lower Snake River Dams (KLEW TV)
• OPINION: Let’s support bold plan for Snake River salmon runs (Dan McDonald, president and CEO of Yakima Bait Co. of Granger/Yakima Herald-Republic)
• EDITORIAL: Texas outage shows power issues must be answered if Snake dams went away (Tri-City Herald)

EARLY LEARNING

• Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is opening a free preschool for low-income families in Tacoma (The News Tribue)

EDUCATION & SCHOOL SAFETY

• Look to refugee schools for lessons on teaching kids after COVID, some experts say (The Seattle Times)
• Evergreen, Vancouver, Ridgefield offer plans to return high schoolers to classrooms (The Columbian)
• Hawkins urges school districts to swap spring and summer breaks due to COVID (The Wenatchee World)
• EDITORIAL: Teachers union should soften vaccine stance to encourage safe in-person instruction (The Seattle Times)

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & SERVICES

• ‘Extreme’ avalanche danger shuts down all 3 main mountain passes (KCPQ TV)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & THE WHITE HOUSE

• Merrick Garland says that as attorney general he will fight discrimination, domestic terrorism (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)

GUN RIGHTS

• Washington state reporting some of the highest gun sales in the country (KHQ TV)

HEALTH CARE

• State health leader: We have a plan, we don’t have the supply (The Everett Herald)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• Enrollment at US community colleges plummets amid pandemic (AP/The Seattle Times)
• COVID-19 updates: UW students who attended snow party now banned from classes (MyNorthwest)
• EDITORIAL: Biden wisely rejects idea of forgiving $50,000 of student debt (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

HOMELESSNESS

• Looking to get around court rulings on homelessness, Washington cities may offer shelter, then crack down
• Why increased spending appears not to be helping Seattle homelessness (MyNorthwest)

HOUSING

• Redfin eyes rental market with $608M acquisition of Atlanta-based RentPath (Puget Sound Business Journal)

LEGISLATURE

• Numerous bills die on vine after legislative committee cutoff date (KOHO Radio)
• Democrats look to allow noncitizens to serve on school boards (The Everett Herald)
• Freshman 19th District senator’s first bill passes Senate, offers funding option for EMS training (The Daily World)
• COLUMN: Soda pop tax surfaces as school reopening battle rages on (Jerry Cornfield/The Everett Herald)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Street racing is increasing in Puyallup. Here’s what the city is doing about it (The News Tribune)
• Details of tentative agreement between Spokane, city police officers released (The Spokesman-Review)

MARIJUANA

• How $1 billion in pot taxes gets spent in Washington state (Crosscut)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• Here’s how to find out if you can get the COVID-19 vaccine at JBLM (The News Tribune)

OPERATING BUDGET

• OPINION: Washington’s House Republicans have a plan to fund priorities without service cuts or raising taxes (Rep. Drew Stokesbary/The Seattle Times)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon takes aim at state gun law (AP/The Oregonian)
• Rep. Diego Hernandez, facing expulsion vote, resigns from Oregon Legislature (The Oregonian)

POLITICS

ELECTIONS

• Could ranked choice voting make elections more equitable? Washington may find out (The News Tribune)
• BLOG: Ranked-choice voting – boost or bust for elections? (Jim Camden/The Spokesman-Review)
• OPINION: The fight for voting rights — in 2021 (Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, and Hannah Klain, Equal Justice Works Selbin Family Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice./The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: State’s top-two primary (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)

SOCIAL MEDIA

• EDITORIAL: Resist Facebook bullying (The Seattle Times)

SPORTS

• COLUMN: It took Mariners CEO Kevin Mather just 45 minutes to alienate everybody connected to baseball in Seattle (Matt Calkins/The Seattle Times)

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• Drug overdose deaths in Washington rose nearly 40 percent in 2020, new report says (KOMO TV)
• COLUMN: ‘Everybody wants the same thing’: WA Rep explains deeper goal behind bill to decriminalize drugs (Dori Monson/MyNortwhest)
• COLUMN: Seattle homeless shelter buys heroin pipes with city funds, teaches rectal injection method (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

TAXES

• As debate over capital gains tax returns, Republicans insist no new taxes needed for Washington (The Seattle Times)
• Washington sales tax exemption for electric bikes moves forward in Legislature (The Seattle Times)
• Seattle soda tax could go statewide, Monday’s your chance to weigh in (MyNorthwest)
• ‘It’s sleazy’: Local legislators, community leaders voice discontent with capital gains tax bill (Columbia Basin Herald)

TECHNOLOGY

• COLUMN: The statehouse versus Big Tech (Shira Ovide/The New York Times/The Seattle Times)

TRANSPORTATION

• New Washington transportation plan includes taxes on gas and bikes, fees on transit (The Seattle Times)
• As carmakers increasingly pull away from gas, electric vehicle infrastructure revs up (The Spokesman-Review)
• RUC bill proposed for electric, hybrid cars (Lens)
• Bill creates legal definition of driverless cars (Lens)
• New I-5 onramp expected to ease traffic congestion at this longtime Bellingham bottleneck (The Bellingham Herald)
• 440-mile Cascade Loop gets National Scenic Byway designation after years of effort (The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Cost increase can’t risk ST3’s ‘spine’ to Everett jobs (The Everett Herald)

WILDLIFE

• ‘Attack of the Murder Hornets’ showcases Whatcom and the race to find these bee killers (The Bellingham Herald)

WOLVES

• Idaho wolf population remains stable, despite more hunting, trapping (The Spokesman-Review)