The Capitol Buzz is a daily summary of online news clips from across the state, discussing policies and politics affecting Washington state.
ABORTION
AGRICULTURE & WATER
- Farms in Central Washington boost their yield with solar energy (Crosscut)
- Researchers use dogs to ‘sniff out’ infected cherry trees in Eastern Washington (KAPP/KVEW)
BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR
- Washington state ranked No. 3 for green economy jobs (The Center Square)
- Labor board takes Starbucks to court over alleged violations (AP)
CONGRESS
CORONAVIRUS
COURTS (FEDERAL)
COURTS (STATE)
CRIME
- Man convicted in death of Washington State Patrol Trooper Justin Schaffer (The Chronicle)
- At least 5 murders in western Washington in about 24 hours (KIRO TV)
- Suspect ID’s in Centralia shooting; Records unveil more details of incident, investigation (The Chronicle)
- Snohomish County prosecutors face ‘deluge’ of police referrals (The Everett Herald)
- ‘We don’t want to be living here’: Property crime up nearly 30% across Spokane (KXLY TV)
ELECTIONS
ENERGY & UTILITIES
ENVIRONMENT
- Charges dropped against Tumwater water treatment company and owner, lawyer says (The Olympian)
- COLUMN: Drones can help restore scorched public forestlands (Don Brunell/The Chronicle)
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & THE WHITE HOUSE
HANFORD
- U.S. Supreme Court strikes down WA state law helping ill Hanford workers (Tri-City Herald)
- Ferguson: Supreme Court decision won’t hurt Hanford workers (AP)
HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS
HOMELESSNESS
- State removes first highway encampment on its own, hotel opens for homeless (FOX 13)
- King County could see record homeless deaths this year (The Seattle Times)
- Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell shares progress on housing and homelessness plan (KOMO TV)
- After failed attempts, Seattle tries again to give homeless people a place to park their RVs (The Seattle Times)
- Former Northgate hotel now being used for homeless (The Center Square)
- Neighborhood Health, Farm Workers Clinic receive biggest share of nearly $5 million in homeless funds (Yakima Herald-Republic)
- OPINION: Shelter needs proper baselines to ensure success (Lerria Schuh, executive director, Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund and secretary/treasurer of the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium/The Spokesman-Review)
LAW ENFORCEMENT
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- Short-term rental review deadline ticking for Chelan County (The Wenatchee World)
- OPINION: Lack of response to race survey tells a sorry story about sheriff’s office (Shawn Vestal/The Spokesman-Review)
- COLUMN: City of Seattle isn’t answering police non-emergency line, doesn’t track missed calls (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)
MENTAL HEALTH
MILITARY & VETERANS
- Watchdog reveals flaw in Cerner computer system caused nearly 150 cases of harm at Spokane VA hospital (The Spokesman-Review)
- Washington officials ‘outraged’ VA system hurt military families (The Center Square)
OTHER STATES
- Oregon Department of Human Services wants to make it harder to access records (AP)
- Oregon utilities crunch big data, tap artificial intelligence to reduce wildfire risks (The Oregonian)
- Business groups sue over heat and smoke worker protections (AP)
SCHOOL SAFETY
- Bellevue schools to launch replacement for school resource officer program (MyNorthwest)
- School resource officer program paused (KWHT)
- 911 calls show terror, concern at Juanita High School after student’s social media post (KOMO TV)
- Pennsylvania teen tips off Mason County deputies about local man’s threat to blow up area school; arrest made (iFiberOneNewsRadio-KMAS)
STATE GOVERNMENT
TRANSPORTATION
- Industry gears up for ‘clean truck’ mandates, other regulations (Capital Press)
- First a closure, then this stretch of I-5 will finally completely re-open (KNWN Radio)
- Ocean Shipping Reform Act will fund investigations of unfair shipping costs, says Cantwell (Northwest Public Broadcasting)
- COLUMN: Spokane Transit Authority taxpayers get bigger bill, bigger delays and bigger government (Chris Cargill, Eastern Washington director of Washington Policy Center/The Spokesman-Review)
