Capitol  Buzz

THE CURRENT | A WASHINGTON HOUSE REPUBLICAN EMAIL UPDATE

• The Current | March 17

CAPITOL CALENDAR RADIO/AUDIO

• Capitol Calendar | March 20-24 (SoundCloud)

VIDEO UPDATE

• Week 10 review with House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox | March 17 (YouTube)

ABORTION

• Abortion bill protects Washington residents from outside restrictions (Washington State Journal/Lynden Tribune)

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• A Northwest dryland wheat farmer looks to the sky, contemplates the coming harvest (NW News Network)
• Snowpack and rainfall are below normal for Whatcom County. Is drought likely? (The Bellingham Herald)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• State House unanimously passes Abbarno-backed hydrogen bill (The Chronicle)
• ‘Shaky and nervous’: WA entrepreneurs face uncertainty after SVB bust (The Seattle Times)
• $100K salary in Seattle amounts to nearly $49K after taxes and cost of living, study says (KOMO TV)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Downtown Seattle has more residents than ever (Axios – Seattle)

CONGRESS

• McMorris Rodgers, House Republicans unveil sweeping energy policy bill (The Spokesman-Review)
• Labor advocates, progressive lawmakers in Congress feel emboldened on expanding overtime pay (The Spokesman-Review)

CRIME

• Bill to fund auto theft prevention moving through WA Senate (KONA Radio)
• Seattle City Attorney: Time to create ‘accountability in the public safety system’ (MyNorthwest)
• OPINION: Democrats have made residents of Washington less safe (John McCroskey, Lewis County sheriff/The Chronicle)

CYBERSECURITY

• OPINION: State lawmakers must address security risks posed by Chinese Communist Party (Sen. Matt Boehnke/Tri-City Herald)

EDUCATION

• ‘It’s going to be a rough transition’; Washington schools grapple with looming budget crisis (FOX 13)
• Funding crisis in Washington schools (FOX 13)
• Washington state losing teachers at a historic rate (KONA Radio)
• EHS students meet with legislators in Olympia (Daily Record)
• Bellevue families ‘angry, still bitter’ over school consolidations (The Seattle Times)
• Kent School District announces impending teacher, staff cuts due to enrollment decline (KING TV)
• Cascade Middle students walk out to protest Evergreen district budget cuts (The Columbian)
• Bremerton School Board approves settlement with coach over on-field prayer (The Seattle Times)
• OPINION: Effectively addressing student performance and learning loss (Rep. Skyler Rude/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
• EDITORIAL: Abandoning WA students to learn in cold, leaky schools is disgraceful (The Seattle Times)

ELECTIONS

• As election deniers target the U.S. voter database, WA worries (Crosscut)

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & SERVICES

• OPINION: Turkey’s earthquake disaster: Could it happen in the Puget Sound region? (Harold Tobin, professor, state seismologist, Jeffrey W. Berman, professor, engineering researcher, operations director RAPID Facility, and Marc Eberhard, professor, director of UW Large-Scale Structural Engineering Testing Laboratory/The Seattle Times)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Washington bill could help ease renewable energy development tensions (KLEW TV)
• Tri-City lawmaker’s bill to limit WA wind turbine lights goes too far, critics say (Tri-City Herald)

ENVIRONMENT

• City, state leaders champion legislation to clean Washington state waterways (KING TV)
• Contaminated groundwater found in train derailment on Swinomish Reservation (The Seattle Times)
• WA state’s annual report on public marine beach safety is in. How did Thurston County do? (The Olympian)
• Crossing the perilous Willapa Bay bar holds a steep cost (The Seattle Times)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT & THE WHITE HOUSE

• Guestworker petition filing fees may increase (Capital Press)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• Insulin price cap advances: House committee approves two-year extension (KNWN Radio)
• Washington lawmakers hear bill to make nurses eligible for PTSD workers’ compensation (KNWN Radio)
• Americans are knee-deep in medical debt. Most owe hospitals (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)

HOMELESSNESS

• Parents protest Ship Canal Bridge encampment near school (MyNorthwest)
• King County Council discuss homeless authority’s 5-year action plan (The Center Square)
• Safe parking site will be a first for Tacoma. Here’s how the homeless shelter will work (The News Tribune)
• City of Centralia annexes land that includes homeless camp; development expected (The Chronicle)
• OPINION: Who’s homeless in Thurston County and why? The answer must drive solutions (Anna Schlecht, retired from the City of Olympia/The Olympian)

HOUSING

• ‘Middle housing’ bill sparks building vs. local control debate at Senate hearing (The Center Square)
• Affordable-housing measures see mixed success in Olympia (The Columbian)
• Bill to remedy Washington’s housing discrimination receives support at Senate hearing (The Center Square)
• Foster, homeless college students in WA could get more housing support (The Seattle Times)
• As Washington rents go up, up, up, the air gets thin for tenants (The Everett Herald)
• OPINION: Real estate tax boost could hurt affordable housing (Tyler Litzenberger, president of Vector Development Co./Everett Herald)

IMMIGRATION

• Measure to ask feds to expand immigrant/refugee bank access heard in Olympia (KNWN Radio)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Police pursuit bill faces tough path ahead in Legislature (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• Remembering Deputy Ryan Thompson from the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office (KNDO/KNDU)
• Pioneering detective files claim against SPD, alleges racial and gender discrimination (The Seattle Times)
• BLOG: Democrats seek to pass more anti-police legislation to make Washington safer for criminals (Shift)
• OPINION: Treat people who need help, rather than dropping them in ER, jail (Barry Buchanan, chair of the Whatcom County Council and a member of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force, and Stephen Gockley, co-chair of the Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force/The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: Director who investigates police under fire for bashing cops (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

LEGISLATURE

• Legislative session ‘most bipartisan in years’ say Dem, GOP leaders (KOMO TV)
• Following the WA Legislature isn’t easy for non-English speakers (Crosscut)
• Washington has no hate crime hotline, but the idea is gaining traction (The Columbian)
• State Rep. Jim Walsh testifies before Senate committee in favor of family burial bill as opposition voices concerns (The Chronicle)
• Death with Dignity waiting period shortened in proposed bill (Washington State Journal/Lynden Tribune)
• District 12 lawmakers answer questions during virtual townhall (The Wenatchee World)
• 12th District Representatives reflect on the 2023 Legislative, Session, in virtual rowan Hall Meeting (KPQ Radio)
• 14th District lawmakers to host virtual town hall March 23 (KLCK Radio)
• 17th District legislators return to town halls (The Columbian)
• COLUMN: Predict A Pen goes missing, a Republican wins a poll and a budget arrives (Jerry Cornfield/The Everett Herald)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Seattle considers $10 cap on late fees for renters (The Seattle Times)
• Seattle moves to mandate paid sick time for food delivery drivers (KUOW Radio)
• City of Lakewood considers ordinances banning public drug use, overnight camping (The News Tribune)
• Olympia eyes property tax increase as potential source for climate response funding (The Olympian)
• Carnation settles labor complaint, addresses layoffs (Snoqualmie Valley Record)

MENTAL HEALTH

• To prevent gun suicide, states consider allowing people to deny themselves a gun (Stateline.org/The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• Higher cancer rates found in military pilots, ground crews (AP)
• USS Theodore Roosevelt departs Bremerton for San Diego after 18-month overhaul (Kitsap Sun)

OPEN GOVERNMENT

• EDITORIAL: Indifference risks loss of access to public records (The Everett Herald)

OPERATING BUDGET

• Legislators believe inflation will hurt WA state revenue forecast (KONA Radio)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon’s rural-urban divide sparks talk of secession (The New York Times/The Seattle Times)
• Oregon bill aims to counter antisemitism by educating students about Jewish culture (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
• $250 million proposal tests lawmakers’ appetite for water investments (Capital Press)
• Rural Idaho Hospital to end labor, delivery services amidst staffing shortage (Spokane Public Radio)

SPORTS

• This $2 million pickleball facility would bring more indoor courts to Pierce County (The News Tribune)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• Washington’s cap-and-trade auction nearly turned on ’emergency valve’ (Capital Press)
• Washington’s DNR wants to take part in carbon-credit markets (Capital Press)
• Accused murderer admitted to Western State Hospital, could receive nearly $80k from state for the delay (FOX 13)
• BLOG: Senator Short: “The buck stops with the governor” for his failure to follow the law to provide an exemption to farmers on rising fuel prices. (Shift)
• COLUMN: Echo Glen youth inmates armed with shanks ignited fire, demanded McDonald’s (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• Fentanyl drives worsening trend of overdoses, deaths, Thurston County officials say (The Olympian)
• Second inmate dies from fentanyl overdose in Thurston County Jail (KING TV)
• COLUMN: ‘I came in here kicking and screaming’: WA debates a ‘stick’ for the drug crisis (Danny Westneat/The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Opioid, meth users have more options for local help (Yakima Herald-Republic)

TAXES

• OPINION: Expect carbon tax to cost Washingtonians much more than state Democrats admit (Sen. John Braun/The Chronicle)

TRANSPORTATION

• Recent spike in semi-trucks crashes draws concerns from State Patrol, grieving families (KIRO TV)
• WSDOT wants your feedback on improving portions of I-5 in Thurston and Lewis counties (The Olympian)
• Seattle’s bleak downtown Sound Transit stations have nowhere to go but up (The Seattle Times)
• What we know about the BNSF train derailment on the Swinomish Reservation (The Seattle Times)
• Single-engine plane accidents happen more in WA than most other states (The Bellingham Herald)
• EDITORIAL: South Park rightly in the drivers seat on fate of Highway 99 (The Seattle Times)
• EDITORIAL: Drawbridge, tunnel miss mark for I-5 Bridge (The Columbian)

WILDLIFE

• Should a federal agency be killing coyotes, bears, and beavers? (KUOW Radio)