Capitol  Buzz

OUR NEWS RELEASES FROM THIS WEEK

• More than 7,100 veterans hired since Rep. Gina Mosbrucker’s ‘YesVets’ program began in 2016
• Rep. April Connors’ measure improving home leaseback agreement rules clears Senate, heads to governor’s desk
• Bipartisan bill targeting ‘industrious monsters’ making deadly fake pills with pill presses clears House, gets Senate hearing
• Three Rep. Waters bills approved by the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• ESD: Washington gained more than 15,000 jobs in February (MyNorthwest)
• Where the Starbucks union stands after rallies, proposed audit (Crosscut)
• COLUMN: The pandemic ‘tested’ Seattle, but the report card’s still out (Jon Talton/The Seattle Times)

CAPITAL BUDGET

• Senate’s $7.9B capital budget passes out of Ways & Means Committee (The Center Square)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Human composting comes to Clallam County (KONP Radio)

CONGRESS

• McMorris Rodgers leads grilling of TikTok CEO as lawmakers call for data privacy law (The Spokesman-Review)
• Schrier questions TikTok CEO about health effects on youth, misinformation (NCW Life Channel)
• Gluesenkamp Perez backs bipartisan effort to assist businesses with CTE graduates (The Reflector)

CORONAVIRUS

• Court blocks COVID-19 vaccine mandate for US gov’t workers (AP)
• One Slidewaters COVID-19 court case still standing three years later (NCW Life Channel)

COURTS (STATE)

• Bill to add District Court judge in Snohomish County nears finish (The Everett Herald)
• Deaths of woman, girl raise issues over boyfriend’s release (AP/MyNorthwest)
• McKenna: Can transit authorities use uniformed officers to collect fares? (MyNorthwest)

CRIME

• WA saw a record number of antisemitic incidents in 2022 (Crosscut)
• DUI crashes increasing in Washington, according to state patrol (KING TV)
• Rise in drive-by shootings a concern for WA State Patrol (MyNorthwest)
• Co-owner of Spokane’s marijuana producer Grow Op Farms among 9 indicted in Utah fraud scheme tied to supplements (The Spokesman-Review)

CYBERSECURITY

• Shoreline College website hacked; officials investigating (The Seattle Times)

DAMS

• Newhouse and Rodgers introduce dam protection bill (KIHR Radio)

EDUCATION

• Seattle Public Schools lays off more staff, but spares teachers for now (KUOW Radio)
• EDITORIAL: Fix inequities in special education, but don’t abandon standards (The Seattle Times)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Behind the scenes of a new lawmaker’s effort to pass a utility shutoff moratorium in Washington (KNKX Radio)

ENVIRONMENT

• Washington sawmills, environmentalists swap sides on carbon bill (Capital Press)

FISH

• Olympia considering fishing regulatory updates (Columbia Basin Herald)

HEALTH CARE & HOSPITALS

• State bill protecting reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare advances through Senate committee process (KPQ Radio)
• Bill aims to address shortage of Forensic Pathologists across the state (KEPR TV)
• OPINION: Overall patient safety more than cosmetic need (Sharon Quick, M.D., M.A. president of Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation/The Spokesman-Review)

HOMELESSNESS

• Judge declares I-90 homeless camp a chronic nuisance, asks city and state to form clearing plan (KREM TV)
• Tacoma shelter rife with dangers, ex-workers say. Is regional housing provider to blame? (The News Tribune)

HOUSING

• Seattle is losing more apartments than it’s building. Small landlords blame overregulation (KUOW Radio)
• COLUMN: Need the right metrics to steer response to Spokane’s dual housing crises (Sue Lani Madsen/The Spokesman-Review)
• EDITORIAL: Lawmakers should invest more in new housing (The Columbian)

LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Everett officer shot during robbery response released from hospital (The Seattle Times)
• OPINION: Improve safety and diversity: Pass bill to allow police to work part-time (Sen. John Lovick, former Snohomish County Sheriff, and Sue Rahr, served 33 years with the King County Sheriff’s Office and nine years as the executive director of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission/The Seattle Times)
• COLUMN: It was human error. But missing police pursuit data still marred a Pierce County audit (Matt Driscoll/The News Tribune)

LEGISLATURE

• ‘Industrious monsters’: Washington bill targets fentanyl pill production (The Center Square)
• Here’s how Washington senators want to use climate dollars (The Seattle Times)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Rural counties in Washington State struggling to find forensic pathologists (KAPP/KVEW)
• Klickitat County Commission continues solar moratorium (KIHR Radio)

MEDIA

• End of story: Capitol’s press houses torn down (The Seattle Times)
• NPR cancels 4 podcasts in biggest wave of layoffs in decades (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• Vietnam veterans event planned Saturday in Yakima (Yakima Herald-Republic)

OPERATING BUDGET

• Schools, housing, salaries score big in Senate Dems $70B budget (The Everett Herald)
• Washington state Senate Democrats release $69 billion budget proposal with focus on education, behavioral health (The Spokesman-Review)
• WA Senators propose two-year, $69.2 billion operating budget — and saving for a rainy day (Tri-City Herald)
• Washington State Senate unveils $69 billion budget increasing funds for education, housing (KING TV)

OTHER STATES

• Surge in eating disorders spurs state legislative action (AP)
• Oregon’s top budget writers commit to rainy day savings amid ‘great economic uncertainty’ (The Oregonian)
• Lawmakers float $1 billion plan for Oregon’s share of new Interstate Bridge (The Oregonian)

STATE GOVERNMENT

• Gov. Inslee answers questions on housing, climate, schools (KNWN Radio)

TAXES

• WA Supreme Court upholds new state capital gains tax (Crosscut)
• WA Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax (The Seattle Times)
• Washington Supreme Court upholds capital gains tax (KIRO TV)

TRANSPORTATION

• Airport siting bill passes WA House, gets Senate hearing (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Human error likely caused Swinomish Reservation train derailment, official says (The Seattle Times)
• Sound Transit leans toward avoiding station construction in Chinatown International District (The Seattle Times)

TRIBAL ISSUES

• As Native suicide rates increase, crisis line provides unique solution (KING TV)