In a stern letter to the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney, Senate Democrats demanded evidence that he is safeguarding student borrowers.Read More
Politics
Don Gonyea visits musician Lee Greenwood to talk about the song that, after three decades in political campaigns, might be more popular than "Hail to the Chief."Read More
Under the Flores settlement, immigrant minors can't be held in jail-like settings and can't be held for longer than 20 days. The government's move to circumvent that will likely end up in court.Read More
Twitter said it has "permanently suspended" the conspiracy theorist and his InfoWars outlet, citing tweets and videos posted Wednesday that violate Twitter's policy on abusive behavior.Read More
"The Star Spangled Banner" has been played at major sporting events as far back as the Civil War, even before it was officially named the national anthem. How and why did the tradition stick?Read More
Sen. Cory Booker was the first Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to release documents that had been designated as "confidential" as the third day of the Kavanaugh hearings began.Read More
Judges in North Carolina said Tuesday that there isn't enough time to approve a new map before a new session of Congress — despite finding the map to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered.Read More
Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh sought to portray the high court as nonpartisan. "The justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle," he said Tuesday.Read More
A healthy population of grizzlies in and around Glacier National Park means the bear may soon come off the endangered species list. But more bears mean more confrontations with humans.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has elevated his national profile as a critic of President Donald Trump and fanned speculation about a 2020 presidential bid. A big part of Inslee’s role as DGA chair is to raise money to fuel political advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. But critics say his constant travel may be interfering with his job as governor. Read More
McCain was shot down during the Vietnam War and was held captive and tortured for years. The ordeal helped fuel his political career.Read More
Washington state Rep. Matt Manweller “engaged in a pattern of unprofessional and inappropriate behavior” with current and former female students at Central Washington University (CWU) over a 13-year period, according to an 85-page investigative report released by the university on Wednesday.Read More
"It will be a very cold day in hell before an offensive statue will be forced upon us to be permanently erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol," Republican State Sen. Jason Rapert said. Read More
Last March, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced the resignation of one of his longest-serving cabinet members, Employment Security Department head Dale Peinecke. But as it turned out, Peinecke continued to run his agency while working remotely for two more months. He then took paid leave until the end of June when he turned 65—and could retire.Read More
Central Washington University fired Republican state Rep. Matt Manweller Tuesday, Aug. 14, from his position as a tenured professor of political science following a months-long investigation into his conduct toward students.Read More
Washington Republicans are regrouping after a primary election pounding Tuesday that extended beyond swing districts to rock-ribbed GOP pockets of the state.Read More
Democratic state Rep. David Sawyer of Tacoma was in third place in early primary returns Tuesday night, an indication of the political fallout he’s facing over numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and an investigation that found he violated House harassment policy. Read More
Police arrested four people at dueling rallies between the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and counter-protesters in downtown Portland Saturday, Aug. 4. The charges include harassment, reckless endangerment, unlawful use of weapons, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and attempted assault of a public safety officer.Read More
This month, India may impose retaliatory tariffs on American products – including apples. And that could upset the export apple cart.Read More
With less than a week until the primary election in his district, Republican state Rep. Matt Manweller has released a video accusing his employer—Central Washington University —of pursuing a partisan-driven investigation into his workplace conduct.Read More
The race for U.S. House in eastern Washington has taken a negative turn. Despite criticism, 5th District Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers has doubled down on a controversial ad campaign attacking her Democratic opponent, Lisa Brown, using information proven to be misleading and false.Read More
The craft brewing industry in the Northwest is starting to feel pain from the Trump administration's steel and aluminum tariffs. Those metals are made into beer cans, kegs and fermentation tanks.Read More
An initiative that would ban state funding for abortion is heading to the November ballot in Oregon, setting up an election battle over abortion in what has been regarded as one of the most pro-choice states in the country. Read More
The legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington state in 2012 resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of people sentenced for marijuana-related felonies, according to an analysis conducted for public radio by the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council.Read More
Policymakers, academics and regional industry leaders from the U.S. and western Canada are getting together in Spokane on Monday, July 23 to get an update on ongoing talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. So far, top U.S., Canadian and Mexican officials have missed numerous self-imposed deadlines to reach a deal.Read More
Three decades after Oregon blazed a trail by enacting statewide sanctuary laws, voters will have a say in repealing them this fall.Read More
The past eight months have been a whirlwind of victories for Tarra Simmons—an honors law school graduate with a criminal past. This week something happened that Simmons could not have anticipated. A political mailer started showing up in mailboxes in the 26th Legislative District that attacked a Democratic candidate for state Senate, Emily Randall, for supporting Simmons Read More
Russia's information attack against the United States during the 2016 election cycle sought to take advantage of the greater trust that Americans tend to place in local news. The information operatives who worked out of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg did not stop at posing as American social media users or spreading false information from purported news Read More
The agency's next acting chief has drawn praise as a capable administrator. But critics still say the transition from Scott Pruitt is a bit like "going from a train wreck to a house on fire."Read More
At midnight, U.S. tariffs took effect on $34 billion worth of imported Chinese goods — and Beijing responded quickly. The tit for tat marks a significant escalation in the countries' trade dispute.Read More
The accusation is nearly two decades old. The Canadian prime minister said Thursday that he apologized "in the moment" but that "the same interactions can be felt very differently" by people involved.Read More
Backers of a proposed gun-control initiative in Washington plan to deliver their final batch of petitions July 6th to the Secretary of State. Read More
In the aftermath of a recent workplace conduct investigation at the state Capitol, the Democratic lawmaker at the heart of the inquiry and one of his accusers say the process has revealed flaws in how the Legislature handles complaints made against elected officials.Read More
In Oklahoma, there is a race between two Native American candidates, one a Democrat and the other a Republican. As for statewide offices, there are more Native Americans running for lieutenant governor alone, six candidates, than the number who ran for statewide offices across the country in 2016.Read More
There's an episode of The Johnny Cash Show from 1969 where the man himself makes a little speech with a pretty big error. "Here's a song that was reportedly sung by both sides in the Civil War," Cash says, guitar in hand, to kick off a performance of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The real history is clear: Julia Ward Howe wrote the song as a pro-Union, anti-slavery Read More
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made several arrests in Central Washington this week in Basin City and Pasco. In one case, a mother was detained even though agents were looking for her son.Read More
The Oregon Supreme Court announced June 27 it would not certify ballot language for Initiative Petition 43, a proposed ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons in Oregon. Instead, the court referred draft ballot language back to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for revision, finding substantial flaws in her office’s last attempt.Read More
Calling former Washington State Auditor Troy Kelley "as unrepentant as any defendant in memory," federal prosecutors are asking that a judge sentence him to more than seven years in federal prison when he is sentenced June 29 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.Read More
By a 5-4 vote, the court reversed a series of lower-court decisions and said a rule banning nearly all travelers from five mainly Muslim countries was within the president's authority.Read More
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum plan to sue the Trump administration to ensure children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border are reunited.Read More
Over 100 men from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are being held at the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, according to an immigration attorney trying to gain access to the facility to provide legal counsel. ICE has contracted space for 130 beds at the federal prison in Sheridan and 209 beds at the SeaTac federal detention center in Washington.Read More
President Trump called on U.S. allies to eliminate barriers to trade or risk losing access to the U.S. economy at the 2018 G7 summit held in Canada.Read More
Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson is being treated for a “small, cancerous brain tumor,” he announced Wednesday. Richardson, Oregon’s Secretary of State since 2017, revealed in his regular newsletter that he was diagnosed with cancer in May and that he’s feeling “blessed and optimistic.”Read More
Washington lawmakers passed over 300 bills during the 2018 legislative session in Olympia. This week, hundreds of new laws take effect, including several to address sexual misconduct in the workplace. With over 200 laws taking effect this week, here are a few highlights.Read More
While the court's 7-2 decision skirted the main legal arguments the case presented, the court's ruling sets the stage for two similar cases in the Northwest: one involving a Washington florist and another with a bakery owner in Oregon.Read More
Washington Governor Jay Inslee is headed to Iowa--a frequent first stop for presidential hopefuls. He will headline the Iowa Democratic Party’s Hall of Fame Celebration next month. The trip is sure to fuel more speculation Inslee is eyeing a run for president.Read More
Two of the most bruising Republican primaries in 2018 were the gubernatorial race and the race for Idaho’s First Congressional District. Read More
Two embattled Washington state representatives have filed to run for re-election—despite ongoing investigations into their conduct.Read More
In the Columbia Basin, communities are pushing back on recreational marijuana by leveraging county regulations – regulations like Benton County’s new “Sight and Smell Ordinance.”Read More
Two of Washington top elected prosecutors say the state is failing to adequately address an epidemic of drug addiction. They say it’s a major contributor to crime, but also to homelessness.Read More
