Washington House Democrats voted Wednesday to suspend state Rep. David Sawyer as chair of the Commerce and Gaming Committee pending the outcome of an investigation into workplace conduct.Read More
Politics
Before there was an Oregon, Idaho and Washington state, there was the Oregon Country. Early settlers and pioneers voted to form a provisional territorial government 175 years ago this week. The vote was close and featured arguments that may sound surprisingly familiar today.Read More
Back in 2015, Rachel Dolezal became a walking Rorschach test for America's racial dysfunction. She was the president of the Spokane NAACP chapter, and she was outed as white after spending years claiming she was black.Read More
Eight women, four children and one 18-year-old were allowed to apply for asylum after the caravan reached the U.S. border following a month of travel on foot, train and bus.Read More
Being ready to serve the military is "not about what you look like under that uniform," says Nicholas Talbott. He is suing to fight President Trump's virtual ban on transgender service members.Read More
At least 2,600 school walkouts were planned across the country, starting at 10 a.m. in each time zone.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is stepping up his role as chair of the Democratic Governors Association. Inslee was in Las Vegas April 19 as part of his first major campaign swing.Read More
Just south of Washington state Capitol building you’ll find a neighborhood dotted with quaint, historic houses. But you won’t find families with children in many of them. Nearly one-third of the 62 homes found immediately south of the Capitol are owned or used by lobbyists, corporations or unions, according to a review of public records.Read More
Seattle pollster Stuart Elway has released a new survey that shows Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers with a six-point lead over Democrat Lisa Brown in Washington’s Fifth District Congressional race.Read More
Washington lawmakers tried, but failed this year to repeal the death penalty. Now, the Washington Supreme Court could decide whether it’s constitutional.Read More
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is ditching part of the federal tax plan after all. After weeks of speculation on her intentions, Brown announced Friday that she’ll sign Senate Bill 1528, ensuring that Oregon won’t follow the lead of the federal government in granting a tax break to a subset of businesses.Read More
President Trump says he's been talking with Defense Secretary James Mattis about using military troops to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico.Read More
To get a "satisfactory" rating on their performance evaluations, judges will be required to clear at least 700 cases a year. Some judges warn quotas could erode due process for immigrants. Read More
Amid warnings that Russian hackers may try to interfere in the 2018 midterm elections, top election officials in the Northwest say they are taking additional steps to protect voting systems from attack.Read More
President Trump complained about signing the 2,000-plus page spending bill into law, saying it was too bloated. He is not the first president to be confronted with that choice. Read More
Massive crowds descended upon Washington, D.C., and across the nation Saturday to march for gun control in the U.S., galvanized by the deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., last month.Read More
People from across the Northwest in Yakima, Richland / Tri Cities, Seattle, Salem, Tacoma, Moscow, Idaho, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, Spokane, and elsewhere in the Northwest joined the nationwide March For Our Lives against gun violence on Saturday, March 24.Read More
Governor Jay Inslee signed the Washington Voting Rights Act recently. It’s a move that has long been awaited by Democrats but kept failing in the state legislature. The roots of the law begin in Yakima and a court case over how the city diluted votes of Latino residents.Read More
Hours earlier, the president had hinted at vetoing the legislation but relented, citing "national security." The threat added suspense to what otherwise would have been a perfunctory signing ceremony.Read More
Three years ago, Betsy Deane's son was killed in an automobile accident. Now, the Pasco, Wash., grandmother hopes a new state law will allow her to reunite with the granddaughter she hasn’t been able to see since.Read More
Members of Oregon’s congressional delegation say they’ve revived funding for an expired federal aid program that provided money to rural counties whose economies relied heavily on federal timber harvesting.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has signed several measures into law aimed at tackling sexual harassment in the workplace and an update to the Equal Pay Act to help address gender pay gap in the state.Read More
Cambridge Analytica concedes it improperly received Facebook users' personal information but denies using it for the campaign. Facebook said the company may not have deleted the data as promised.Read More
Youth age 16 and 17 will soon be able to pre-register to vote in Washington. That’s just one of several voting-related bills the governor is scheduled to sign into law soon.Read More
The current deputy director of the CIA is well-respected by intelligence professionals, but she is tied inextricably with the agency's dark chapters involving torture. Read More
Several efforts to protect sexual assault victims failed to pass in Washington’s 60-day legislative session which adjourned last Thursday. Now lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are expressing frustration.Read More
Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins joins Scott Leadingham to talk about what did and didn’t happen in Olympia this year, including a review of how the legislature addressed sexual harassment inside its own halls.Read More
After the recent mass shooting in Florida, Washington state lawmakers faced immense pressure to enact gun control legislation. But a bill to address school shootings made little progress, despite Democratic control of the House and Senate.Read More
The Washington Legislature has approved further study of a super-fast train from Portland to Seattle to Vancouver, BC. Lawmakers passed and sent to the governor's desk a supplemental transportation budget which includes $1.2 million for a consultant to prepare a "business case analysis" of bullet train service from Portland to Vancouver, BC with stops in between.Read More
Washington lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn Thursday after a short, 60-day election-year session during which Democrats flexed their new one-party control to pass a slew of legislation. Here’s a look at some of the bills that passed and some that didn’t.Read More
More than 100 Washington high school students rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday, March 6 demanding restrictions on purchases of military-style weapons and tougher background checks.Read More
Writer Sherman Alexie issued a statement last week admitting he "has harmed" others, after rumors and allegations began to circulate about sexual harassment. Without providing details, Alexie said "there are women telling the truth," and he apologized to the people he has hurt. Now, some of those women have come forward to speak to NPR about their experiences with him.Read More
With its rich characters, vivid colors and moving songs, “Coco” is a groundbreaking film. Audiences and critics are raving, calling it a “love-letter to Mexico.” But even in the film, the plot reminds that borders and immigration systems will continue to haunt us even in death. Read More
Your internet service should be free of slow lanes and corporate favoritism if legislation just signed in Washington state and awaiting the governor's signature in Oregon works as intended. The states' objectives were to block a federal rollback of Obama-era net neutrality rules.Read More
In the face of intense pressure from the public and media, and following hours of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed a bill Thursday night that exempts the Legislature from the state’s voter-approved Public Disclosure Act. Read More
President Donald Trump has called on Congress to raise the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21. In Washington state, a proposal to do that passed a major legislative hurdle Thursday when it was voted through a powerful Senate committee.Read More
The president promised steel and aluminum executives that he will levy tariffs on imports of their products in coming weeks. The tariffs will be 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum.Read More
Kroger, the company that operates Fred Meyer stores in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho, is increasing the minimum age for firearm and ammunition purchases from 18 to 21 at all its Fred Meyer locations that sell firearms.Read More
The coverings, which had been in place since a white supremacist rally in the Virginia city ended in bloodshed last August, were ordered removed by a judge on Tuesday.Read More
The Washington Legislature has sent a ban on bump stocks to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature. A bump stock is a trigger modification device that make a semi-automatic rifle function more like an automatic weapon.Read More
One of the most significant education bills in the Oregon legislature this session appears to be dead. The bill was aimed at limiting class size. Read More
While speaking to governors from around country, the president pointed to a number of ideas he's suggested since the shooting at a Florida high school. Including one idea that would allow some teachers to carry concealed weapons.Read More
House Intelligence Committee Democrats have released a redacted version of their Russia countermemo. Here are 5 takeaways about Congress' saga of the dueling memoranda.Read More
In recent weeks, eight women interviewed by Northwest News Network, The News Tribune and The Olympian have said Washington state Rep. David Sawyer of Tacoma has crossed personal and professional boundaries, sometimes repeatedly, and accused him of engaging in behavior before and after he joined the Legislature that ranged from inappropriate to harassing.Read More
In the space of 20 minutes Friday, Feb. 23, Washington lawmakers voted to exempt themselves from the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act. The Senate first passed the bill and then sent it to the House where it was immediately taken up.Read More
Washington lawmakers are fast-tracking a bill to exempt themselves from the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act. The move comes after the Legislature lost a public records lawsuit filed by several news outlets, including public radio.Read More
Oregon state senators approved a measure Thursday that would strengthen the state’s gun laws by expanding the number of people who are banned from owning a gun in the case of domestic violence or stalking cases. The bill, a priority measure for Gov. Kate Brown, now heads to her desk for her signature. Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is reiterating his call for state lawmakers to pass a series of what he calls “common sense” gun control measures. He made his comments Wednesday, Feb. 21 in response to the Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed.Read More
An allegation against Washington state Rep. David Sawyer of Tacoma has led House Democrats to restrict his contact with staff. House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan said he can’t speak to the specifics or seriousness of the allegation, but that “it appears” it’s not “sexual in nature.” Read More
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek is proposing an amendment to a controversial cap and trade bill that would allow the Legislature to delay voting on key details until next year.Read More
