The company said its new policy would eliminate search predictions that could be seen as favoring a political candidate or as making claims about "the integrity or legitimacy of electoral processes."Read More
Politics
The move by the USPS prompted a scramble by county auditors who run elections in their counties and the Washington Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections statewide, to put out public messages to clarify the process. Read More
Twitter will label or remove posts that spread misinformation. Social media companies are under pressure to curb the spread of false claims and prevent interference from foreign and domestic actors. Read More
Whether you’re new to Washington state or just making sure you are fully prepared to vote in the Nov. 3 general election, here’s what you need to know about voting (plus lots of links for voters who live outside the state or have recently moved).Read More
Efforts to slow WA’s revolving door from state service to lobbying have been thwarted in recent years. That makes the state an outlier in not requiring a cooling off period. So how much does this happen? Read More
The U.S. Postal Service still has a number of hurdles to overcome to support upcoming general election mail-in ballots, its inspector general's office says. Read More
Washington state leaders say the earliest they would hold a emergency session at this point would most likely be after the November election, if they convene at all. It’s quite possible legislators won’t meet again until January, when their regular 105-day session is scheduled to begin.Read More
President Donald Trump, who spoke at the end of the Thursday evening program of other speakers, discussed the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, for which he promised a vaccine by the end of the year, Hurricane Laura and unrest in Kenosha, Wis., where the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by police led to protests, followed by another shooting by a civilian.Read More
The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment offers an opportunity to take a closer look at stories of women of the movement — those we think we already know, and those that have been lost to history.Read More
“Tonight, our hearts are with all the families who have lost loved ones,” Vice President Mike Pence said in his Wednesday night speech. “We mourn with those who mourn, and we grieve with those who grieve. And this night I know millions of Americans will pause and pray for God’s comfort to each of you.”Read More
The incident follows another on Monday when angry protesters forced their way into the Idaho House gallery that had limited seating because of the coronavirus pandemic, the window of a glass door getting shattered as protesters jostled with police. Protesters were ultimately let in when Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke stepped in, seeking to avoid violence.Read More
First Lady Melania Trump portrayed her husband as an authentic, uncompromising leader in a Rose Garden address Tuesday night as President Donald Trump turned to family, farmers and the trappings of the presidency to boost his reelection chances on the second night of the scaled-down Republican National Convention.Read More
Marilyn Strickland, the former mayor of Tacoma, and Beth Doglio, a state representative from Olympia, are competing to represent the 10th Congressional District, which includes nearly all of Thurston County, most of Pierce County and part of Mason County.Read More
Toward the end of the roll call, Trump made a surprise visit to address the delegates from the convention hall in Charlotte. He appeared right after the Florida delegation cast its votes — a symbolic nod to President Trump’s primary residence and an important battleground in 2020.Read More
Washington state has laws in place to prevent that. And the state, which has been all-vote-by-mail since 2011, has a decade of experience with ballot boxes that counters the president’s claims. Read More
The report concludes Wisconsin voters who braved the pandemic and went to the polls in April did not see a surge in COVID-19 infections, although another study reaches the opposite conclusion.Read More
The director of the museum, Deborah L. Hughes, suggests that the best way to honor Anthony would be to take a clear stance against voter suppression and to advocate for human rights for all.Read More
The U.S. Postal Service has suffered from financial problems for years, but Louis DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser, chose this summer to cut some overtime, withdraw sorting machines and impose other operational changes that have effectively reduced the system's throughput.Read More
Instead of standing in an arena in Milwaukee as planned, the 77-year-old former vice president appeared in a nearly empty hall in Wilmington, Del., addressing roughly two dozen reporters and standing in front of 16 American flags.Read More
The former political adviser to President Trump was indicted alongside three other people in connection with an effort to defraud "hundreds of thousands of donors," according to federal prosecutors. Read More
The third night of the convention is over, and the Democratic Party’s ticket is formally set — with Kamala Harris officially nominated as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate. In her acceptance speech, Harris hammered home the importance of supporting Biden in November, referring to Trump’s time in the White House as a “failure of leadership.”Read More
Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, a three-term Republican and 9/11 commissioner, has died at the age of 92. Thomas Slade Gorton III was born in Chicago in 1928. He was a descendant of the Gorton Seafood family of Massachusetts. But it was politics that attracted him from a young age.Read More
One hundred years ago, both chambers of Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed American women the right to vote. The landmark amendment was ratified into the U.S. Constitution the following year, in August of 1920.Read More
Joe Biden, the former vice president, has officially been nominated as the Democratic candidate for president after a blistering primary fight that once included more than two dozen of his peers.Read More
Louis DeJoy, an ally of President Trump, has come under fire in recent weeks for what's viewed as directives to slow down USPS in order to suppress absentee or mail-in votes. Read More
“We’ve got to vote early, in person if we can. We’ve got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow up to make sure they’re received,” Michelle Obama said. “And then, make sure our friends and families do the same. We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, Read More
Washington’s all vote-by-mail Aug. 4 primary is in the books, with final results certified soon. And it revealed some noteworthy trends. Republican Loren Culp will be Gov. Jay Inslee’s opponent on the November ballot as Inslee seeks a rare third term. Read More
A former bureau attorney is alleged to have doctored evidence to enable the surveillance of an ex-junior foreign policy aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.Read More
The Ferry County sheriff is asking for $138,000 to cover the costs of filling in for Republic Police Chief Loren Culp while he campaigns for governor. The sheriff's office is located in Republic, a town of about 1,100 people, but Republic has its own police force. Culp is the chief and only member of the force.Read More
Voter turnout in the Washington state primary is usually low, and turnout in 2016 was just under 35%. But Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman had still advised counties to plan for turnout that could potentially exceed 60%.Read More
The selection will make Harris just the third woman — and first African American — to be nominated for vice president by a major political party.Read More
The June agreement is one of three, six-figure-a-week, no-bid contracts the state of Washington has entered into with McKinsey – one of the largest consulting firms in the world -- in the midst of the pandemic, according to a review by the public media Northwest News Network and The Seattle Times. The nature and price of the contracts has raised questions about whether Read More
President Trump signed four executive actions to provide economic relief amid the coronavirus pandemic. They amount to a stopgap measure after not reaching a deal with Congress.Read More
In the Columbia Basin, the Democratic challenger for Washington state’s 13th Legislative District house seat has focused his message on farmworker safety and called for the boycott of fruit. It’s quite a move for a candidate in a district where the economy is dominated by agriculture.Read More
Louis DeJoy's political donations have sparked questions about whether he has an interest in affecting the delivery of mail ballots. He said the Postal Service has "ample capacity" to handle them.Read More
The debate over whether a Spokane religious group can hold services in front of a Planned Parenthood facility is getting so loud and heated that it is headed toward a courtroom, where noise ordinances, the right to health care and the First Amendment are all likely to be debated.Read More
New York's attorney general announced civil action to dissolve the National Rifle Association after an investigation found millions of dollars in alleged fraud by CEO Wayne LaPierre and others.Read More
The race for governor and lieutenant governor were among dozens of federal, statewide and local races that voters were deciding in the state’s top-two primary, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot, regardless of party. Last-minute voters had until 8 p.m. to drop their ballots off at drop off boxes around the state.Read More
Two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. is handling the pandemic worse than other nations, an NPR/Ipsos poll finds. Majorities support more aggressive measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Read More
While turnout in November could easily top 80 percent, Washington’s August primary typically draws 40 percent or less of the electorate. We break down the dynamics of this year's unusual election season during the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
Herman Cain had been hospitalized for nearly a month after testing positive for the coronavirus. Cain attended a Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., in late June.Read More
Critics charge the new postmaster general intends to make the Postal Service more of a business than a service, which opponents say could cause disruptions for customers.Read More
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected an appeal by former Washington state Auditor Troy Kelley who sought to have his 2017 convictions for possession of stolen property, filing false tax returns and making false statements overturned.Read More
After days of delays, congressional Republicans unveiled their $1 trillion proposal for a fifth wave of pandemic relief. Democrats are not on board — signaling tough negotiations ahead.Read More
Gov. Brad Little still wants to see Idaho schools reopen next month — but he’s not sure that can happen in the state’s coronavirus hotspots. “I think the answer is, it depends,” Little said during a news conference Thursday morning, one day after the state reported its highest one-day death toll from the coronavirus outbreak.Read More
The Constitution says the count used to divide up seats in Congress must include every person living in the U.S. President Trump is calling for unauthorized immigrants to be left out. Read More
The solo briefing came as cases of COVID-19 continue to surge in hot spots across the country. Read More
State governments face a precipitous drop in revenue, parents and teachers are debating how kids will return to school in the fall, and millions of unemployed workers face the prospect of their pandemic assistance running out at the end of the month.Read More
In 1918 Walla Walla, the chief of police, refused to enforce a state mask mandate. He pointed out that he was going to meet heavy resistance and, anyway, that he had no authority to carry out a state directive, only city ordinances. Still, he also openly defied the instructions of the city’s health officer, J.E. Vanderpool, to follow the state health officer’s guidance.Read More
Lewis began his nearly 60-year career in public service leading sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the Jim Crow-era South. He went on to serve in Congress for more than three decades.Read More