Bill swap, money talks, and initiative hints: A look at week 6 of WA’s legislative session
With just a few weeks left in this year’s legislative session, Washington lawmakers are starting to unveil budget plans and consider bills in the opposite chamber. Another cutoff deadline came down Tuesday, meaning it was do-or-die for policy proposals awaiting a vote in the chamber they started in. Lawmakers in the House approved a hotly debated rent bill this week, after days of uncertainty for its path forward in the Senate. House Bill 2114 is now in front of the Senate Ways and Means Committee – meaning the House bill will avoid the committee where its Senate companion stalled earlier this session. Continue reading at KUOW. (NW News Network)
What’s in the Transit-Oriented Development Bill the WA House Just Passed
On Tuesday, the Washington State House of Representatives passed a bill intended to open up new development capacity around the state’s most robust public transit infrastructure. House Bill 2160 would require cities to allow larger buildings within a fairly wide area directly around light rail, commuter rail, and streetcar stops, and slightly smaller buildings in areas directly around stops on bus rapid transit (BRT) lines. It also allows affordable housing developers to build taller if they include more units in their buildings that remain dedicated for low-income residents. Continue reading at The Urbanist. (Ryan Packer)
Measure targets AI porn loophole; Under current Wash. law, ‘deepfake’ victims have no legal recourse
Under current Washington law, if someone’s face is used to make pornographic content without their consent, the victim has no legal recourse. A proposal in the Washington Legislature, House Bill 1999, would address this loophole. It would expand criminal penalties under current child pornography laws to include instances in which an identifiable minor’s image was used to digitally fabricate explicit content. The bill would also provide a civil cause of action for adult victims by expanding the Uniform Civil Remedies for the Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act. Though the bill addresses only deepfakes in which the victim is identifiable, prime sponsor Tina Orwall, D-Des Moines, says she can see potential for expansion to include non-identifiable victims. Continue reading at The Columbian. (Amanda Snyder)
Associated Press
State tribes battling a devastating opioid crisis
Auburn Reporter
‘When services decline, it’s the kids who pay the price’ (Senn)
Capital Press
Researchers ‘close’ on falling numbers rapid test to manage wheat damage
Columbian
More Washington companies offer doula services in health benefits
Measure targets AI porn loophole; Under current Wash. law, ‘deepfake’ victims have no legal recourse (Orwall, Mullet)
Nonprofit to save land along Washougal River; Columbia Land Trust to secure 300 acres on West Fork
Everett Herald
‘I did get better’: Program helped Everett mother reunite her family
As homelessness rises, Everett programs aims to help struggling moms
‘A kinder, gentler interview room’ at Mountlake Terrace’s police station
Comment: Federal law making heart medications affordable
Comment: Legislation could harm a recycling success story
Letter: Reduce plastic litter with ReWRAP Act
Editorial: Cap on rent can keep more people in their homes (Peterson)
News Tribune
This gateway park to Tacoma is an ‘embarrassment’ and ‘painful to see.’ Is there a solution? (Fey)
Are WA housing affordability and climate change on a collision course? Some think they are (Duerr)
Opinion: Why a dancer with Tacoma ties is fighting for WA’s ‘Stripper Bill of Rights’
Olympian
My child’s mother was murdered. And I’ve been to prison. I know what justice is
Peninsula Daily News
Chapman explains votes (Chapman, Tharinger, Van De Wege)
Puget Sound Business Journal
Harrell administration touts progress on homelessness
Amazon gives $9M to Seattle-area groups that provide homeless services
Seattle Times
Lawmakers won’t act on WA long-term care ballot initiative (Billig, Jinkins)
Asylum-seekers with shelter in WA face ticking clock to stay inside
Redmond picks up Kenmore’s canceled affordable-housing project
Seattle-area schools see spike in students caught with guns on campus
Some bills survive, others don’t after WA Legislature chamber deadline (Jinkins, Nguyen, Doglio, Shewmake, Peterson, Farivar, Alvarado, Keiser, Callan, Mullet)
Judge orders breach of dam at hydroelectric project on Puyallup River
Will a multimillion-dollar funding measure help WA tribes battle opioids?
For WA patients with serious mental illness, this little-known right may get stronger
State governments looking to protect health-related data as it’s used in abortion battle (Slatter)
Opinion: From Venezuela to Seattle: A story of how immigration makes us better
Opinion: Pedestrians have to be miles ahead of drivers when it comes to safety
Opinion: Fentanyl, mental health, homelessness: They intersect in the ER
Opinion: On Remembrance Day, call for end to immigrant detention
Spokesman Review
Pollinator legislation proposed by Mt. Spokane senior buzzes through the Senate
Bill that would regulate hospital mergers in Washington passes House, may join other legislation protecting abortion access (Randall, Mullet, Riccelli)
Failing our troubled teens: As Washington’s shortage of inpatient drug beds persists, one family sues the facility they hoped would help their daughter
Opinion: Spokane must seize opportunity to treat opioid abuse disorder
Opinion: FAFSA opens doors for many students, their families
Tri-City Herald
Rent prices have soared in Tri-Cities so WA is giving $8.5M for 2 new housing projects
Most Tri-Cities students still half year behind in math, reading. How 2 schools caught up
Senate unveils $1.3 billion supplemental capital budget plan focused on schools, housing (Mullet, Trudeau)
Walla Walla Union Bulletin
Gov. Inslee talks fentanyl, clean energy in Walla Walla
Washington Post
Sinclair’s recipe for TV news: Crime, homelessness, illegal drugs
Opinion: Why not pay public school teachers $100,000 a year?
WA State Standard
Washington tribes look to Iceland for help getting teens off drugs
Citizen initiatives score public hearings. Will Democrats make them law? (Billig, Jinkins)
Republicans in Washington Legislature bristle over collapse of rural housing bills (Fitzgibbon, Peterson)
Wenatchee World
‘Our Voices are not being heard in Olympia’: Red Apple Orchards shutters due to rising costs
Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority signs MOU with Washington Army National Guard on land deal.
Broadcast
KING 5 TV (NBC)
Washington State Patrol trooper shot by DUI suspect in Kent
61 firearms surrendered in under an hour at Mukilteo gun buyback event
Southern resident orcas now considered an endangered species in Oregon
KIRO 7 TV (CBS)
Police say U-District attack on Muslim woman was hate crime
KOMO 4 TV (ABC)
New WA bill would crack down on sexually explicit, fabricated photos of minors (Orwall, Ramos, Mullet)
Washington tribes are battling an opioid crisis. Will a multimillion-dollar bill help?
KNKX Public Radio
Bill swap, money talks, and initiative hints: A look at week 6 of WA’s legislative session (Liias, Ormsby, Billig, Jinkins)
KUOW Public Radio
Washington’s ferry system has a trust problem (Nance)
Week in Review: crime prevention, fentanyl, and kids
Dissolving library districts is a hot topic, WA bill could make it harder to do
Curriculum about fentanyl, other opioids could come to WA junior high classrooms
King County says its contractor failed to pay $1.1 million to child care providers in subsidy program
Balancing the books: Financial education could become a graduation requirement in WA schools
Letter: More passenger-only ferries could be among solutions to Washington ferry woes
KXLY (ABC)
Spokane aims for zero roadway deaths in next decade, research fuels funding request
Web
Cascadia Daily News
Salmon management 50 years after the Boldt Decision focuses on survival
State lawmaker addresses tenant protections, fentanyl in wide-ranging town hall (Rule, Shewmake, Timmons)
‘There’s a chance to take back your life’: Mental Health Court provides alternative to jail
Crosscut
Washington patients fear losing access to care as hospitals merge (Randall)
The Urbanist
What’s in the Transit-Oriented Development Bill the WA House Just Passed (Chapman, Lovelett)
West Seattle Blog
Fewer tents, faster responses, and what else the city says its homelessness response is accomplishing