Judge holds Washington state in contempt for not providing services to mentally ill people in jails
A federal judge has found Washington state in contempt and ordered it to pay more than $100 million in fines for failing to provide timely psychiatric services to mentally ill people who are forced to wait in jails for weeks or months. In her order released late Friday, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said the Washington Department of Social and Health Services has been violating the constitutional rights of these people since 2015 due to a “lack of foresight, creativity, planning and timely response to a crisis of its own making.” Continue reading at The Olympian. (Getty Images)
UW report offers solutions to help prevent deaths during WA heat waves
Two years after the 2021 heat dome, Washington’s deadliest weather-related disaster, researchers are still trying to pin down its full impacts and what lessons can be learned. Officials estimate 126 people died from the heat between June 26 and July 2, 2021, when Washington set 128 all-time high temperature records, including in Seattle where people sweltered in up to 108 degrees. But a new report from the University of Washington says the heat dome was likely far deadlier, with 441 more people dying during that week than would have been expected based on previous years, after accounting for COVID-19. Continue reading at Seattle Times. (Colin Mulvany / The Associated Press)
Why many judges in WA won’t order abusers to turn in guns
In June 2019, a woman lay on the floor of a trailer home in Kitsap County, struggling to breathe after her boyfriend, Dwayne Allen Flannery, allegedly beat and choked her. After a neighbor called the police, Flannery was charged with second-degree assault. The county’s Superior Court issued a no-contact order prohibiting Flannery from going near his girlfriend. The court also issued an order requiring him to immediately turn in his firearms. Four years later, Flannery has not turned in a single weapon. Continue reading at KUOW. (Roman Poberezhnik)
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