WA Government

Workers in Washington moved a step closer to gaining access to unemployment insurance during strikes, after a bill that would extend the benefits passed the state Senate on Friday.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Central Washington, introduced the resolution to rebuke a Texas congressman who was removed from the House chamber after repeatedly interrupting President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress earlier in the week.

OLYMPIA – Seven years after a gunman killed 17 people in a Florida high school, the mother of one of the victims testified in support of a bill in the Washington Legislature that would encourage schools to install panic alert systems to hasten emergency response times.

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission has prohibited recruits from training with a popular semiautomatic handgun and has banned the pistol from the commission’s campuses after reports the gun could fire without someone pulling the trigger.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to cut more than 80,000 jobs in the next six months as part of the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically downsize the federal workforce, according to an internal memo sent to staff on Tuesday.

Mar. 5—OLYMPIA — Democratic state lawmakers, worried about federal efforts to limit transgender and abortion rights, want to amend the state constitution to include protections for gender-affirming and reproductive health care, and hope to put it before voters. Senate Joint Resolution 8204, introduced this week by prime sponsor Sen. Vandana Slatter, D-Bellevue, is backed by 25 of the 30 Senate ...

WASHINGTON – In an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump touted his administration’s swift actions to remake the federal government in his image, provoking cheers from his fellow Republicans and loud protests from Democrats.

OLYMPIA – Washington would require clergy members to report incidents of child abuse or neglect under legislation to designate them as mandatory reporters cleared the state Senate Friday.

WASHINGTON – While President Donald Trump will surely use his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to tout his administration’s actions and plans for the future, two Washington lawmakers are making their own statements by inviting special guests to attend the customary speech.

Leaders from Western Washington tribes and state officials have agreed to enter mediation about removing salmon migration barriers, reviving a decadeslong court case over tribal treaty fishing rights and habitat damage from generations of building state highways.

SEATTLE – A federal judge in Seattle seemed to strongly doubt the answers of lawyers representing the Department of Justice during a preliminary hearing Friday afternoon, as the State of Washington sought to block a federal ban on gender-affirming care for those under 19 from going into effect.

OLYMPIA – Gov. Bob Ferguson unveiled a plan Thursday to save Washington $4 billion over the next four years to address a budget deficit the governor projects to be $15 billion over that span.