For now, a Vancouver, Washington-based contractor isn’t facing felony charges related to a teen worker’s severe injuries, but the company remains under scrutiny.
In June, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office declined to criminally investigate Rotschy Incorporated over a 2023 incident resulting in the permanent disability of a teenage employee.
A teenage worker lost both legs while operating a trench machine, which state law prohibits minors from doing.
The Department of Labor and Industries recommended criminal charges against Rotschy, the first time it had ever made such a recommendation.
The Sheriff’s department decided in June not to criminally investigate due to lack of cooperation from the victim and witnesses. But the Clark County Prosecutor’s office is still reviewing the case.
Also, in June, in a separate incident, the Port of Longview temporarily halted the contractor’s $44 million rail expansion project.
A brief pause in construction came after another worker was airlifted with severe injuries from a Rotschy jobsite in Woodland.
At the time, the company’s spokesperson said the company made changes after the worker in Woodland was injured, adding daily huddles and hiring its own safety manager to be onsite full-time.
The Clark County Prosecutor’s Office is still reviewing the case.
Read more about the investigation into Rotschy here and read about the Clark County Sheriff's Office investigation decision here.
Some Washington cities are using artificial intelligence to handle varying types of government business, according to a recent review of public records.
Cascade PBS and KNKX have partnered to examine thousands of pages of ChatGPT conversation logs from city officials. The investigation targeted two years of ChatGPT records from nearly a dozen Washington cities.
Cascade PBS found widespread use of the technology in Bellingham and Everett. Officials solicited help drafting mayoral letters to officials, and asked ChatGPT to generate policy documents and create email responses to constituents. The mayors of Everett and Bellingham stressed that staff members review all AI-generated content for bias and accuracy.
Some records show the usefulness of generative AI, while others raise questions about transparency, authorship and ethics.
A University of Washington researcher worries that the use of AI-generated writing for public communications will hurt trust in government, which is already extremely low.
Read more of Nate Sanford’s reporting on this topic here.
