Washington unemployment rate drops to pre-pandemic levels

Washington Democrats picked up another Senate seat in the state Legislature after Clark County elections concluded a machine recount Monday.

Adrian Cortes will become the first Democrat to hold the seat in Washington’s 18th District, encompassing Vancouver, Battle Ground and Clark County, in nearly three decades. Cortes won over his Republican opponent, Brad Benton, by 173 votes. The recount picked up another vote in his favor, Cortes told Cascade PBS in a text Tuesday. 

“In one of the most expensive legislative races in the state, we did what some thought couldn’t be done,” Cortes added. “We flipped the 18th legislative district senate seat after almost 30 years of Republican control. After a free and fair election our message won the day; now I’ll focus on serving the people well in the state Senate.”

The seat was left vacant by Sen. Ann Rivers, first elected to the House of Representatives in 2010. In 2012 she was appointed to the Senate. Rivers announced in April that she would not seek another term. 

The Clark County canvassing board will meet Thursday to certify the recount and forward the signed and sealed certification to the Secretary of State. 

In total, Cortes’ campaign raised more than $473,500 while Benton’s campaign raised more than $237,000. 

In a September interview with Cascade PBS, Cortes said that he wanted to tackle issues of concern from voters in his district such as the high cost of living, reproductive freedoms, and ensuring that taxes “don’t get out of control.”

The legislative session begins on Jan. 13. 

WA-64, a new apple under development through Washington State University’s apple breeding program, will be called Sunflare, the university announced Tuesday. 

WSU apple breeder Kate Evans announced the name during a session at the annual meeting of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association in Yakima.

Sunflare was chosen out of five possible names, which came from more than 15,000 submitted through a name contest the university launched this past spring. 

Ryan Escarcega, a 49-year-old food service salesperson and chef from Centralia, submitted the winning name. In a WSU news release, Escarcega said Sunflare was inspired by the variety’s bright hues as well as the powerful solar storms that sparked northern lights visible across North America this spring.

Three focus groups narrowed the five names to two, said Jeremy K. Tamsen, director of innovation and commercialization for WSU. WSU chose Sunflare after it found the other preferred name would be more difficult to trademark. The trademark is separate from the registered plant patent WSU secured for the apple last year. 

Sunflare was developed in 1998. WSU pursued further development for the apple variety over the past two decades because it showed good eating and storage quality. Research from WSU and the Washington Tree Fruit Commission found that the apple does not brown and, when kept in cold storage, maintains quality even after several months.

Developers describe WA 64 as crisper and juicier than Cripps Pink and slightly less crisp and juicy than Honeycrisp, with a sweetness and acidity that falls between the two varieties. The apple is a bicolored symmetrical fruit with a pink/red blush on a yellow background. 

Trees are expected to be widely available to growers by 2026 and Sunflare is expected to appear in grocery stores by 2029, according to an earlier WSU announcement. The apple will be grown and produced exclusively in Washington orchards.  

It will be WSU’s second new apple launch in a decade, after the 2019 debut of Cosmic Crisp. In just five years, thanks partly to a strong marketing campaign and robust planting, Cosmic Crisp has grown to be one of the state’s highest-volume varieties.  

The Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Tlingit & Haida) and Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families have signed an agreement on how to provide support services to the Tribe’s enrolled members — the first formal partnership between that department and an out-of-state Native nation.

Around 23%, or 1,600, Tlingit & Haida tribal children and youth under 18 live in Washington. This agreement specifies roles and responsibilities shared by the tribes and the Department of Children, Youth and Families to administer services under the Indian Child Welfare Act, including child protective services, foster care, dependency guardianship, termination of parental rights and adoption proceedings for those children. The department has similar agreements with a number of tribes based in Washington.

The Tlingit & Haida is the largest federally recognized Alaska Native nation, with 22,000 citizens throughout the United States. In November 2023, the Tlingit & Haida opened an office in Lynnwood with at least 20 staff members to serve more than 8,000 tribal citizens who live in Washington, according to Alaska television station KTOO. These services include tribal court, enrollment and case management of child welfare cases.

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA 10) has been elected to serve as secretary of the Congressional Black Caucus, the group announced this week.

Strickland, a former mayor of Tacoma and president of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, served as the caucus’ whip last year. Strickland also serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Strickland, elected in 2020, is Washington’s first Black Congressional representative. She was also one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress.

When Congress starts in January, the Congressional Black Caucus will have a record-high 62 members in the House and Senate. The group was founded in 1971 to advocate for African Americans and other underrepresented communities in the United States.

Strickland will serve alongside chair Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY 9), first vice chair Troy A. Carter Sr. (D-LA 2), second vice chair Lucy McBath (D-GA 7) and whip Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA 37).

As she was formally sworn in as Seattle’s newest City Council member on Tuesday, Alexis Mercedes Rinck pledged to collaborate with her new colleagues, protect the city from the incoming Trump administration and make her new citywide Position 8 seat the “people’s office.” 

Rinck, who in November defeated incumbent City Council appointee Tanya Woo with 58% of the vote, will hold the seat for the remainder of former Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2025. 

“With over 250,000 votes, our progressive vision and our vision and our goal for an affordable, safe and welcoming city is one that actually unites our city,” Rinck said, speaking from the City Council dais in front of a room packed with supporters. 

Rinck is a former fiscal policy analyst with the University of Washington. At 29, it appears that she will be the youngest person in living memory — and the first person in their 20s — to sit on the Seattle City Council.

Rinck highlighted her relatives’ experience as immigrants to America, and said she would work to make Seattle a welcoming place for people of all backgrounds under President-elect Donald Trump’s next administration. 

“The specter of a second Trump presidency isn’t just a political challenge, it’s a direct threat to families like mine and so many in this city, and that’s why what we do here in Seattle matters now more than ever,” Rinck said.

During her run for office, Rinck emphasized her support for new progressive taxes to fund affordable housing and social services. One of her first moves as Councilmember on Tuesday was to propose an addition to the Council’s list of priorities for the 2025 legislative session asking state lawmakers to consider progressive taxes to balance the state budget. The amendment passed 5 to 1, with three abstentions.

Rinck was backed by most local labor unions, and aligned herself with the progressive side of Seattle’s political spectrum — a contrast to Woo, who was endorsed by business groups and the Council’s more moderate seven-person majority. Tammy Morales, the Council’s most left-leaning member, was the only sitting member to endorse Rinck.

During her speech, Rinck made a point to mention each of her colleagues by name and highlight the ways she hopes to work with them individually. 

“To each of my colleagues, I’m ready to build with you,” Rinck said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the vote on an amendment. 

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay announced his candidacy for King County executive Monday, joining fellow County Councilmember Claudia Balducci and County Assessor John Wilson in the 2025 race.

Zahilay, a former business attorney who started a nonprofit in King County, has been on the county council after defeating longtime Councilmember Larry Gossett in 2019 to represent District 2, which includes much of the east portion of Seattle south of the University District as well as Skyway.

Balducci, a former Bellevue City Councilmember who has represented King County District 6 after her election in 2015, announced her candidacy last month shortly after King County Executive Dow Constantine, who has held the position for 15 years, announced that he would not run for reelection in 2025. Wilson, a former journalist who was also chief of staff of former King County Executive Ron Sims, followed suit a week later and announced his candidacy. Wilson has been the county assessor after being elected in 2015.

The county executive position is nonpartisan.

The number of Washington residents affected by data breaches reached an all-time high, according to an annual report issued this week by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The number of individual data breaches affecting 500 or more Washingtonians reached 279 between July 24, 2023 and July 23, 2024, resulting in 11.6 million data breach notices being sent to the state’s residents. This is the first time that the number of notices exceeded the state’s population of almost eight million, according to an attorney general’s office news release.

The 2024 numbers increased from the 178 breaches reported in 2023, which required 4.5 million notices sent to Washingtonians. The previous all-time breach record was in 2021, when 286 data breaches were reported, with 6.5 million notices.

The significant increase in the number of Washington residents affected in this year’s report is due in part to two mega-breaches at Comcast and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, which each affected more than a million Washington residents.

“These statistics underscore our state’s critical needful comprehensive data privacy regulation. We live in an internet-driven economy that relies on mass collection and retention of our perusal data,” said Attorney General Bob Ferguson in the report. Ferguson’s office has produced the report every year since 2016.

Cyberattacks (deliberate hacking) caused 78% of the breaches in the 2024 report, compared to 67% in 2022 and 64% in 2022, according to the report. A handful were caused by mistakes or inadvertent thefts. The rest were unauthorized people accessing paper copies or obtaining data without hacking. Ransomware attacks accounted for 113 of the 217 breaches, the report said.

The report’s recommendations to legislators include:

1. Reducing the data breach notification deadline to three days and classifying Individual Tax Identification Numbers as “personal information” that could lead to other data being stolen.
2. Requiring businesses to give Washingtonians more control over how their data is collected and used.
3. Improving transparency from data brokers and data collectors.
4. Consulting Indigenous nations on how best to support their efforts in combating cyberattacks. 

Bellingham could soon join a small but growing list of Washington cities that have removed parking mandates for all new development citywide, in an effort to address its lack of affordable housing. 

Most American cities require developers to provide a certain number of parking spaces when building new housing. But many housing advocates argue that those laws prioritize cars over people and make it too expensive to build new apartments and homes. 

In March, Port Townsend became the first Washington city to eliminate parking mandates citywide. Spokane followed suit this summer. 

Bellingham removed parking requirements in the city’s Old Town neighborhood last year, and city staff have spent much of this year studying the possibility of eliminating the rules citywide. Last week, Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund signed an executive order focused on the housing shortage that called for staff to immediately draft an interim ordinance removing parking minimums citywide. 

Under the new law, developers could still include parking spaces if they want to — they just wouldn’t be required to. The flexibility would prevent parking from being built in places where it doesn’t make sense, said Bellingham City Council member Jace Cotton, who supports the proposed change and has been working on parking reform with colleagues this year. 

“It’s pretty rare that there’s a simple code change that can yield significant benefits in terms of more housing, more walkable cities,” Cotton said. 

Cotton hopes the proposal could come up for a vote next month. Getting rid of the requirement won’t lower the cost of Bellingham’s rents overnight, Cotton said, but it will make it easier to build housing and make the city more pedestrian-friendly in the long term.

The Parking Reform Network lists 77 cities across the country that have fully abolished parking mandates. Seattle passed a law in 2012 getting rid of the requirement near transit and urban villages, but many parts of the city still require parking spaces for new construction.

The Seattle Public Schools board withdrew its plan Tuesday to close four elementary schools to help address a projected $94 million budget shortfall in the 2025-26 school year.

Earlier this year, the district had proposed closing North Beach, Sacajawea, Sanislo, and Stevens elementary schools starting next year for a potential $5.5 million in savings. Gaps in federal and state funding have been a major reason for the district’s budget shortfall. Seattle and other districts have also seen declining enrollment in recent years. Twenty-nine Seattle elementary schools served fewer than 300 students each last school year.

In a statement released this week, district officials said that the potential savings in closing the four schools “would not solely resolve SPS’s $94 million budget shortfall and has been a source of community division.”

The district will focus instead on “legislative and levy renewal advocacy, as well as pursuing operational efficiencies aligned with our shared values and priorities,” Superintendent Brent Jones wrote in a letter to the community this week.

District officials had warned as far back as 2023 that the district would have to consider closing schools to address its projected budget gap for the 2025-26 school year.

The Republican and Democratic caucuses in the Washington House of Representatives have elected their leaders for the 2025 session.

The full House of Representatives will vote for Speaker of the House and Speaker pro tempore when the session begins on Jan. 13. Generally, these roles are filled from the majority party’s leadership, and the House Democrats increased their ranks this year, with an expected majority of 59-39.

House Democrats elected Rep. Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma) as Speaker of the House designate and Rep. Chris Stearns (D-Auburn) as Speaker pro tempore designate.

Other Democratic House leaders include Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-West Seattle) as majority leader; Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self (D-Mukilteo) as majority caucus chair; Rep. Monica Stonier (D-Vancouver) as majority floor leader; and Rep. Alex Ramel (D-Bellingham) as majority whip.

Republicans reelected Rep. Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn) as House Republican leader.

Other leaders of the House Republican caucus include Rep. Chris Corry (R-Yakima) as deputy leader; Rep. Peter Abbarno (R-Centralia)  as caucus chair; Rep. Dan Griffey (R-Allyn) as whip;  Rep. April Connors (R-Kennewick)  as floor leader; and Rep. Skyler Rude (R-Walla Walla) and Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn)  as assistant floor leaders.