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A bell rang 94 times, once for each worker in Washington state who died on the job last year, as their name was read aloud Thursday at the 2023 Worker Memorial Day ceremony in Tumwater.

Officials reported the most dangerous industry continues to be construction, which in 2022 accounted for about a third of the state’s workplace fatalities. Three of those workers died when the trench they were in collapsed. The second highest number of deaths, 26, resulted from exposure to toxic chemicals.

Thursday's event also honored 35 workers who died before 2022, but had not received recognition in previous ceremonies.

“As we hear each name read, it’s important to remember these are not just names. These are not just statistics. They’re our neighbors. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers. They’re families. They’re our community,” said Joel Sacks, director of the state’s Department of Labor & Industries

On-the-job homicides also increased last year, rising from four deaths in 2021 to 11 in 2022 – all but two by gunfire. These deaths included Justin Krumbah, an Instacart shopper shot at a Fred Meyer in Richland.

In both 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 proved the leading cause of work-related fatalities, claiming 24 and 26 lives respectively. In 2022 that number dropped to 13.

Gov. Jay Inslee told attendees that a recently passed bill is intended to increase the safety of state highway workers by authorizing the use of speed safety cameras in work zones. 

“We got the legislature to do something to increase safety for that one group of employees, and we’re always looking for things like that, to try to allow people to come home safely,” he said.

The state’s fatality rate ranks third-lowest in the country with 2.1 deaths per 100,000 workers, according to the AFL-CIO’s 2023 Death on the Job report released this week – below the national average of 3.6 deaths per 100,000 workers.

The Washington Supreme Court says a group of Richland School Board members were appropriately subject to a recall by voters after they violated state law in two different ways.

The Court says three of the five members of the board disobeyed Gov. Jay Inslee’s statewide mask mandate when they voted to make face coverings optional in Richland schools. And they violated Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act because there was evidence that a quorum of the board had debated the issue via text messages before the panel met in an actual public meeting.

After the school board’s actions, a group of Richland voters filed a petition to recall the three members who, at a Feb. 15, 2022 meeting, had voted to remove the mask mandate, more than a month before the governor lifted the mandate for public schools. A superior court ruled that the recall petition was factual and legally sufficient to appear on the ballot. The three board members appealed the Court’s order in May 2022. The Washington Supreme Court dismissed most of their appeal in a unanimous decision issued on Thursday.

The decision, written by Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud, also points out that the school board members proceeded with their efforts to remove the school mask mandate after being advised by several attorneys that they did not have the authority to do so.

As spring weather rolls into town, weekend conditions will be perfect for outdoor activities, including one of the biggest citizen science scavenger hunts of the year. 

From April 28 through May 1, Washingtonians and people in at least 445 cities around the world are being asked to help assess how local wildlife are doing by participating in the eighth annual City Nature Challenge. 

People are invited to use their cell phones and the free species identification app iNaturalist to document and identify as many individual plants and animals as they can this weekend. The event is sponsored locally by the Woodland Park Zoo, the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park.

The data isn’t only fun to collect, but also possibly valuable to scientists and their conservation work.

“By engaging the public in making nature observations in this global event, we help to generate more local biodiversity data than you would normally get on a regular weekend; people also learn about iNaturalist and then can use it more regularly to contribute biodiversity observations into the platform and different projects,” says Katie Remine, Woodland Park Zoo’s living northwest conservation manager.

The Challenge started in 2016 as a friendly competition between two California science museums’ community science teams hoping to improve patrons’ awareness of local biodiversity. Seattle organizations joined in 2017, and the zoo’s Brianna Widner says metro-area participation has increased annually since then, with 7,705 observations of 1,280 different species from 654 participants last year. 
Historically, Washington has been one of the more diverse U.S. states; a 2002 NatureServe study found it was home to 3,375 species at the time, making it the 20th most diverse state with the 13th greatest number of endemic species.

Crosscut has long been known for its in-depth, long-form reporting and multipart investigations into broader issues facing the Pacific Northwest – from levees in Aberdeen to affordable-housing issues in Spokane. Each published story takes a lot of behind-the-scenes beat reporting that often gets left on the cutting-room floor. 

The Crosscut newsroom has decided to start picking up those pieces by launching briefs. They’re just as the name implies. Briefs will be shorter reads that provide continuing coverage of the issues our readers are interested in – from affordable housing to Indigenous affairs to climate – as well as emergent news of the day, including breaking news from Olympia, arts events happening around town and agriculture reports.  

Our long-form content isn’t going anywhere – we will still publish daily stories that provide the same nuanced reporting that is the backbone of Crosscut. And each Wednesday we will continue to produce our long-form features alongside our weekly Crosscut Reports podcast. We just will also offer a few more brief stories each weekday afternoon, as well. 

So we’ll keep it brief. You can find the latest briefs on our homepage, or go to crosscut.com/briefs to find more.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is suing the state of Washington over lawmakers’ claims that they have a right to a so-called “legislative privilege” that allows them to withhold public records.

The lawsuit argues the state and various lawmakers have violated the 1972 voter-approved Public Records Act by redacting and withholding records under a legislative privilege that does not exist in state law or the Washington Constitution.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government, a nonprofit advocate for government transparency, advocates for public records, open meetings and informed citizens. The organization is made up of journalists, attorneys and other advocates of government transparency, including some elected officials.

The lawsuit mentions lawmakers by name, including House Speaker Laurie Jenkins, D-Tacoma. It offers examples of instances when lawmakers mentioned legislative privilege when they redacted or withheld records, and notes that the Public Records Act does not contain a legislative privilege exemption. The lawsuit notes that language isn’t contained in other Washington statutes, nor has it been included in any affirmative court rulings.

In 2019, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that legislative emails, texts, memos and other communications are disclosable as part of the Public Records Act. This year’s legislative session began in January with revelations that lawmakers have been quietly blacking out documents and continuing to claim legislative privilege.

Michael Fong will start as the newly appointed director of the state Department of Commerce on May 8. Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Fong to the position earlier this month.

Kendrick Stewart, Commerce’s deputy director, has led the agency since the departure of former director Lisa Brown earlier this year and will continue in that role until Fong starts. 

Commerce oversees more than 100 programs related to community and economic development efforts, including housing, business and international trade. 

Fong comes to Commerce from the U.S. Small Business Administration, where he served as regional administrator for the agency’s operation in the Pacific Northwest, overseeing programs that provided small business owners emergency pandemic relief funding, capital access, business development counseling and government contracting opportunities. 

Fong has served in various city, county and national public-sector roles for more than two decades. The Spokane native started his career as a policy analyst and legislative aide for the Seattle City Council and later was the city’s senior deputy mayor from 2017 to 2021.

In early March, Brown stepped down as Commerce director after leading the agency for four years. Later that month, Brown declared her candidacy for Spokane mayor, running against incumbent Nadine Woodward. 

Brown has lived in Spokane for more than four decades and represented the area for two decades in the Washington Legislature, eventually becoming the first Democratic woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader, and was Chancellor of Washington State University Spokane’s health sciences campus. 

Washington state House Republicans have selected Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, to become their minority leader.

First elected in 2014 from the 31st Legislative District, Stokesbary is the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, which deals with spending and budget matters. He takes over from Rep. J.T. Wilcox, a Republican from Yelm who announced on Sunday he would step down from leadership.

“As a lifelong Washingtonian, I know the incredible potential of our state, but too many of our challenges have been exacerbated by single-party control," said Stokesbary in prepared remarks. "I'm proud that House Republicans are fighting for real solutions to the critical issues affecting our state, including public safety, student performance and tax relief.

In addition, Rep. Mike Steele, R-Chelan, was selected deputy Republican leader. First elected in 2016, he takes over the position from longtime Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda. Steele is currently the ranking Republican on the House Capital Budget Committee.

Democrats currently control the House 58-40.