WA Department of Health updates COVID-19, flu quarantine guidance

The Washington State Supreme Court issued an interim rule on Monday to lower by more than two-thirds the number of felony cases that public defenders can have assigned to them each year, while also granting flexibilities for cities and counties to implement the new standards. 

Under the new standards, public defenders’ caseloads will be limited to 47 felony cases or 120 misdemeanor cases a year — down from a previous limit of 150 felony cases and a few hundred misdemeanor cases. Jurisdictions need to implement the new standards as soon as “reasonably possible,” according to the order, with a review after three years. 

The court announced it had decided to issue an interim rule to give local jurisdictions clarity while they set their budgets. During a public comment period, local officials throughout the state expressed concerns about paying for public defense if the court mandated reduced caseloads. Officials and advocates said they expected costs for felony representation could triple for cities and counties. 

Jurisdictions have 10 years – from Jan. 1, 2026 – to fully implement the standards, as long as they reduce caseloads by a minimum of 10% per year, the order states. For the first year, that will mean reducing caseloads by at least 15 for felonies and 12 for misdemeanors for each attorney. 

Similarly, the court ruled that local jurisdictions may utilize “case weighting” to comply with the new limits. In a case-weighting system, cases are given higher or lower weight depending on how much time the case takes. The court encouraged the use of case weighting, per the order, but refrained from mandating it.

“The reality is that many aspects of indigent criminal defense services vary by structure and location, so the Court is adopting an approach which accommodates that diversity while fostering real and meaningful reductions in caseloads as soon as possible, where necessary,” the order reads. 

New standards come during a time of crisis for public defense, according to many public officials and advocates, and aim to create more manageable workloads for attorneys and better representation for their clients.  Washington is among the bottom states in terms of the state’s share of public defense funding. 

The court largely adopted the standards proposed by the Council of Public Defense – part of the Washington State Bar Association – based on a national study released last year that called for similar levels of caseloads. A final rule will be adopted once the court finishes its review in the “near future.” 

Cascade PBS came away with some hardware Saturday at the 2025 Northwest Regional Emmy® Awards. Cascade PBS won in the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Documentary – Cultural/Historical category for ASAHEL: The Curtis Collection.  

ASAHEL: The Curtis Collection chronicles the Washington State Historical Society’s project of digitizing 60,000 photos by renowned Pacific Northwest photographer Asahel Curtis taken between the 1890s and the 1940s. It was the first Emmy® nomination and win for director and producer Shannen Ortale. 

“We’re really honored to have been able to tell some of the stories behind Asahel Curtis’ photos, and to have worked with the Washington State Historical Society to tell them,” said Ortale. “This project was a testament to the collaborative nature of our team.” 

Credits include Shannen Ortale for director; Dave Quantic, Stephen Hegg and Knute Berger for producer; Bryce Yukio Adolphson and Amanda Snyder for photographer; Kalina Torino and Christopher Shreve for animator; David Wulzen as editor; Madeleine Pisaneschi for graphic designer; and Greg Cohen for art director.  

Cascade PBS was nominated for 13 awards, including episodes of Out & Back with Alison Mariella Désir, Black Arts Legacies, The Nosh with Rachel Belle and Mossback’s Northwest. Cascade PBS was also nominated for the Overall Excellence award, as well as craft nominations for photographer Bryce Yukio Adolphson and editors David Quantic, Andy Motz and Danielle Driehaus. 

In 2024, Cascade PBS took home two Northwest Regional Emmy® Awards: one for the episode “The Range Rider” from season 3 of Human Elements; and Mossback’s Northwest won in the category of Historical/Cultural – Short Form Content for the episode “The day Germany bombed Seattle.” 

Catch up on all of the Cascade PBS original video series here. 

This article originally appeared in The Columbian.

A leaked Trump administration budget proposal completely scraps a key Columbia River salmon recovery program as the administration seeks to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget.

The agency’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund has invested $115 million across 342 projects currently underway within the Columbia basin.

Loss of continued funding would compound already finalized cuts of tens of millions of dollars to salmon recovery efforts throughout the Columbia River basin.

Northwest leaders oppose the cuts. Washington and Oregon’s governors, along with the leaders of four Native nations from the lower- and mid-Columbia regions, sent a letter to Congress last month seeking “the highest possible level of funding” for a handful of federal Columbia salmon restoration programs, including NOAA Fisheries’ Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund.

“Any cuts that are made to NOAA’s programs will have devastating consequences for salmon recovery in Oregon and across the region,” Anca Matica, a policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, said in an email.

Representatives for Gov. Bob Ferguson and the four Native nations did not return The Columbian’s requests for comment on the cuts. But a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife official called the proposed cuts “devastating” for salmon recovery projects.

“It’s going to be a lot harder to get things done on time and at the scale that we have planned,” said Michael Garrity, special assistant for Columbia River policy for the Department.

Congress’ final budget — which will determine the funding for Columbia River salmon restoration — has not yet been released, meaning the potential cuts are not final.

“We cannot speculate on future funding. That is up to Congress and the president,” Michael Milstein, regional spokesman for NOAA Fisheries, said in a statement.

Congress is expected to release the first draft of the budget this summer.

The Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund is run by NOAA Fisheries, which is tasked with restoration of protected fish runs.

Much of the Fund’s work boils down to financing projects that build habitat for endangered salmon and steelhead runs to counteract harm done by dams, habitat destruction, climate change, overfishing and predators.

In its 25-year history, the Fund has awarded more than $1.8 billion to state and tribal salmon recovery programs and projects, resulting in about 16,000 projects across the Columbia Basin and Pacific Coast.

Recent projects have created spawning habitat along Washington’s sections of the Columbia basin, including on the Kalama River and North Fork Touchet River north of Walla Walla.

The program has funded that work with a consistent $65 million yearly allocation from Congress, although the program received about $100 million more in recent years from former President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda — much of which was awarded to Washington projects and Nations.

The fund requires all projects to secure $1 for every $3 it awards. While the Trump administration’s cuts aim to save taxpayers from billions in “wasteful spending,” the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund generates a positive economic impact.

The fund’s website says that every $1 million invested in watershed restoration through the program “creates between 13 and 32 jobs and between $2.2 and $3.4 million in economic activity.”

Since President Donald Trump’s proposed 2026 NOAA budget leaked, he has released his overall fiscal-year 2026 document. It doesn’t include the same item-by-item breakdown, so it’s unclear if he still seeks to cut the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. But the recently released budget proposes a similar level of cuts to NOAA overall.

Henry Brannan is a WSU News Fellow who writes for The Columbian and The Daily News. The Columbian originally published this story on June 2, 2025.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade would drastically reduce health care access in rural areas, several Eastern Washington medical providers and government officials warned at a press conference on Thursday.

Democratic U.S. Senator Patty Murray had invited medical providers, workers and government officials from Central and Eastern Washington, an area that is more dependent on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people and those with disabilities.

Upward of 70% of those under 19 in Central Washington’s 4th Congressional District in 2023 were enrolled in Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program. More than half of those under 19 in the neighboring 5th Congressional District, which includes Spokane and nearby rural Eastern Washington counties, were also enrolled in Apple Health.

“[Medicaid] cuts would be devastating for a healthy next generation,” said state Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, during the press conference, held virtually.

Cuts to the program are in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House late last month and is expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks.

Alex Jackson, the CEO of MultiCare Inland Northwest, which operates several hospitals in Spokane and Yakima, noted that if hundreds of thousands of Washington residents lost health insurance through Medicaid, hospitals would have to absorb the increased cost.

Costs would likely go up as those without coverage due to Medicaid cuts may defer preventive care until they require more intensive — and expensive — health care, Jackson said.

“Less dollars coming in the door put clinics and hospitals in the position to make difficult decisions that will impact patients’ access to care,” he said.

Jackson did not state whether any of the clinics or hospitals MultiCare operates in Eastern Washington are in danger of closing, but said he believes there are hospitals and clinics in the region that are likely in that position.

Besides a reduction in healthcare access, there would also be economic losses. Hospitals are often the largest employer in many of these small rural communities, Jackson said.

Sen. Murray said that massive pressure from the public and other stakeholders, such as medical providers, could keep such massive cuts from happening. Murray noted that in 2017, public pressure led to a failed attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“Republicans in Congress are not immune to public pressure, and neither is this administration,” Murray said.

A longer version of this article first appeared in the Washington State Standard.

Federal appeals court judges in Seattle on Wednesday questioned a Trump administration lawyer and Washington’s solicitor general over the president’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

The three-judge panel in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appeared more open to the Trump administration’s arguments than a federal judge in Seattle, who in January called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.” 

Perhaps the most pointed question came after a lengthy back-and-forth over what the writers of the 14th Amendment meant when they enshrined birthright citizenship into the U.S. Constitution. 

Judge Michael Hawkins asked Department of Justice attorney Eric McArthur, who clerked for conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, what the late Justice Antonin Scalia would think of his arguments. Scalia, an ardent originalist, anchored the Supreme Court’s conservative wing alongside Thomas.

“He was widely critical of looking at congressional history and statements of senators opposing or supporting a particular thing, and famously said ‘just the words,’” said Hawkins, a Clinton appointee. 

McArthur said he thought Scalia would have been “very open to looking at all of the historic evidence.”

After McArthur’s arguments, Hawkins told the Justice Department attorney he did a “terrific job.”

Trump’s executive action, signed on the first day of his second term, aims to end birthright citizenship for babies born to a mother and father who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Since the aftermath of the Civil War, the country has automatically given citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil, no matter their immigration status.

Wednesday was the first time the merits of Trump’s order have come before a federal appeals court.

The arguments from Washington’s solicitor general, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and McArthur come a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court took up Washington’s case on birthright citizenship and others. 

The justices focused on whether preliminary injunctions, like the one from Judge John Coughenor in Seattle at the center of Wednesday’s hearing, should affect only the parties involved in a particular case or can be applied nationwide. The Trump administration contends such orders are judicial overreach.

The Supreme Court’s ruling-to-come could have implications far beyond the birthright citizenship case, potentially staunching the flow of temporary nationwide blocks that state attorneys general are relying on to stop what they see as the president’s unlawful actions.

In their May 15 hearing, the justices appeared wary of allowing different rules by state.

On Wednesday, state Solicitor General Noah Purcell called Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship “unconstitutional and unAmerican.” 

“President Trump seeks to turn citizenship into a political football, denying that precious right to hundreds of thousands of babies born in this country simply because their parents are here to work, to study or to escape persecution or violence,” said Purcell, who argued successfully against the president’s travel ban in court in 2017.

The  9th Circuit judges didn’t rule from the bench Wednesday. They’ll issue a written ruling in the coming weeks or months. Both sides told the judges it may be prudent to first wait for the Supreme Court to weigh in on the nationwide injunction question.

Several other cases are currently awaiting similar appellate hearings after lower courts awarded preliminary injunctions. The Supreme Court will likely have the final say on the merits of Trump’s order.

Speaking to reporters after the Wednesday morning hearing, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said “The judges had a lot of pointed and difficult questions for both sides to grapple with.” 

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution codified birthright citizenship in 1868.

Trump’s order, initially set to take effect Feb. 19, focused on the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” phrase.

“The Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States,” Trump’s executive order reads. “The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

Legal precedent, including an 1898 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, has long upheld birthright citizenship. That case dealt with Wong Kim Ark, a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents. The justices ruled he was a U.S. citizen.

The two sides interpret this case differently. Many of Wednesday’s arguments centered the Wong Kim Ark decision.

Washington’s case against Trump’s birthright citizenship order, filed alongside Oregon, Arizona and Illinois, led to the second Trump administration’s first judicial rebuke. 

The Reagan-appointed judge, Coughenour, later agreed to indefinitely block Trump’s order while the case played out in court. Trump’s Department of Justice appealed, leading to Wednesday’s hearing.

The Washington State Standard originally published a longer version of this story on June 4, 2025. Update June 6, 2025: An earlier version of this story omitted Judge Michael Hawkins' first name and title.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump sent a request to Congress to rescind federal funding for public media. This is a grave threat. 

Right now, we are asking all our supporters to contact their elected officials and encourage them to preserve this critical funding. 

Cascade PBS is at risk of losing approximately $3.6 million in federal support annually. While much of our funding comes from community contributions, including individual donations, foundation grants and local underwriting, a shortfall of this magnitude presents a serious challenge. 

Public media funding represents just .01% of the federal budget. Cutting public media funding would have little impact on the federal deficit but would devastate our ability to serve our communities. 

Your support in this pivotal time is incredibly important. Here are a few ways you can make a difference: 

• Connect with Protect My Public Media to learn more about funding for public media in the U.S. federal budget, and contact your U.S. Senators and Representative. 

• Help spread the word about the importance of public media by talking with your family, friends and neighbors. 

• Follow @CascadePBS and @CascadePBSNewsroom on social media for our latest reporting, programs, events and more. 

I hope we can count on your continued support and that you will make your voice heard. 

Cascade PBS won 10 of the 2024 Society of Professional Journalists’ Northwest Excellence in Journalism Awards. The editorial team won across a range of media types, including awards for audio, short-form video, documentary, photo and news writing. Cascade PBS competes against other “large” newsrooms in SPJ’s region 10, which encompasses Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.  

Here is the list of winners from Cascade PBS, including judge’s comments when provided: 

• Audio Series - Large 

First Place: Sara Bernard, Maleeha Syed, “Northwest Reports: First Response,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: Impactful reporting on a crisis viewed from the people treating victims of gun violence and other trauma. First-person accounts of success and failure and the personal impact to those involved make this series compelling. 

• Audio - Investigative Reporting - Large 

First Place: Sara Bernard, Lauren Gallup, Lizz Giordano, Maleeha Syed, “Northwest Reports: How building maintenance affects veteran care in Seattle,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: Nice reporting on a problem affecting those who’ve given part of their lives to serve their country. Good focus on trying to hold people accountable and find solutions. Good work. 

• Writing - Feature (Hard News) - Large 

First Place: Lizz Giordano, “‘Beyond failure’: WA teen loses legs at school-based work program,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: Incredibly tragic story. A teenage man losing both legs from an accident that could have been prevented is cause for alarm and cause for reviewing the process of using teenage labor this way. Nice work tracking down the family of the young man and getting thorough responses from all sides involved.  

• Writing - Feature (Soft News) - Large 

First Place: Charles R. Cross, “Why Seattle lost its mind over the Wallingford Taco Time closure,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: This is a fun first-person account of the closing of just one restaurant. The breezy style makes for a true connection with reader. Nice work. 

• General News Photography - Large 

First Place: Genna Martin, “Dueling Israel/Palestine protests on UW campus remain peaceful,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: The first-place winner is a wonderfully composed protest photo. 

• Feature Photography – Large 

Second Place: Genna Martin, “Under God: How Christianity permeates Yakima city politics,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: Color and composition combined to make this a winner. 

• Video - Investigative Reporting - Large 

First Place: “Priced Out: Fear and Resistance in WA Mobile Parks,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: EXCELLENT WORK! This is the best investigative piece I’ve judged in years. The focus is on the people impacted and that's what resonates with viewers. Thorough reporting. Well-produced. Nice work. 

• Video Series - Large 

First Place: “Mossback’s Northwest,” Cascade PBS 

Judge’s comments: Absolutely, incredibly fascinating stories. Excellent use of stills, video and narration. Superb! 

Second Place: “Out & Back,” Cascade PBS 

• Video - General Assignment (Pre-Produced) - Large 

Second Place: “THE NEWSFEED: Phone restrictions paying off at one WA school,” Cascade PBS 

The winning filmmaker for the fourth season of the Cascade PBS Origins series will be Andrew Inaba, who will create a short-form docuseries telling the story of Japanese American imprisonment following the attack on Pearl Harbor through the unique lens of Pacific Northwest communities. Inaba was announced as the winner Saturday at the closing ceremony of the Seattle International Film Festival. 

Inaba was one of several dozen directors who applied to work with Cascade PBS to create a video series that reflects the makeup of our region told from an insider’s perspective. A key requirement for the Origins grant is that the filmmaker be part of the community they are documenting. 

The project will receive $40,000 in grant funding to cover production costs for the five-part series, as well as technical and editing support. Their work has the potential to be broadcast and streamed by Cascade PBS. 

As a second-generation Japanese American filmmaker with deep regional roots, Inaba will bring a unique depth of knowledge to the series, documenting the historical trauma that forever altered our regional identity. Through intimate stories, archival materials, animations inspired by survivor testimonies and explorations of historical sites across Washington and Oregon, “Our Thousand Days” will reveal how this history continues to resonate today — offering urgent lessons about systematic dehumanization and community resilience. 

The docuseries is intended for release on Cascade PBS platforms in March 2026. 

The most recent season of Origins, “The Last Reefnetters,” examined the Native practice of reefnet fishing, an innovative method developed by the Lummi Nation and other Northern Straits Salish tribes thousands of years ago. Following punitive legislation, environmental damage and devastation caused by a budding cannery industry, they were all but removed from the practice. 

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival is Saturday, May 31 at the Amazon Meeting Center, 2031 Seventh Ave. The day-long festival hosts nationally recognized podcasts like The Wall Street Journal’s The Journal and true-crime podcast Criminal in conversation with featured speakers such as Jake Tapper, Amanda Knox and Rick Steves.  

This year, the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival is expanding – the fifth floor of the Amazon Meeting Center will host the Northwest Reports Stage, dedicated to Cascade PBS podcasts.  

The fifth floor will also host the Share Your Story space, where attendees can talk with a Cascade PBS journalist about their favorite sessions, coverage ideas or other areas of interest. With permission, conversations will also be recorded on audio to use for potential coverage of the Festival. 

The Northwest Reports Stage will focus on leaders and change-makers from the Seattle area. Here is a full list of the Northwest Reports Stage sessions:  

1. 11:30 a.m.: Washington State Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal joins host Rachel Belle for a special live edition of the James Beard Award-finalist podcast Your Last Meal. Each episode, Belle asks a luminary what they would choose to eat for their last meal. Then she consults experts from around the world to uncover the history, science and culture of these dishes.  

2. 12:30 p.m.: Vanishing Seattle founder Cynthia Brothers joins Northwest Reports hosts Sara Bernard and Maleeha Syed for a live podcast taping. Launched via social media in 2016, Vanishing Seattle documents the disappearing institutions, businesses and cultures of the Emerald City. Brothers discusses the places that made her hometown what it is and once was – and why they matter.      

3. 2:10 p.m.: Seattle writer, musician and director Mindie Lind joins the Northwest Reports team to discuss ableism. A longtime Seattle resident, she’s aware of the disconnect when it comes to accessibility and disability rights around the city, including our music venues and the new Waterfront Park.   

4. 3:40 p.m.: Northwest Reports talks with Kiesha B. Free, a speaker, comedian and the founder of Hey, Black Seattle! The online resource and movement grew out of frustration with the notion that there isn’t a large Black population in Seattle, and helps connect and nurture the local community. 

5. 5:15 p.m.: For the final live podcast taping on the Northwest Reports Stage, Bernard and Syed are joined by Lex Vaughn, founder and editor-in-chief of The Needling. The Onion-style satirical news site dubs itself “Seattle’s only real fake news.” 

Tickets are still available at cascadepbs.org/festival.   

Gov. Bob Ferguson promised to fight federal legislation that would bring “draconian cuts” to Medicaid, the government-funded insurance program, after it passed the U.S. House early Wednesday.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes a mix of tax cuts and cuts to several government programs. That includes a reduction of $700 billion in Medicaid payments over the next decade.

Democratic politicians, including Ferguson, are ringing the alarm bell on the House vote, stating the negative impact on health care that would ensue if the U.S. Senate passes the bill.

“In the middle of the night, Congress took an action that would be described as cruel and one that will harm hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians,” Ferguson said during a news conference Wednesday at Harborview Medical Center.

Joined by health care officials and workers, Ferguson said he anticipates the state losing $2 billion in federal Medicaid payments over the next four years, which would lead to an estimated 200,000 residents losing Medicaid insurance access by the end of next year.

"I’m not just throwing that word around. I want to be clear, I want to be crystal clear: It’s dire,” Ferguson said. “Hospitals will close; nursing homes will close. That will impact… not just folks on Medicaid, but Washingtonians across the state.”

Ferguson, without mentioning them by name, called out Republican U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse, WA-4, and Michael Baumgartner, WA-5, for their votes in support of the bill. All the Washington state Democratic House members voted against it.

Republicans maintain they are cutting waste in government programs that will translate to cost savings and a reduction in the federal deficit.

In a news release Wednesday, Newhouse promises the bill would reduce “reckless federal spending” and cut the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion, bringing it to the lowest level in nearly 30 years. The news release also says tax cuts would bring relief to U.S. families and small businesses.

Specifically with Medicaid, Newhouse said that by implementing work requirements and blocking Medicaid for undocumented people, "we are protecting Medicaid for those who truly need it most.”