L&I issues $650K in fines after ag worker death in East Wenatchee

A lawsuit was filed Monday against the Office of the Attorney General for withholding documents in response to a public records request and violating the state’s Public Records Act.

The lawsuit filed Monday noted that while the AG’s office is legally obligated to represent state agencies, three private law firms were instead hired to defend the Department of Children, Youth and Families in Le’taxione v. State of Washington, DCYF et al.The plaintiff in the larger case alleging civil rights violations has been unsuccessful through public records requests in seeking contracts and communications regarding the other law firms.

Plaintiff Le’taxione first filed a public records request with the AG’s office in May pertaining to the relationship between the AG’s office and the three law firms, but to date the office has not provided sufficient contracts or communications pursuant to the request. Some documents have been released according to the lawsuit, but key records have still not been provided.

DCYF and caseworkers for the agency have illegally prevented Le’taxione from visitation with his daughter, the lawsuit noted.

“DCYF colluded with, and used, the Office of the Attorney General to submit false documents to the Court, prevent visits and cover up for DCYF’s illegal, racist treatment of Le’taxione,” the lawsuit claims. “This alarmed the Spokane County Superior Court, which questioned ‘whether or not virtually any of the information [provided by the AG’s Office] can be trusted.’”

The attorney representing Le’taxione, David P. Moody, said in an email to Cascade PBS that his client is entitled to the readily available public records from the AG’s office, “but all we get are stall tactics and excuses.”

“We have seen this time and time again from this Office of the Attorney General,” Moody added.

The AG's office said they could not comment on the lawsuit until they had time to review the case. Spokeswoman Brionna Aho said the office hadn't been served as of Monday afternoon. She said the office relies on outside attorneys for a variety of reasons, including a lack of capacity, a need for particular expertise, or to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict.

As the lawsuit noted, discovery sanctions have previously been imposed against the AG’s office in several other cases, including a 2014 lawsuit in which the office was sanctioned for more than $107,000 for withholding documents; a 2016 lawsuit in which the office was sanctioned for failure to preserve documents related to the Oso landslide; and most recently a 2023 lawsuit in which a King County judge sanctioned the office for the “cavalier” withholding of thousands of discovery documents in a lawsuit against a developmentally disabled woman.

The PRA lawsuit, filed Monday in Spokane, is asking for a judge’s order to produce all records requested by the plaintiff and for statutory penalties against the AG’s office, plus attorney’s fees and fines.

Washington’s delegates and alternates to the National Democratic Convention voted 79-17 to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.

The Washington delegation met over a Zoom call Thursday to conduct the vote. In March, Biden won 83% of the Democratic vote in the Washington state presidential primary, with 9.8% of voters saying they were “uncommitted” and presidential candidates Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson each getting less than 3% of the Democratic vote.

But Biden threw his support behind Harris on Sunday after he dropped his reelection campaign, requiring the Democratic Party to shift gears one month before its national convention.

The Democratic National Committee plans to hold a virtual vote on Aug. 1 to choose the party’s nominee for president ahead of its Chicago convention, Aug. 19-22. The national party said it had to hold the call, citing an Ohio deadline of Aug. 7 to get a presidential nominee on that state’s general election ballots. The Associated Press reported that its survey of delegates indicated earlier this week that Harris already had enough votes to become the Democratic nominee.

The Democratic nominee will face the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, in the general election in November.

The Washington Public Disclosure Commission decided Thursday to continue an investigation into the initiative organization Let’s Go Washington — and not refer it to the state Attorney General’s Office.

The PDC, which tracks campaign fundraising, voted 4-0 without comment following a closed session to reserve time at its Aug. 22 regular meeting to decide whether to file charges against Let’s Go Washington, if the PDC staff’s investigation is done by then.

Attorneys Abby Lawlor and Dmitri Iglitzin — representing SEIU Local No 775, Civic Ventures, Washington Conservation Action, and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, plus others — sent a July 17 letter to the PDC requesting that complaints filed by their clients in July and October 2023 against the initiative sponsor be referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation. 

Let’s Go Washington — bankrolled by Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood — has gathered enough signatures to make seven initiatives eligible for this November’s ballot. The Democrat-controlled Legislature passed three of the proposals last spring in an apparent attempt to get the least controversial ones out of the way politically.  

The four proposals would:

– Eliminate the state’s cap-and-invest program that charges polluters for their carbon emissions.

– Repeal the state’s new capital gains tax.

– Make the new long-term care insurance payroll tax optional.

– And trim a new law that would help Puget Sound Energy wean itself off natural gas.

The complainants allege that Let’s Go Washington’s campaign finance filings are opaque and difficult to decipher. They allege it is difficult to discern how much money has been raised for each individual initiative. Signatures for all but the natural gas initiative were collected in the same 2023 campaign. They claim that reported in-kind donations are Impossible to sort. And they expressed concerns about a lack of transparency about how the money was spent.

In an undated 2023 response, Let’s Go Washington’s treasurer Conner Edwards wrote: “I will note that many of the allegations in this complaint consist of pure conjecture and are asserted without evidence.” He wrote that the financial filings followed the law, and any mistakes are innocent and will be corrected.

A PDC staff memo said Let’s Go Washington has been filing timely monthly reports, but notes that the initiative sponsor has not provided all the information requested by the PDC and has been slow to respond to some requests.

Let’s Go Washington has raised roughly $7 million in 2023 and 2024 while spending about $10.5 million in that period, according to PDC records. A significant part of the money went to in-kind services. Heywood loaned or donated several million dollars to the campaign. 

The Washington delegates to the national Democratic Convention will meet over Zoom at 6 p.m. Thursday to decide whether they want to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee. 

To win the nomination, a candidate must secure a majority of delegates. The national party has said it plans to hold a virtual vote on Aug. 1, more than two weeks before their Chicago convention.

Only Washington national delegates, including the two uncommitted delegates and select Democrats, will be on the call, according to state party officials. They will have the option to endorse a candidate but are not obligated to do so in this meeting, said Stephen Reed, director of communications, in an email.

“But we’ve been speaking with our delegates and what we’re seeing is that the overwhelming majority of them are energized to vote for VP Kamala Harris,” wrote Hannah Kurowski, Washington state Democratic Party communications advisor. 

An AP survey found that Harris already has enough support from Democratic delegates across the nation to become the party’s nominee. Washington is sending 111 delegates to the national convention.

Washington State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad and other leaders have endorsed Harris. Conrad expressed her support on the state party’s social media and wrote in a statement, “As the leader and steward of the Washington State Democratic Party, I have listened to the overwhelming consensus of Democrats in Washington state who are excited to support Vice President Harris as our standard bearer.” 

“Overall, we’re hearing nothing but support and excitement,” Conrad said. “Here in Washington, we have our governor, both of our senators, nine out of 10 congressional members have all endorsed, basically all of our statewide Democrats have endorsed Vice President Harris.” 

President Joe Biden announced on Sunday he is dropping out of the presidential race.

He said in a post on social media that he would address the nation later this week. 

In his statement, Biden touted his administration's accomplishments for the nation, from a strong economy to improved health care and the first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court. 

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

He thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for being “an extraordinary partner in all this work.” In a later tweet, he endorsed Harris to be the nominee and encouraged Democrats to come together to support her and defeat former President Donald Trump.

For the latest developments following the president’s announcement, pay attention to PBS Newshour online and on broadcast.

Several Washington state agencies were affected by Friday’s global technology disruption.

An outage at the Employment Security Department has been fixed, but the agency warned that some unemployment benefit payments might be delayed.

The Secretary of State’s Corporations & Charities Divisions suffered some technical problems, but was back online by 1 p.m. Phone, chat and in-person services were expected to resume on Monday. The outage did not delay the mailing of primary election ballots, which were mostly mailed by local election offices before the disruption. 

The problem was related to a Thursday software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to computers running Microsoft Windows. The computer issues widely impacted hospitals, airlines, government agencies and businesses. 

“CrowdStrike said the issue with the update has been identified and a fix has been sent to customers. This is a software issue and is not related to a cyberattack. State agencies in Washington are using the new software fix provided by CrowdStrike and restoring impacted computer systems,” said a news release from Washington Technology Solutions, which handles information technology for the state government.

Thousands of flights were delayed or canceled out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington hospitals and clinics reported computer problems, and closed some clinics and non-emergency operations. 

Ballots for the Aug. 6 primary election are being mailed to more than 4.8 million registered voters across Washington today.

Citizens have until July 29 to register online via VoteWA.gov or can register and vote in person at county election offices and voting centers through 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Along with their ballot, voters can expect to be mailed voters’ pamphlets with election information based on their residency. Cascade PBS offers a comprehensive Voter Guide with information on statewide, federal and legislative candidates from all regions to learn more about who is running.

All of the state’s 39 counties have races in this election, including 654 elected offices such as Governor, Attorney General, state Supreme Court seat, state Public Lands Commissioner and positions in the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as 94 local measures including bonds and levies.

Washington has a top-two primary system. The two candidates in each race with the most votes will face off in the General Election in November regardless of party. The president and vice president are nominated through a different process and are not included in the August primary. 

Krist Novoselić, the former bassist for Nirvana, is playing several shows through July 27 with his newest band  – the Bona Fide Band – to gather signatures to get on the presidential ballot. But Novoselić says the nomination is just a means to an end – to gain official recognition for a new centrist political party in Washington.

If the party gathers 1,000 signatures from registered voters, Novoselić will be on the November ballot as the nominee for the Cascade Party of Washington, but he says he is not campaigning to beat the front-runners President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump. Instead, the Cascade Party of Washington says that nominating a candidate for president is the only way in this state that it can be recognized as a “bona fide political party,” enabling it to coordinate with and support candidates directly, which a political action committee cannot do.

The Cascade Party says it has petitioned the Secretary of State to remove the requirement of running a candidate for president for official recognition, but it will play by the rules in the meantime and nominate Novoselić by gathering signatures at the shows – which qualify as official conventions under state rules. People can also sign the petition online via the party website. The deadline to hold the conventions is July 27. Upcoming show dates will be July 18 to 27 in cities including Vancouver, Cathlamet, Tacoma, Yakima, Spokane, Richland and Walla Walla. The Cascade Party of Washington states that it represents those “tired of the polarized fringes dominating our politics,” and its platform includes greater urban density, funding law enforcement, a “market-driven transition” to renewable energy and more.

Washington’s ban on high-capacity magazines for semi-automatic weapons will stay in effect, at least for now, the Washington Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The decision, written by Chief Justice Steven Gonzalez, acknowledges the Second Amendment concerns of the petitioners against the 2022 state law, but also notes that many other courts have upheld the constitutionality of high-capacity ammunition bans.

The Supreme Court decided the ban would remain in effect until it can hear arguments on the case in the state’s appeal of the lower court ruling. That hearing could potentially happen this fall.

The decision involves a September 2023 lawsuit by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson against Gator’s Custom Guns in Kelso alleging the store had offered more than 11,400 high-capacity magazines for sale since the state ban went into effect in July 2022.

Cowlitz Superior Court judge Gary Bashor ruled in April that Washington’s ban on magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition violated the state and U.S. Constitutions. Ferguson filed the successful motion to the state Supreme Court for a temporary stay of ruling. Monday’s ruling solidified that temporary stay.

More than 400 new housing units will be built near the Link Light Rail Mount Baker station, including affordable housing. The City of Seattle Office of Housing announced a partnership with Mercy Housing Northwest and El Centro de la Raza to develop these new housing units to “promote community-centered development” in the neighborhood, according to a press release. 

After the pandemic, residents proposed to transform the areas around the station by using them for art, music and other community events to deter crime. 

The University of Washington transferred this property, including the former UW Laundry site, to the city in June 2020. The redevelopment will include affordable housing, child care and an early-learning research facility. The child care center will serve 160 students and provide job training for early-learning educators. The city budgeted $5 million for the project, which will receive additional funding from partners. 

Mercy Housing Northwest and El Centro de la Raza’s plans call for a total of 431 new homes at 2901 27th Ave. S.; 2700 S. Winthrop St.; and 26th Avenue South and South Forest Street. 

About a third these homes are reserved for families earning at or below 30% of the Area Median Income, which currently is $45,200 for a family of four. More than half of the development will be for family-sized homes. The city says this is part of the One Seattle strategy for inclusive and sustainable communities.

The two organizations will receive city funding from the Seattle Housing Levy, the JumpStart/Payroll Expense Tax and the Mandatory Housing Affordability program for the first phase of the project.