WA Dems to vote on backing Kamala Harris as presidential nominee

After two years of contending that the Washington cap-and-invest program is a tax, Republican  leaders are arguing in court that it and two other taxes being challenged on the ballot this fall are not taxes.

Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, and Deanna Martinez, chair of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, have filed a lawsuit arguing that the Attorney General’s office does not need to write fiscal impact statements for the voter pamphlet for three initiatives that would strike down or change recent state laws on long-term care insurance, a capital gains tax and the cap-and-invest program, arguing that these are not technically taxes and fees.

A hearing on the case in Thurston County Superior Court is scheduled for June 7.

A 2022 state law requires the Washington Attorney General’s Office to write a statement of up to 15 words on the state’s voters’ pamphlet about the fiscal impacts of an initiative that affects a tax or fee.

Walsh, also chairman of the state Republican Party, filed the three initiatives that qualified for November’s ballot. Democrats opposed all three initiatives.

“Our friends outsmarted themselves,” said Walsh in a Monday press release. “They were very specific when they passed the [2022] warning-label law. But they were so specific that the law doesn’t apply to any of the initiatives that go before voters this year. The case is so clear-cut I am surprised we have to take this to court.”

In the same press release, Martinez said: “People trust the voters’ pamphlet as an objective source of information. They aren’t expecting a partisan political attack that masquerades as a neutral financial statement.” 

Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office submitted a response to the lawsuit arguing that all three initiatives address taxes and fees.

“This lawsuit is a meritless attempt to deny voters information. … All three [initiatives] repeal or modify taxes or fees, and all three have significant fiscal impacts. Under state law, the public has a right to have those fiscal impacts described on the ballot. This Court should reject Plaintiffs’ cynical attempt to keep voters in the dark,” the attorney general’s filing argued.

Initiative 2117 would repeal the state’s cap-and-invest program, which began operating in January 2023. Critics blame the program for rising gas prices. Supporters argue that it provides a huge amount of money for green-energy programs that decrease dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate environmental damage.

Initiative 2109 would repeal Washington’s capital gains tax, which pumps money into the state’s schools. The Republican filers argue that since the Legislature passed an initiative to the body this spring to ban a state income tax, the capital gains tax has no fiscal impact, therefore no fiscal impact statement from the attorney general is required. Before Walsh’s lawsuit, Republicans have always argued that a capital gains tax is an income tax not allowed by state law. But the Washington Supreme Court rejected that argument, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the challenge.

The third initiative, I-2124, would switch the new state requirement for all W-2 employees to contribute to a new long-term insurance care program from mandatory to voluntary participation. The plaintiffs’ argument is that these insurance payments are premiums and not payroll taxes.

Ferguson’s filing argued that the cap-and-invest surcharges are fees, and therefore covered by the warning-label law. On the initiative to change the long-term care insurance, the attorney general’s office said that the 2019 law that established the basic program said the employees’ payments are taxes or fees. 

The attorney general also argued that the GOP lawsuit is misreading the texts of the income tax initiative passed this spring and of the state’s capital gains tax law.

“Because the capital gains tax has not been repealed, and because I-2109 would repeal it and would cut billions of dollars in education funding, that measure must have a public investment impact disclosure statement,” the attorney general’s court filing said.

The 2023 Northwest Regional Emmy Awards were held on Saturday, and the Cascade PBS Original Productions team came away with some hardware. Cascade PBS won two awards from the Northwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences after being nominated for a total of seven. 

The episode “The Range Rider" from season 3 of Human Elements won in its category, Environment/Science – Short Form Content. It was the first Emmy for the series and for senior producer Sarah Hoffman, director of Human Elements. 

“I am so thankful the hard work of this series was recognized. Human Elements has given us a rare opportunity to share intimate stories that authentically represent our community,” Hoffman said. “On our small team we’ve created a space where we can be creative and where each of us brings unique perspectives to continually elevate the series.”  

Mossback’s Northwest won in the category of Historical/Cultural – Short Form Content, making this the second Emmy award for the series. The winning episode chronicles a historic event when German saboteurs blew up a ship in Elliott Bay.  

“Being able to tell this story about such an important event in Seattle just before World War I with this amazing team has been the real win. The Emmy is icing on the cake,” says director and senior producer Michael McClinton. 

The other nominations for Cascade PBS included episodes of Nick on the Rocks, Black Arts Legacies, Mossback’s Northwest, as well as craft nominations for Sarah Hoffman and Bryce Yukio Adolphson for Photographer and David Quantic for Editor. 

Catch up on all our original video series online and on the Cascade PBS app.

Two city councils in Yakima County rejected a proclamation for Pride Month, deciding not to officially recognize or acknowledge summer celebrations of the LGTBQ+ community.

The Sunnyside City Council rejected a Pride Month proclamation during its May 28 meeting. That follows one week after the Yakima City Council, in a 5-2 vote, rejected the proclamation during its May 21 meeting. 

Both Yakima and Sunnyside have officially recognized Pride Month in previous years. Last year, with a 5-2 vote, the Yakima City Council proclaimed Pride Month. As part of that proclamation, a Pride flag flew in front of Yakima City Hall for the entire month. Sunnyside Mayor Dean Broersma signed a Pride Month proclamation as recently as 2022. 

Yakima Mayor Patricia Byers and Assistant Mayor Matthew Brown voted against the proclamation this year, as they did last year. This time, they were joined by council members Reedy Berg, Leo Roy and Rick Glenn, who were all elected to the council last fall, ousting less conservative incumbents. 

Council members Janice Deccio and Danny Herrera voted for the proclamation. 

A draft version of the rejected proclamation states, “Now, Therefore, I Patricia Byers, Mayor of the City of Yakima, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June 2024 as “LGBTQ2S+ Pride Month” in the City of Yakima and encourage all residents to join in commemorating diversity, fostering inclusion, and advocating for equal protection under the law. Let us unite in our commitment to eradicate prejudice and discriminatory practices, ensuring that all cultures, races, and groups are treated with dignity and respect.”

Yakima Pride, a local advocacy group, expressed disappointment with the Yakima Council’s rejection on its Instagram page, but is moving forward with planned events on June 8, which will include a parade through downtown Yakima, an outdoor festival and a rainbow prom. 

In Sunnyside, the pride vote was split 3-3, with one council member absent. The vote came after numerous comments supporting and opposing the proposed proclamation.

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced today that the city of Seattle will not implement a controversial acoustic gunshot locator system as part of its $1.8 million crime prevention technology pilot program after large public outcry against the technology. 

This pilot program is meant to deter criminal activity and aid with police investigations. The pilot will use only closed-circuit television; a real-time crime center which will respond to crime alerts; and expand its use of automated license plate readers to all police vehicles with dashcams. 

CCTV cameras will be installed in three neighborhoods that the Mayor’s office says suffer from a disproportionate amount of criminal activity: Aurora Avenue North, the downtown Third Avenue corridor and the Chinatown-International District. The real-time crime center will use technology to integrate data sources for analysis and investigations. 

The response at community safety forums showed the lack of support for the acoustic gunshot technology, and the proposal got pushback from organizations like the NAACP and ACLU as well as from advisory groups in pilot areas of the city.

Similarly, earlier this year, the city of Chicago decided not to renew its six-year, $49 million contract with popular company ShotSpotter, which placed the technology in largely Black and Latino communities. It joined other cities that have pulled out of contracts, including Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta; New Orleans; Trenton, New Jersey; and San Antonio. 

The original proposal for the technology was approved by the City Council in 2021; currently the new expansion proposal is being reviewed by the Council. 

Seattle says other efforts as part of this program will take a crime-prevention approach, with tactics such as increased police patrols, community-based initiative investments and enhanced light and cleaning in crime-concentrated areas. 

The city also said the Seattle Office of Inspector General for Public Safety will continue to review the program for efficiency and results. The evaluation will be completed after the first pilot year, with a final evaluation in the second year.

The winning filmmaker for the third season of Cascade PBS’ Origins series will be Samuel Wolfe, who will create a short-form docuseries telling the story of the last reefnetters in the Salish Sea. Wolfe and his team were announced as the winners Saturday at the closing ceremony of the Seattle International Film Festival.

Wolfe was one of several dozen directors to apply to work with Cascade PBS to create a video series that reflects the makeup of our region told from an insider’s perspective. The key requirement for the Origins grant was 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. 

The inaugural season of Origins, “Refuge After War,” examined the experiences of Vietnamese and Afghan refugees forced to flee and resettle in Washington after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and Kabul in 2021. 

Reefnetting is considered one of the most sustainable fishing practices and is an important tradition in Indigenous culture. Wolfe’s series will focus on the Kinley family, the last Native permit holders from the Lummi Nation.  

The docuseries is intended for release on Cascade PBS platforms in March 2025. 

Washington State Department of Labor & Industries fined two central Washington companies a combined $650,000, the agency announced Wednesday, after a fruit storage worker died from asphyxiation inside a controlled-atmosphere room in October.

The worker for Pace International LLC was found unresponsive after spraying apples in a Stemilt Growers’ storage room in East Wenatchee in which the oxygen had been removed to help preserve the fruit. 

In an investigation, L&I found the worker from Pace entered the room without a safety monitor as required by law. A Stemilt employee also failed to warn the worker that his oxygen monitor alarm had sounded near the entry to the storage room, indicating the room lacked sufficient oxygen, according to L&I.

“Both companies own a piece of this preventable tragedy,” Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said in a news release, adding, “It’s a wonder that Pace hasn’t had a worker die before now. They’ve been gambling with workers’ lives for a long time and they finally lost.”

L&I also discovered Pace International’s training handbook allowed workers to enter controlled-atmosphere rooms with an oxygen level of just 17.5% despite state regulations requiring oxygen levels to be at 19.5% or higher.

L&I fined Pace $574,000 and Stemilt $76,300. Pace has appealed. The agency also placed Pace on its severe violator list for the eight willful and two serious violations the agency issued. 

The agency created the Severe Violator Enforcement Program to increase monitoring of companies that are “resistant or indifferent” to safety rules. A recent Cascade PBS analysis of L&I records found more than a third of severe violator companies had not received required follow-up inspections. 

Stemilt was also fined $2,700 in 2022 after two employees worked in a room that lacked sufficient oxygen without the use of oxygen monitors. 

University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce on Wednesday voiced her support for a ceasefire in Gaza while strongly urging the students protesting on the Seattle campus to take down their tents and dialogue.

In an email to UW students, staff, faculty and academic personnel, Cauce reiterated her support of free speech and peaceful protest. She told the student newspaper, The Daily, that she has no plans to sweep the tent encampment on the UW Quad, as some other universities have. She believes dialogue is going to accomplish more than protest, which began more than two weeks ago and now has escalated to spray-painted graffiti on buildings all over campus.

“We believe that engaging in dialogue is the most productive path to a resolution that can see the encampment voluntarily depart,” Cauce wrote. “Indeed, even before the encampment started, we were meeting with a cross section of students who are deeply moved by the humanitarian crisis.”

Among the discussions, which Cauce described as cordial, was a lesson on how the university invests its endowment fund. A member of the UW Investment Management Company met with some of the protesters and let them know that the university has no direct investments in Boeing or weapons manufacturers, Cauce wrote in her email.

She called some of the new graffiti on buildings all over campus both antisemitic and violent, “creating an unwelcome and fearful environment for many students, faculty and staff, especially those who are Jewish.” Cauce said the graffiti appears to be an effort to compel the University to agree to the protesters’ demands, which she said have expanded beyond the initial pleas for the University to cut ties with Israel and Boeing.

Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war have continually reaffirmed their commitment to remain on the Quad until their demands are met, and say they have no plans to disassemble the encampment.

The King County Council greenlit a proposal that will boost the minimum wage in unincorporated King County to $20.29 an hour, one of the highest in the country.

Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay, Rod Dembowski, Teresa Mosqueda and Jorge L. Barón co-sponsored the measure, which aims to lift wages in unincorporated areas to match those of nearby cities. For example, the current minimum wage is $16.28 an hour in Skyway, a county neighborhood next to the city of Tukwila, which has a minimum wage of $20.29. Seattle’s minimum wage is $19.97 per hour and the state’s is $16.28. 

This ordinance impacts only unincorporated areas of King County, and would not include cities like Redmond or Bellevue that abide by the state’s minimum wage, or cities like Renton, where voters recently set a city minimum wage of $20.29, which starts in July.

The proposal, which would also need a signature from King County Executive Dow Constantine, would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and could be subject to increase based on inflation at that time. 

There would be exceptions for small businesses with lower revenues and fewer employees. Businesses with 15 or fewer employees and an annual gross revenue of less than $2 million would be allowed to pay employees $17.29 an hour, $3 less than the proposed legislation. This difference would decrease annually by 50 cents until there is no difference in 2030. 

Businesses with 15 or fewer workers but have an annual gross revenue of $2 million or greater, and businesses with more than 15 but fewer than 500 employees, would have an hourly minimum wage of $18.29. This difference would decrease annually by $1 until there is no difference in 2026. 

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a subpoena to try to force the Seattle Catholic Archdiocese to turn over records on suspected sexual abuse, he announced Thursday.

In July 2023, the Attorney General’s Office requested massive amounts of information from the archdioceses of Seattle, Yakima and Spokane, so it could map the extent and details of sexual-abuse incidents, the number of priests involved and the transfers of suspected priests from assignment to assignment. So far the three archdioceses have not provided the requested information, Ferguson said.

“We need a public accounting of childhood abuse,” Ferguson said.

Consequently, the Attorney General’s Office filed the subpoena in King County Superior Court, requesting a May 22 hearing. The three archdioceses share a common trust fund that is used to compensate victims of sexual abuse, and Ferguson wants access to those records as well.

In a written statement, the Archdiocese of Seattle said it had been generally cooperating with the AG’s office without specifically addressing the breadth of the information sought in the attorney general’s requests and subpoena.

“Sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults is an issue the Archdiocese of Seattle takes very seriously and has been proactively addressing for more than 40 years,” the statement said, noting that the church has taken many steps toward preventing abuse, including reporting abuse, supporting victims and their families and publicizing their actions. “We have a good understanding of the content of our files and we have no concern about sharing them with the Attorney General lawfully and fairly,” the statement said.

Michael Pfau, a Seattle attorney whose firm specializes in abuse cases, estimated that over the past 23 years his firm has represented roughly 90 sex-abuse victims in the Spokane Archdiocese, fewer in the Yakima Archdiocese and “hundreds” in the Seattle Archdiocese. His firm has successfully obtained records from the archdioceses, but he noted that the Attorney General’s Office’s requests are much broader than asking for a specific file on a specific person.

Lifelong Catholic Mary Dispenza, 84, of Bellevue, attended Thursday’s press conference. As an elementary-school girl in the Los Angeles area, she was sexually abused by a priest. 

“Even at the age of 7, I knew it was wrong. … In my own way, I felt ashamed.” She “buried” those memories until she was 52 — even during a 15-year period as a nun. “I didn’t share with anybody, but I talked to God,” she said. 

“All the dioceses in the world need to become transparent. … There is no justice without truth-telling,” Dispenza said. 

Ferguson, also a lifelong Catholic, said: “I don’t speak much about my faith. … But what the church is doing is inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus. … The church needs to be transparent about what happened.”

The attorney general’s office can instigate only civil actions in Washington, not criminal actions. Whenever the AG’s office handles criminal cases, it does so at the request of a county prosecuting attorney’s office. 

Candidate filing week for races in the general election begins Monday, May 6. People interested in running for federal, statewide, Legislative and Superior Court and Court of Appeals positions can file for election with the Secretary of State’s office through Friday, May 10. People interested in running for local races can file with their local county elections offices.

These races are slated to be on the Aug. 6 primary ballot. The top two vote-getters in each race will proceed to the general election on Nov. 5. The exception to that rule is if only one or two candidates file to run for a nonpartisan race, such as judge. In that case the race would skip the primary and appear on the general election ballot.

Statewide seats this year are governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer, public lands commissioner and insurance commissioner. In the Legislature, all seats in the state House are up for election, as well as 25 seats in the state Senate. Federal races on the ballot this year are all 10 congressional seats and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s seat. 

People interested in running for these positions can file with the Secretary of State’s Office online or in person in Olympia. The filing fees for each seat are 1% of the office’s annual salary. Filing period closes Friday 5 p.m. sharp, according to the state.

Races for local seats – for example, District Court positions and the special election for Seattle City Council Position 8, currently held by Councilmember Tanya Woo, who was appointed to a vacated seat this year – will be handled at local elections offices (in these examples, King County).

The deadline to withdraw oneself from candidacy is 5 p.m. Monday, May 13.

Correction, May 8, 2024: An earlier version of this story misstated which races can skip the August primary. This has been corrected.