Michael Baumgartner takes early lead in WA 5th Congressional race

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.

More winds are expected to hit the Puget Sound region on Friday, but they won’t be as strong as the ones that blew through Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service reports two rounds of winds will hit Western Washington from early Friday morning to 10 p.m. Friday evening, with gusts up to 35-40 mph on the Pacific Coast, Strait of Juan de Fuca and from Admiralty Inlet north to the Canadian border.

The agency advises people to secure loose items outside and to prepare for the potential for additional power outages.

More than 270,000 people in the region were still without power Thursday after Tuesday evening’s “bomb cyclone.” At least two people – one in a Bellevue house, the other in a homeless encampment in Lynnwood – died because of falling trees on Tuesday. The storm caused roads and schools to close due to lost power, fallen trees and power lines blocking roads.

Puget Sound Energy reported more than 269,000 customers were without power Thursday morning. The utility reported that customers in Pierce and Thurston counties are expected to have power restored today; customers in Whatcom, Skagit, Island and Kitsap counties  are expected to have power restored by 6 p.m. on Friday. The majority of customers in east King County, which the utility says was the hardest hit of its regions, are expected to have power restored by noon on Saturday. At the outage’s peak, more than 595,000 customers were without power after Tuesday’s storm.

Seattle City Light, which provides power for Seattle, Shoreline, Burien, Normandy Park and Tukwila, reported between 9,000 customers were still without power on Thursday morning. The estimated restoration time for most areas was by midnight Thursday. At the outage’s peak, more than 100,000 Seattle City Light customers were without electricity.

A Washington program intended to help people with low income buy their homes has not been used, despite available purchase options, according to a recently released performance audit by the Office of the State Auditor. 

The state’s Housing Finance Commission manages the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and is meant to encourage development of affordable rental housing, but some of the projects give low-income tenants the option to purchase their homes after the home has been available to rent for 15 years or more.

According to a news release from the state auditor Tuesday, while 1,300 program projects are available in Washington, only 18 of those offer the option to purchase. All but one of the 18 purchasing programs are managed by Tribal governments in Washington. Of the 18 projects, only six had homes old enough to qualify for tenant purchase in 2023, for a total of 135 homes, but project owners have not transferred any properties to tenants, the audit showed. 

Auditors found that both tenants and project owners had confusion about the program. Some tenants did not know about the option to purchase, and other tenants had varied understanding of how the program works. According to auditors, most tenants who were interviewed wanted more information about how the program worked. Project owners also faced challenges like limited guidance from the state for how to properly transfer property to tenants. 

“Although it’s disappointing that the promise of the purchase option has yet to lead to homeownership in Washington, this audit sheds needed light on why that is the case,” State Auditor Pat McCarthy said in the statement. 

As part of the audit, the agency provided recommendations to the commission such as improved monitoring of the homeownership program, and providing project owners with clearer guidance.  

Republican candidate Dave Reichert conceded in the Washington state gubernatorial race Tuesday after two weeks of ballot counting.

Reichert, a former King County sheriff and congressman for Washington’s 8th Congressional District, congratulated Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 15, 2025. 

In a social media post Tuesday, Reichert thanked his supporters and said they gave him “hope that we can turn this upside-down world right-side up.” He said while his campaign was built on the “heart of a servant,” his campaign was always about his supporters. 

“While this race did not go as planned, I don’t want you to lose hope,” Reichert said. “I urge you to join me in keeping the hope and staying the course. We must continue to vote and be proud of our values, even if they look different than the majority of our state. And remember: there will always be more that unites us than divides us.”

On election night, Reichert told supporters he would not concede until the last vote was counted.

Ferguson, who is the state’s current attorney general, garnered nearly 56% of the vote in the election, while Reichert brought in around 44%. As of Tuesday, about 24,300 votes are estimated to remain to be counted, according to the secretary of state’s general election results page. That number would not be enough to close the gap between the candidates. 

Reichert’s campaign was focused on crime and safety issues as well as addressing the state’s high cost of living, but he faced intense criticism from opposition groups and some voters for his stances on abortion and reproductive rights throughout his campaign. 

Washington has had a sharp rise this year in cases of pertussis, also known as whooping cough. The state reports that 1,303 cases have been reported statewide so far in 2024, as of Nov. 9. That’s a sharp increase compared to the same time frame in 2023, when there were 54 cases reported statewide, according to a weekly report by the Department of Health.

Pertussis has early symptoms similar to the common cold but can develop into violent coughing fits, breathing struggles and other complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Babies younger than a year old are at highest risk for developing life-threatening complications, including apnea (life-threatening pauses in breathing), pneumonia and in serious cases, convulsions and death.

According to a Department of Health announcement earlier this month, at least 28 people in Washington have been hospitalized including 12 infants under the age of 1. The highest rates of confirmed or probable cases have been among children younger than 1, and the highest number of cases have been among children between the ages of 1 and 4, according to the Department of Health’s weekly pertussis report. Counties with the highest rates of cases have been Whitman, Clark and Chelan.

People vaccinated for pertussis can avoid severe cases of whooping cough, the CDC reports. The vaccine wears off over time, so the CDC recommends boosters to maintain protection. Different types of the vaccine against pertussis are available at different ages, starting with a series at 2 months of age. The Washington Department of Health advises pregnant people to get the Tdap vaccine between 27 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, to help protect their newborns who are too young to get vaccinated.

King County Executive Dow Constantine announced this week that he will not run for reelection next year after 15 years in the county’s top job.

Constantine was elected to the position in 2009 after defeating Susan Hutchison. The seat had been vacated earlier that year by Ron Sims, who had left with 11 months left on his term to serve as deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration. (Kurt Triplett, who finished Sims’ term, did not run for election.) Constantine decisively won reelection three times. Prior to being county executive, Constantine served on the county council and was in the state Legislature as a representative and a state senator.

Constantine, who grew up in West Seattle and still lives there, chairs the Sound Transit Board and serves on the Puget Sound Regional Council, the Mountains to Sound Greenway board and others.

King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, a former Bellevue city councilmember who has been on the King County Council since 2015, launched a campaign to run for county executive after Constantine's announcement. The Seattle Times reported that King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay was “seriously considering” running for the position.

The position is nonpartisan.