WA raises workplace safety fines to catch up with national rates

The City of Cle Elum and a housing developer have agreed to enter mediation to settle on an installment plan for the city to pay a $22.3 million judgment, avoiding municipal bankruptcy.  

The city, population of about 2,200, is on the hook for $22.3 million — five times its annual general-fund budget — after an arbitrator ruled in November in favor of housing developer Sean Northrop and his LLC, City Heights Holdings, over the provisions of a 2011 development agreement regarding Ederra, a new community of 1,000 houses. The arbitrator came to the $22.3 million figure based on the delays caused by the city not executing the agreement as written.  

In January the Cle Elum City Council voted to look into municipal bankruptcy, stating there was no other option. Municipal bankruptcy in Washington is rare — North Bonneville is the first and only city to pursue this option when it filed in 1991.  

Cle Elum Mayor Matthew Lundh said in a news release he was glad City Heights Holdings was willing to enter mediation to work toward a “realistic and sustainable resolution.”  

“A settlement that balances the City’s financial realities with its obligations is the only viable path forward — without it, Chapter 9 bankruptcy remains our only alternative,” Lundh said in the news release. 

The city agreed to make a $50,000 payment to City Heights Holdings to enter mediation, which will be applied toward the cash judgment. Mediation starts March 24. 

A Richland contractor and its owner will pay $1.1 million and serve one year of probation after pleading guilty to federal charges of COVID-19 economic relief loan fraud.

BNL Technical Services and its Tennessee owner, Wilson Pershing Stevenson III, obtained over $493,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, meant to help struggling businesses retain employees during the pandemic. The company employed subcontractors at the Hanford nuclear site, but those workers continued to receive payment from the Department of Energy throughout the pandemic, even when they stayed at home, according to prosecutors.

Stevenson used the money to pay off personal debts, court records show. He then obtained loan forgiveness by falsely claiming he paid staff salaries with it.  

Federal prosecutors in Eastern Washington launched a COVID-19 fraud “strike force” in 2022 and have continued to indict businesses for abusing generous pandemic-era aid programs. But the scale of theft far surpasses what prosecutors are able to charge, as Cascade PBS reported in 2023. The government lost more than $200 billion to fraud during the pandemic, according to an estimate from the Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General.

Another Hanford site contractor, HPM Corporation, paid nearly $3 million after admitting to bilking PPP loan funds in 2022.

This article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

The U.S. Education Department on Monday warned 60 colleges and universities they could face repercussions if they fail “to protect Jewish students on campus.”

In a statement announcing letters to schools across the country, the department did not detail what consequences the schools could face, but the letters came less than a week after the administration announced that it would be canceling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have focused on curbing antisemitism on college campuses after a series of campus protests erupted last year in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s counteroffensive.

Immigration authorities over the weekend arrested and detained a former Columbia graduate student who helped organize campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza. The student, Mahmoud Khalil, is a lawful permanent resident and was not accused of immigration violations. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conflated Khalil’s protests of the war in Gaza with support for Hamas to rationalize the arrest.

Columbia University is listed as one of the schools that received the letter warning they could be in violation of Title VI, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in institutions receiving federal funding.

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.

“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” said McMahon, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in last week.

The letters came after a Trump executive order in late January that focused on “additional measures to combat anti-semitism.”

Pursuant to that order, the administration announced in early February the creation of a multi-agency task force to “combat anti-semitism” whose first priority would be “to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

Three universities and one college in Washington were among the higher education institutions that received the Department of Education warning: Eastern Washington University, Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Washington and Whitman College.

The Washington State Standard originally published a longer version of this article on March 10, 2025.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is asking Seattleites to renew the city’s democracy voucher program — a first-of-its-kind public campaign-financing system that gives voters money to donate to local political candidates. 

Seattle voters first approved the program in 2015 through a citizen initiative that created a 10-year property tax levy to fund it, passing 63% to 37%. At a news conference Monday, Harrell said the democracy voucher program has been a success and called for it to be renewed for another 10 years. The property tax renewal he’s proposing would appear on the August ballot and cost the median Seattle homeowner about $12.20 a year — generating around $45 million over the next decade, Harrell said. The expiring levy was for $30 million over a decade at the estimated cost of $8 a year for the median homeowner. 

“Renewing this program shows Seattle’s commitment to ensuring that all voices — regardless of income or background — can help shape the future of our city,” Harrell said. 

Seattle voters receive four $25 democracy vouchers in the mail during elections. They can choose to give some or all of the money to the local candidate or candidates of their choosing. 

More than 106,000 residents have used democracy vouchers to contribute more than $10 million to local candidates since the program started. Many vouchers go unused, and on Monday, Harrell said more work is needed to improve return rates and educate people about the program. A study from researchers at Stony Brook and Georgetown University found that participation among the voting-age population declined from 7.59% in the 2021 election to 4.72% in 2023. 

Candidates who want to receive vouchers have to agree to certain restrictions, including a $350 limit on contributions from individual donors and a combined campaign spending limit of about $225,000 for City Council district candidates and $900,000 for mayoral candidates. 

Candidates in the races for Seattle mayor, city attorney and three City Council seats are eligible for democracy vouchers this year. Between 2017 and 2024, 76% of candidates who appeared on the primary election ballot and 89% of candidates on the general election ballot participated in the program. 

Harrell and other supporters said the program makes elections more accessible and inclusive by giving voters of all income levels a chance to directly support candidates. 

“One of the primary benefits of the democracy vouchers program has been its ability to empower more individuals to participate in elections,” Cinthia Illan-Vazquez, executive director of Washington Bus, said on Monday. 

Illan-Vazquez spoke at Monday’s press conference alongside other members of People Powered Elections Washington, a coalition of community and political groups that advocated for the initial 2015 democracy voucher initiative, and is now pushing for its renewal. 

Research by Dr. Jennifer Heerwig, a sociology professor at Stony Brook, found that democracy vouchers have helped create a more diverse group of donors and candidates in Seattle. 

Hannah Lindell-Smith, the coalition coordinator for People Powered Elections, said community groups have expressed interest in eventually creating a statewide democracy voucher program. Voters across Washington would get vouchers in the mail, and candidates for state government positions would be eligible to receive them. 

“There is definitely a lot of hope for expanding the program and making it something that more people can participate in,” Hannah said. “It would be a totally new thing, but it was a totally new thing [in Seattle] 10 years ago, and here we are.” 

The proposed levy renewal will now go to the Seattle City Council for consideration.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, alleging it broke state law by aiding the federal government in immigration enforcement. 

Brown argues the county is violating a 2019 state law called the “Keep Washington Working Act,” which prohibits local law enforcement from aiding the federal government in arresting or deporting undocumented immigrants. That includes asking someone about their immigration status unless it is relevant to the investigation and arresting someone solely because of their immigration status. 

According to the lawsuit, Adams County has held people in custody based only on their immigration status, helping federal immigration agents question people in custody and routinely sharing residents’ confidential personal information.  

“Washington has the right and the responsibility to decide for itself how to use its own resources to keep residents safe and the economy strong,” Brown wrote in the lawsuit.  

Brown argues that Washington’s law protects undocumented people who may be reluctant to call police to report crimes for fear that they could be deported. 

His lawsuit is the second in recent months against the county over its failure to follow this state law.  

Brown alleges that Adams County has consistently violated the law since 2022 but has been working with the state in recent years on a good-faith settlement. 

But after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, those talks stopped, according to Brown. 

The lawsuit, filed in Spokane County Superior Court, is the latest legal battle between Brown and the actions of the Trump administration. 

Adams County recently hired lawyers from America First Legal, an organization founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller.  

In a press release last month, the organization claimed Washington’s 2019 law was “harmful, dangerous and illegal.”  

“Our nation’s immigration laws reflect the democratic will of the people, and it is outrageous that the State of Washington has been working to subvert it while at the same time facilitating the invasion of our country,” James Rogers, America First Legal senior counsel, said in a statement.

As the Trump administration pushes to dramatically downsize the federal government, new state data released this week show a big uptick in federal workers applying for unemployment benefits in Washington. 

As of March 5, 952 federal employees have filed unemployment claims with Washington’s Employment Security Department this year — about double the number of claims from the same time period last year, which saw 472 claims. 

Some of the claims were filed before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but the majority came after he took office and authorized billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency to pursue a large-scale slashing of the federal workforce. Most of the layoffs so far have been targeted at recently hired or promoted federal workers in their probationary period. 

The two federal departments with the most unemployment claims in Washington are the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with 190 federal workers filing claims this year, and the Department of the Interior, with 116 claims. Those two departments house the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, which have both seen significant cuts. 

Other affected departments include the Department of the Treasury, with 93 claims; the Postal Service, with 65 claims; the Department of Veterans Affairs, with 64 claims; the Department of Energy, with 49 claims; and the Department of the Navy, with 45 claims. 

There are about 76,000 total federal employees in Washington, according to the latest quarterly data. The unemployment figures released this week reflect only people who have submitted claims for benefits with the state, so the total number of federal workers in Washington affected by Trump’s layoffs could be higher. 

King County is the county with the most impacted federal workers, with 207 claims filed this year. Pierce County had 82 claims and Kitsap had 59. 

In a news release, employment security commissioner Cami Feek said her department is “monitoring the status of the federal situation and actively working to support federal workers every day.” 

The new administration’s push to slash the federal workforce is facing legal challenges. This week, Washington joined a lawsuit challenging the administration’s order to fire workers in their probationary periods. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in the case last week and ordered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to rescind orders firing employees at several federal agencies. 

In a statement, state Attorney General Nick Brown described Trump’s aggressive downsizing of the federal workforce as an “all-out assault on public service.” He said the state believes at least 1,000 federal workers in Washington have lost their jobs as a result of the president’s actions. 

“These firings don’t save the public a dime, but they do make government less responsive, particularly in the communities across the nation where these employees live and serve,” Brown said. 

In Washington, federal workers and their supporters have staged a number of protests against the firings in recent weeks. 

Information about applying for unemployment benefits as a federal employee can be found on the Employment Security Department’s website. The department is encouraging federal employees seeking new jobs to visit the state’s WorkSource offices for resources.

This article originally appeared in the Washington State Standard.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray will skip President Donald Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, saying in a statement he is “spitting in the face of the law.”

Murray, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, is the highest-ranking member of Congress to announce she’ll skip the president’s address, his first before Congress in his second term.

Murray said she instead plans to meet with constituents harmed by the Trump administration’s actions, including the firings of thousands of federal workers and the halting of federal funding. 

She said in a statement that “the state of the union might be great for corrupt billionaires like Elon Musk as Trump guts our foremost consumer protection agency, and even for dictators like Putin, who are cheering on the dismantling of USAID and the betrayal of our allies.

“But the rest of the country is in a state of emergency as Elon fires the experts responding to bird flu or managing our nuclear weapons stockpile, all while Republicans sprint to tear apart Medicaid and kick families off their health care to pass massive tax giveaways for billionaires,” Murray continued.

In his first six weeks in office, Trump has moved to drastically widen the power of the executive branch, drawing alarm bells from Democrats who argue his actions are unconstitutional as well as numerous court injunctions. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and Trump’s alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s war with Ukraine are among the causes for concern Murray alluded to. 

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and Virginia Rep. Don Beyer are two other Democrats passing on the speech.

Other lawmakers hope to make a statement with their invited guests. Some are bringing fired federal workers or those affected by funding cuts Trump has proposed.

Dr. Paul Lange, a urologist who founded the Institute for Prostate Cancer Research at the University of Washington, will accompany Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell. 

His invitation is meant to speak to the importance of maintaining federal dollars for the National Institutes of Health. Trump wants to cut what are called “indirect costs” that help institutions pay for facilities and other behind-the-scenes work that supports research.

Cantwell’s office attributed declining prostate cancer death rates to the early detection tests he helped develop with the aid of federal funding.

Lange said a cure for prostate cancer is now “within reach.”

“But cuts to federal support for medical research would delay lifesaving advancements for all medical diseases including all forms of cancer,” Lange said in a statement.

 “Specifically, if President Trump’s administration cuts research funding for prostate cancer, the world’s dream of a cure will be impeded.  There are men currently in their 20s and 30s — men who could be saved by this cure — who will die instead.”

Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, is bringing Ashley Jones, president of the Washington Association of Birth Centers. Randall, who represents the 6th Congressional District, said in a statement they would “make it clear to the President: Keep your hands off our health care.”

“Ashley and her team provide a vital resource to the people of Washington’s 6th, often serving as a bridge between our most rural neighbors and the vital pre- and post-natal health care they need,” Randall continued. “I will continue to fight back against this administration’s chaotic and cruel attacks on Washingtonians’ access to health care.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, will be joined by a Yakima County commissioner, Amanda McKinney. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, is bringing a local teacher. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, will attend without a guest. 

Other members of Washington’s delegation were expected to make announcements about their guests by Tuesday morning.

Trump’s speech, the first before Congress in his second term, is set for 6 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday.

The Washington State Standard originally published this story on March 3, 2025.

Tacoma is the latest city in Washington to issue formal statements pledging to protect LGBTQ+ and immigrant community members. 

Tacoma joins Olympia, Shoreline and Spokane in ramping up support for residents who have been subject to President Donald Trump’s executive orders since he took office in January.

Last Tuesday, Tacoma City Council members unanimously passed two resolutions focused on LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights.

The first resolution, sponsored by City Councilmember Olgy Diaz, affirms the city’s commitment to treating all individuals with respect regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. It declares that the city will “actively oppose” any federal action that “threatens the rights, safety, or dignity of LGBTQIA2s+ individuals.” The resolution states that people have the right to “obtain, provide, or facilitate gender affirming care, especially for youth”; access facilities that align with their gender identity; and engage in speech supporting LGBTQ+ people, including drag or other cultural performances. It says city resources won’t be used to investigate or assist in investigations against individuals exercising any of those rights. 

“At a time when our rights are uncertain and our very existence is being challenged and denied, we are here to say that Tacoma will stand up and say ‘We’re with you,’” Diaz said when voting to pass the resolution.  

The move followed the Olympia City Council, which declared itself Washington’s first “sanctuary city” for LGBTQ+ people in January. Officials in Shoreline passed a similar resolution affirming its commitment to LGBTQ+ rights in February. 

The LGBTQ+ resolutions passed by Tacoma, Olympia and Shoreline all call attention to Project 2025, a conservative Heritage Foundation policy agenda for Trump’s second term that city officials described as outlining “further plans to remove the established rights and criminalize the existence of transgender people.” 

Tacoma also signaled support for immigrant communities last week with a separate resolution that formally aligns the city with existing state immigration law, which restricts local agencies, including law enforcement, from requiring asking about a person’s immigration status in order for them to receive services, or from collecting immigration information. 

As of 2022, over 12% of Tacoma’s population was born outside the United States, the resolution says. 

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the “largest deportation program in American history.” 

“This is a fearful time for many of our immigrant communities,” said Tacoma City Councilmember Joe Bushnell, who co-sponsored the resolution. “We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can within our power as a city to protect all our residents.” 

The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 to pass a similar resolution on immigrants in early February, pledging to support Washington’s immigration law and find funding for legal services for undocumented immigrants. Hundreds of people packed City Hall to speak for and against the resolution.

“The federal government continues to threaten local jurisdictions to intimidate us, however, the city must and will continue to live by our values,” said Councilmember Zack Zappone, one of the resolution’s sponsors. 

Spokane Councilmember Michael Cathcart, who voted against the resolution, argued that it wouldn’t actually do anything to protect immigrants, and that it might put Spokane in the crosshairs of the federal administration. 

City resolutions are largely symbolic. Tacoma City Councilmember Jamika Scott voted for both resolutions last Tuesday, but she also warned that the resolutions might “create false hope.”

“We are limited in what we can do, and we have to be honest about the dangers that marginalized people and communities face, and this resolution does not shield anyone from federal legislation,” Scott said.

With local governments’ power limited, Scott said the entire community will ultimately have to step up to protect people from the new administration. 

“Statements and symbolic actions may temporarily soothe, but if we are to make a true impact, we must go beyond statements and focus on tangible action,” Scott said.  

In Seattle, a newly formed city committee on federal policy changes will discuss immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights, among other topics, during its first meeting on March 6. 

This article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

Plans to offer free breakfast and lunch to all public school students in Washington appear shaky ahead of a Friday deadline in the state Legislature.

About 70% of students in the state’s public schools now have access to the free meals. Reaching 100% would cost about $120 million a fiscal year. With the state facing a budget shortfall in the ballpark of $12 billion over the next four years and lawmakers contemplating other big-ticket education legislation, a bill to carry out the meals expansion is proving to be a heavy lift.

Asked during a press conference Wednesday whether the bill was a good idea proposed at the wrong time, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, replied: “Yes.”

The Senate already allowed its version of the legislation to lapse last week in the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee as an earlier deadline came and went.

That leaves a House version — House Bill 1404 — now pending in the Appropriations Committee. That panel must approve the bill by Friday for it to stay alive.

“Given the number of competing demands we have, it’s a challenge, but nothing in House Appropriations is dead until after Friday,” said House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle.

This expansion of the state’s free school meals program is one of the priorities Gov. Bob Ferguson identified at the outset of his term in January. 

Under the bill, public schools, including charter schools and state/tribal education compact schools, would have to offer free breakfast and lunch to any student who requests it. This would take effect in the 2026-27 school year and the state would reimburse districts for meal costs.

Ferguson, a Democrat, has intervened to move along other legislation this session. A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to questions Wednesday about whether he planned to do the same with the school meals bill.

Lawmakers have been under pressure to pass other pricey school legislation, including bills to boost funding for special education, school operations and transportation. 

The latest versions of these bills, which have been moving in the Senate, would cost around $1.5 billion altogether in the next two-year budget. 

The special education bill, which Pedersen and Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, are co-sponsoring, and another to boost state assistance with school materials, supplies and operations costs, are scheduled for Senate Ways and Means votes on Thursday. 

A bill to strengthen student transportation has had a Ways and Means hearing but was not scheduled for a committee vote as of Wednesday afternoon.

Friday’s deadline is when bills that need to go through fiscal committees, like Senate Ways and Means, must gain approval from those committees in the chamber where the legislation originated. 

Later in the session, lawmakers can revive proposals that die at this deadline, working instead through the budget process. But on the school meals bill, Fitzgibbon said, “If the bill doesn’t pass out of House Appropriations on Friday, then it’s not passing for the year.”

He said a middle-ground option, rather than expanding the program, is “probably paying for the cost of the existing free school meals programs that we’ve already legislated in previous years.” He noted about a $30 million increase would be required just to meet that cost. 

“We very much hope to be funding that as part of our budget,” he said.

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, emphasized that the debate over free school meals needs to be balanced against broader discussions about assisting people with food insecurity in Washington. 

There are also worries about the possibility of federal funding cuts to nutrition programs as Republicans in Congress move ahead with their budget plan.

“It is a much larger conversation,” Dhingra said. “School meals is one part of it.”

The Washington State Standard originally published this article on Feb. 26, 2025.

At least two domestic indoor cats in Washington state have tested positive for avian influenza, or bird flu, after eating commercially available raw pet food, the state’s Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday.

One of the cats was euthanized, and the other is being treated by a veterinarian. The cats are from King and Snohomish County, and more cats are being tested.

The pet owners reported feeding their cats food from Wild Coast Raw pet food. The brand was connected earlier this month to severe illnesses in several housecats in Oregon that were euthanized after getting sick. The cats and the food in the Oregon cases tested positive for H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

Certain lots of Wild Coast’s Boneless Free Range Chicken are now under a voluntary recall, and the Olympia-based company reported that it has switched to fully cooked poultry recipes.

Bird flu symptoms in cats include lethargy, low appetite, fever, hypothermia, progression of illness to pneumonia, progression of illness to neurologic abnormalities and upper respiratory infection. Cat owners who observe these symptoms should isolate their animals and call their veterinarians, informing them of symptoms so they can reduce the risk of transmission.

The currently circulating strain of HPAI is considered low-risk to the public, but there is greater risk for those who handle contaminated raw pet food products or who care for infected animals, the WSDA said in its press release. Currently, the WSDA does not recommend feeding raw pet food or raw milk to animals.

While rare, people can get sick with bird flu, killing one person in Louisiana earlier this year. Bird flu can also spread to cattle, which has prompted testing and precautions around milk and dairy herds.