Gov. Ferguson approves $78 billion spending plan with new taxes

The article originally was published by The Spokesman-Review.

After decades of delays, the federal government will begin enforcing REAL ID requirements to fly domestically starting May 7 – for real this time.

“Our offices are busier than usual because of the deadline,” said Thomas Charlson, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Licensing. “We recommend that people get an appointment if they’re coming to visit us.”

Although Washington state is issuing “Enhanced Driver’s Licenses,” Charlson said it’s the same as the REAL ID. He said it confirms your identity and U.S. citizenship, and will be required to board domestic flights.

“You can use this to board domestic flights, you can use it to enter certain federal facilities, and then one of the perks of having an Enhanced Driver’s License is that you can also use it to cross the borders of Canada and Mexico by land or sea,” Charlson said.

To obtain an Enhanced Driver’s License, Charlson said the person must bring the following documents with them – proof of U.S. citizenship, proof of identity, proof of Washington residency and your Social Security number. Documents that show some of that information include a birth certificate, W2 form, vehicle registration and more. A full list of acceptable documents is available at fortress.wa.gov/dol/extdriveses/esp/NoLogon/_/.

The enhanced license total cost is $116 for five years if you are getting your first Enhanced Driver’s License. Or if you are upgrading your current Washington driver’s license to the enhanced version, you can pay $7 per year for the time remaining on your current license.

If travelers do not have a REAL ID or any other TSA-acceptable ID, they will face delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being allowed into the security checkpoint, according to the Transportation Security Administration’s website.

If you don’t get an Enhanced Driver’s License, or aren’t eligible for one, other ID accepted options can be used for travel, Charlson said. These include a U.S. passport, a Permanent Resident card, a green card and an Employment Authorization Card.

He said the Washington State Department of Licensing also has an Enhanced Driver’s License checklist in both English and Spanish for travelers to know if they are eligible and what other documents they may need to obtain this enhanced identification.

“Make sure that you plan ahead,” Charlson said.

This article originally appeared in the Kitsap Sun.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health has entered a “strategic affiliation” with Seattle Children’s Hospital, the company announced Tuesday, hoping to bring services from the renowned pediatric hospital directly to patients on the Kitsap Peninsula and other areas around Puget Sound. 

Virginia Mason Franciscan operates 10 Puget Sound hospitals, including two on the Kitsap Peninsula. 

Through the affiliation, access to perinatal, neonatal and related specialty services will expand across VMFH Birth Centers, the company says.

Right now, Virginia Mason Franciscan–owned hospitals — which deliver 10% of Washington's births — send 25 vulnerable newborns per day to Seattle Children’s Hospital. Many of these families travel to their North Seattle campus or to a clinic in Federal Way. Embedding Seattle Children’s physicians across the Virginia Mason Network is expected to reduce those barriers. 

“Our goal is to keep every mother and baby together in their home community whenever possible, and any kid with a specialty need that otherwise would have to drive up to Seattle home, by bringing Seattle Children's doctors down physically or using technology into VMFH sites of care,” said Mark Salierno, Children’s senior vice president and chief strategy and business development officer.

The specifics of how physicians will be deployed at VMFH sites and how many staff could be hired are still being worked out, Salierno said. A strategic oversight committee, with representatives from both organizations, will guide the affiliation.  

Tom Kruse, chief strategy officer for Virginia Mason Franciscan who served as chief strategy officer for old Harrison Hospital in Bremerton from 2007 to 2011, said the peninsula has been dealing with limited medical care for a long time, and the partnership will bring needed services to the community.

 “All of this is to help improve the overall health of the community by intervening sooner and bringing a truly world-class children’s hospital to all the members of the peninsula who’ve never had that caliber before,” he said. “It should be a game changer.” 

The Kitsap Sun published a longer version of this article on April 30, 2025. Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for the Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit newsroom based in Gig Harbor, through a program managed by Washington State University.

Canada’s Liberal Party has retained power after Monday’s national election results, but it remains to be seen whether the party will have an outright majority in the House of Commons or need to build a minority government. 

The Liberals, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, were a few seats away from an outright majority by Tuesday afternoon, but many seats across Canada were still very close as vote counts continued. 

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, lost his seat in the House of Commons, as did New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh.  

Carney has been the prime minister of Canada since March 9, two months after the longtime Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned. According to the CBC, Carney and the Liberals came from behind during the course of the 36-day campaign, speaking against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to annex Canada as the 51st State. 

Join Cascade PBS and Daybreak Star Radio for a free screening of three episodes of Origins: The Last Reefnetters, a five-part documentary series on the history and culture of reefnet fishing in the Salish Sea, followed by a community discussion with Cascade PBS and Daybreak Star Radio journalists. 

The event will be held on Sunday, May 4 at 3 p.m. at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, 5011 Bernie Whitebear Way in Discovery Park. It will be free and open to the public. RSVP here. 

The five-part docuseries follows the final 12 captains to hold a reefnet fishing license, of whom only one is an enrolled tribal member. The practice was developed by the Lummi Nation and other Northern Straits Salish tribes thousands of years ago, but following punitive legislation, environmental damage and devastation caused by a budding cannery industry, Indigenous reefnetters were all but removed from the practice. Filmmaker Samuel Wolfe examines the legal, spiritual and cultural subtext that intertwines the Salish Sea’s last reefnetters. 

Gun buyers may soon need a permit and safety training to purchase a firearm in Washington.

House Bill 1163 is one step away from becoming a law after passing the Legislature on Tuesday. It now awaits a signature from Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has pushed for gun safety laws in the past.

Under the proposed policy, which would go into effect May 2027, any resident wishing to purchase a gun would be required to first apply for a permit, then pay a fee and show documentation of having completed a safety training program within five years. The training must include live-fire shooting exercises and a demonstration of safely handling a firearm.

The proposal sparked tensions this session between gun safety advocates, who said the legislation would reduce the state’s suicide and homicide rates, and gun rights supporters, who said it would infringe on Second Amendment rights.

The bill passed the House and the Senate along party lines, with only Democrats supporting it.

Bill sponsor Rep. Liz Berry, D-Seattle, said permit-to-purchase programs save lives.

“They make sure guns don’t get into the hands of the wrong people, they make sure that guns aren’t diverted to black markets, and they prevent crime,” she said during a floor debate Tuesday.

But Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, disagreed, calling the bill an unconstitutional “scheme” to test gun owners at their own personal cost.

“It is no guarantee that one murder will be prevented, that one assault will be prevented, that one suicide will be prevented,” Walsh said.

The new system would require the Washington State Patrol to approve permits within 30 days of application, or within 60 days for applicants without valid state ID. The state could not issue a permit to anyone who has been prohibited from purchasing a firearm under state or federal law, awaiting a trial for a felony or with an outstanding warrant.

Law enforcement, members of the military, private investigators, security guards and tribal law officers would all be exempt from the training requirement.

Thirteen other states have laws requiring permits to purchase certain firearms.

The Legislature’s proposal has garnered support from Attorney General Nick Brown, who testified in favor of the policy in a Senate Committee hearing in March.

“Through background checks, training, and other safety steps, we can make meaningful use of the critical time between someone’s choice to purchase a firearm and when they obtain that weapon,” Brown said.

The permit-to-purchase proposal is the only gun safety bill that has made it through both chambers of the Legislature this session. Other policies were proposed to require owners to lock up their guns when in vehicles or homes, limit bulk purchases of guns and ammunition and restrict where gun owners can openly carry their weapons. But none made it through this session.

This article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

Washingtonians’ medical debt will not be included in their credit reports, under a bill that Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law earlier this week. 

Medical debt can create a spiraling effect and prevent people from getting approved for car or home loans or apartment rentals. Medical debt can also cause providers to deny services to patients with outstanding bills or dissuade people from seeking care. 

Senate Bill 5480, sponsored by Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, intends to mirror efforts at the federal level that have been thrown into question. It will prohibit collection agencies from reporting overdue medical debt to credit agencies. The bill will take effect on July 27. 

In January, the Biden administration finalized a similar federal rule before President Donald Trump took office. It was set to take effect in March, but it is currently on pause by the Trump administration and faces legal challenges. 

The new state law is intended to help people like Christopher Raymond, who was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma at age 16. 

To get the treatment Raymond needed to survive, his dad was forced to retire and cash out his pension, which amounted to $60,000. 

Originally from Everett, Raymond’s family moved to California so he could receive the treatment he needed, which lasted two years and required a stem cell transplant, which was not covered by his dad’s insurance. The move made him eligible for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, which covered his treatments. 

Despite the coverage, he and his family faced extreme hardships and had trouble paying for necessities such as food and utilities. 

“There was a point where it got really bad that I was eating those quarter chicken legs you would get from the grocery store and it would be my only meal I could have for the day,” Raymond said. 

Raymond is now 28 and has been cancer-free for 10 years, but says his family could’ve been pushed into extreme debt for his treatments, which cost upward of $6 million before accounting for insurance payments. 

“I shouldn’t be punished for having cancer,” Raymond said. 

His experience is shared by many who have undergone similar health issues. 

When this happens, people might stop or delay treatments because they can’t afford them or because their insurance companies don’t approve the care. People, at times, also lose everything they own to continue their treatments, or they end up dying of cancer. 

Roughly six in 10 Washington adults say they could not pay an unexpected $500 medical bill, and about 30% say they live in a household with medical debt, even with health insurance, according to a report done by the Northwest Health Law Advocates.

Audrey Miller García, government relations director at the American Cancer Society, explained that families can still have to pay debt they accrued from treatments if their child dies of cancer.

Even when someone survives cancer, they may still need treatment for the rest of their lives. These follow-up treatments are expensive, and depending on the insurance coverage a person has, the care can land them in thousands of dollars’ worth of debt. 

Raymond still gets billed.

“My lifelong care after cancer is always going to be met with more insurance bills,” he said. 

He says he’s been due for a CT scan for over six years, but is worried about going into debt because he cannot afford the scan even after his co-pay. 

“You shouldn’t be punished for having cancer, you should get through it and be able to not worry about having to live, because it’s not enough to just survive, you need to live too,” Raymond said.

The Washington State Standard originally published this story on April 22, 2025. Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero is a WSU Murrow News Fellow.

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival returns May 31, with a lineup featuring Jake Tapper, Amanda Knox, and a slate of local and nationally recognized journalists, podcasters and lawmakers deconstructing the day’s most pressing issues. The full lineup of speakers was released today.

This year’s festival will include live podcast and television recordings from outlets like CNN, NPR and The Atlantic alongside a mix of community events in downtown Seattle. More information is available here.

Seattle voters will be asked in August if they want to continue paying for the city’s democracy voucher program — a first-of-its-kind public campaign-financing system that gives voters money to donate to political candidates. 

Seattle voters created the program in 2015, along with a 10-year property tax levy to fund it. The voucher program aims to make election financing more diverse and equitable by giving voters four $25 coupons they can give to city of Seattle candidates during elections. 

Ten years after it was created, city officials say the program has been a success. On Monday, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to send a property tax levy renewal to the August ballot that would fund the program for another decade. 

If passed, the levy would cost the median homeowner about $13 a year and raise about $45 million over 10 years. The figure is about $15 million higher than the expiring levy to account for inflation and increased candidate participation in the program. 

City Council members praised the program across the board, with several saying they’d seen the positive impact firsthand during their own runs for office. 

“For me, this specifically meant that I didn’t need to take campaign donations that I felt might have implicit strings attached,” said Councilmember Dan Strauss. “This allowed me to be more independent, and it meant that I actively chose to knock on everyday Seattleites’ doors rather than spending time on the phone, calling political donors.” 

Many Councilmembers said the program is especially important in light of threats to democracy at the national level and the growing influence of wealth in politics. 

“Our democracy is at risk,” said Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck. “We must take every step here in Seattle to protect it, because in a healthy democracy, billionaires can’t buy elections.” 

Most democracy vouchers go unused. A study by 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. 

City Council member Cathy Moore noted that there remains a need to educate people about the program, particularly in communities where English is not the primary language. 

Candidates in the races for Seattle mayor, city attorney and three Council seats are eligible for democracy vouchers this year.

Note: This story was updated on 4/22/25 to correct the difference between the previous property tax levy and the new proposal. 

The wings off the Senate floor were packed Monday, April 21, as Washington lawmakers and staff remembered Sen. Bill Ramos, D-Issaquah, who died suddenly over the weekend.

In a somber moment, those who had worked with Ramos exchanged hugs, tissues, tears and memories. A large portrait of Ramos surrounded by fresh flowers stood near the front of the chamber, where colleagues honored their colleague with a moment of silence.

Ramos died Saturday evening while trail-running with his dog, Sadie, after a day of work in Olympia, wrote his wife, King County Councilmember Sarah Perry, in a statement on Facebook. He was 69.

Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said Ramos’ death was “a devastating loss for our caucus and for our state.”

“Bill was one of the most kind and joyful people I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” Pedersen said in a statement. “He never let even the most serious matters get too serious. He made you like him the moment you met him.”

Ramos was first elected to represent the Fifth Legislative District in the House of Representatives in 2018 and was recently elected to the state Senate in November. He previously served on the Issaquah City Council.

At a morning bill signing, Gov. Bob Ferguson acknowledged the “shocking loss” of Ramos over the weekend. Ferguson signed a bill that Ramos had worked on, which exempted some Department of Corrections employees from coalition bargaining requirements.

Ferguson said he would send one of the pens used to sign the law to Perry, Ramos’s wife.

“He was a wonderful public servant,” Ferguson said. “More importantly, he was a likeable guy, a kind guy, who was always a joy to be around. We’ll be thinking about him today and for a long time to come.”

Ramos’ death came with just one week left in the Legislature’s scheduled session. Like the rest of the Senate, he had been working on Saturday.

Speaking on a resolution to honor former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, who died last month, Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, noted Monday morning that he was standing in front of Ramos’ desk, where Ramos had been just two days before.

“I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little rattled,” Wagoner said.

Wagoner went on to reminisce about Munro with comments that he said were “even more poignant today.”

“All of us, at some point, will be memorialized in a similar manner, and none of us know the time or the date of that happening,” he said.

A bill that aims to address housing supply and affordability in Washington by lowering parking requirements for new residential and commercial development passed through the state Legislature and will head to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. 

Senate Bill 5184, called the Parking Reform and Modernization Act, would restrict how much parking cities and counties are allowed to require for new development. 

If signed into law, cities with 30,000 or more residents would be prohibited from requiring more than 0.5 parking spaces per new multifamily unit, or more than one parking space per single family home. Cities would be prohibited from requiring any parking for residences under 1,200 square feet, commercial spaces under 3,000 square feet, senior housing, child care facilities or housing classified as affordable. 

The law would also limit restrictions on commercial development to no more than two parking spaces per 1,000 square feet. 

In all cases, developers could still choose to provide more parking if they want to. 

The Sightline Institute, a nonprofit research and policy group, celebrated the passage of the bill in a blog post last week as “one of the strongest parking reform packages attempted anywhere in the United States.” 

For decades, many Washington cities have made it illegal to build housing without providing at least one parking space per unit. But parking reform advocates argue that those requirements prioritize cars over people and add unnecessary costs that hinder new housing development. 

“These rules are totally arbitrary,” said Catie Gould, a researcher with Sightline, in an interview last month. “Most cities don’t remember where these ratios came from. They were adopted really quickly in the 1950s and ’60s.” 

Some cities, like Mercer Island, require a “minimum ratio of two parking spaces for each unit” in apartment complexes. Gould argues that doesn’t make sense because nearly 60% of renter households in Washington have just one car or none at all. When developers are forced to build parking spaces that people don’t need, the costs often get passed on to the tenant, Gould said. 

“They’re overbuilding for renters and they’re adding these unnecessary costs that people don’t need,” Gould said. “If we really want to build more housing and open up opportunities for new housing, excessive parking mandates have got to go.” 

The bill was introduced by Sen. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia. It received pushback from some city officials, who argued that local governments are best suited to make zoning decisions, and that the law would erode local control. 

At a hearing last month, Kennewick Councilmember Jim Millbauer urged lawmakers to “allow cities to develop more locally tailored programs.” 

“Kennewick does not have a transit system that is robust enough to provide efficient service throughout the community,” Millbauer said. “We also live in a rural area, which means more of our residents use a vehicle to get to work or school. Today we are, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, an auto-centric community.” 

Amendments in the House Local Government Committee scaled back the scope of the law. After passing the Senate with an added exemption for cities with under 20,000 residents, the bill was further narrowed in the House to exempt cities with fewer than 30,000 people. That would allow cities like Mercer Island (pop. 24,742) to continue setting their own parking ratios. The House also added a three-year phase-in period for cities with 30,000 to 50,000 residents and an 18-month phase-in for cities with 50,000 or more residents. 

Gould said she was disappointed by the exemptions for smaller cities. “These rules cause problems in communities of all sizes around the state,” she said. “Nobody has to stop driving for this reform to make sense, we’re trying to provide more opportunities and more choices for people.” 

In a Friday post on Bluesky, Bateman celebrated the bill advancing to the governor’s desk. “Two years ago, parking reform of this magnitude would not have been possible,” Bateman wrote. “Pro-housing advocates have changed the narrative and demanded action.” 

A handful of Washington cities have fully scrapped parking mandates in recent years. Spokane was the first major city to do so — eliminating parking requirements near transit stops in 2023, and then citywide in 2024. 

So far, Spokane’s reforms haven’t spurred dramatic change. Developers are still choosing to provide parking “in almost all cases,” said Spokane Councilmember Zack Zappone while testifying in favor of the statewide bill last month.

“In the majority of cases, they’re still providing at least one space per unit,” Zappone said. “In a few cases, they’re providing a ratio below the one-to-one. In extremely rare cases, they’re not doing any on-site parking at all.”