Washington’s Department of Natural Resources is setting aside more than 77,000 acres of forest lands in Western Washington for conservation, the largest such effort in a generation, according to Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove.

Upthegrove signed an order on Tuesday to protect these “structurally complex” forests, or older forests that are naturally diverse but not yet considered old-growth.

“Conserving these acres will allow us to nurture and steward them in new ways so we can do more for our climate, more for our habitat, and more for the communities we serve,” he said.

Conserving these older forests was a campaign promise for Upthegrove, who paused logging on all of these types of lands once he took office in January.

An analysis from the Department found 106,000 acres of structurally complex and older forests in Western Washington. The 29,000 acres not included in the conservation efforts will still be available for harvest.

Under the plan released Tuesday, the Department intends to focus on improving habitat and forest health, which could mean a loss in funding for the schools and communities that rely on revenue from timber sales.

To make up for that loss, Upthegrove said the Department will look for ways to maximize the value of other lands and find new opportunities to generate revenue on the conserved lands, like selling carbon credits, which would require legislative approval.

Tuesday’s announcement was welcomed by conservation groups.

“We must recognize the economic value of timber, but also the clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat, carbon storage and cultural value of the forest lands for which our state is famous,” said Alyssa Macy, chief executive officer of Washington Conservation Action.

But the timber industry argued that older trees are needed for certain wood products and stopping timber sales would hurt communities that receive that revenue.

“Removing these acres from sustainable harvest will mean less revenue for schools, fire districts, hospitals, and libraries that depend on trust land funds, and fewer family-wage jobs in Washington’s forest sector,” said Travis Joseph, American Forest Resource Council president, in a statement Tuesday.

Joseph urged the Board of Natural Resources and the Legislature to “closely scrutinize” the proposal and provide “oversight, clarity and stability so beneficiaries, communities, and Washington’s forest sector can plan for the future.”

Uber Eats will pay a record $15 million in back pay, interest and civil penalties to more than 16,000 Seattle workers after allegedly violating the city’s gig-worker protection laws. The company will also pay a $33,620 fine to the city.  

It is the largest settlement in the history of Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards (OLS), which is responsible for investigating violations of the city’s labor laws.  

“This historic $15 million settlement is a major win for workers and a strong reminder that in Seattle, we hold large companies accountable when they sidestep their responsibilities and shortchange workers,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell in a statement announcing the settlements.  

OLS alleged that Uber Eats violated the pay transparency requirements of Seattle’s independent-contractor protections ordinance with its “Boost earnings multiplier” promotion. The OLS investigation began in November 2023.  

The company promised additional earnings to workers delivering to busy locations and during busy times. OLS alleged that Uber Eats failed to disclose that the promotion applied only to a portion of the workers’ fares.  

The company will pay $13.5 million to settle those claims with OLS.  

OLS opened its second investigation in November 2024. The office concluded that Uber Eats violated Seattle’s app-based-worker minimum pay law, which requires that companies pay a minimum rate based on time worked and distance traveled, even when a job is cancelled.  

OLS alleged that the company had failed to pay or was underpaying workers for cancelled jobs and had not provided all required information on electronic receipts and weekly reports.  

Uber Eats is paying another $1.5 million to settle the second investigation.  

Despite agreeing to the settlements, Uber Eats denies any allegations of wrongdoing in both cases.  

The investigations stemmed from complaints filed by gig workers to OLS.  

“If companies are unclear or fail to keep promises, workers in Seattle should know their rights and available recourse with OLS,” said OLS director Steven Marchese in a statement. “When workers come forward, OLS can help bring workplace injustices to light and put hard-earned money back where it belongs … in their pockets.”  

About 28.6% of the state’s 4.4 million registered voters participated in the August primary, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

Deputy Secretary of State Randy Bolerjack certified the August primary on Aug. 20.

This year also was the first time that the state separately tracked statistics for those 17-year-olds eligible to vote through the state’s Future Voter program. In this program, 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by General Election Day are eligible to vote. About 16.9% — or 1,292 of 7,611 — 17-year-olds in the program cast a ballot in the primary.

While the number of 17-year-old Future Voters is small compared to the 1.2 million ballots returned in the primary, they returned their ballots at a greater percentage than voters 18 to 24 (13.2%) or voters 25 to 34 (15.5%), according to the state’s ballot return statistics dashboard.

The top two vote-getters in each race on the primary ballot will face off in the General Election on Nov. 4. General Election ballots will be mailed to voters by Oct. 17.

Washington residents can register to vote in the General Election online or by mail by Oct. 27, or a resident can register in person at their local county elections office until 8 p.m. Election Day.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has joined attorneys general and a governor from 16 other states to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to remove some restrictions on mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions, which they say make it burdensome to prescribe and provide the drug to patients.

The attorneys general in the 15 states and District of Columbia, along with Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, filed a citizen petition, which is the formal process for requesting FDA changes, and provided evidence of the safety of medication abortion in their states as well as the burdens caused by the FDA’s restrictions on mifepristone.

This is the latest legal action by Washington state, including from Brown’s predecessor as attorney general, now Gov. Bob Ferguson, to push for broader access to the drug.

The FDA’s restrictions include requiring providers to become registered prescribers of mifepristone; requiring pharmacies to obtain special certification to dispense the drug; and requiring patients to sign a form agreeing to terminate their pregnancy voluntarily before receiving a prescription.

In declarations submitted by the state, Washington physicians say the current registration requirement leaves providers feeling vulnerable to possible attacks by anti-abortion activists and have resulted in fewer providers able to prescribe medication abortion, particularly in rural areas with limited health care options.

The states also contend such restrictions are not warranted given the safety record of medication abortion, the most common means of abortion in the United States. Data compiled by the Washington State Department of Health shows that of the nearly 30,000 medication abortions provided in Washington in 2023 and 2024, fewer than 0.2% resulted in a complication severe enough to warrant hospitalization.

 Along with Brown and Shapiro, the citizen petition to the FDA includes the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia. In addition to filing their own citizen petition, the states joined a separate petition filed earlier by the states of Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and New York.

A longer version of this article appeared in The News Tribune.

After several months of delay, Pierce County’s annual survey of those experiencing homelessness counted an 11% increase over the previous year.

While the annual Point-In-Time count is nationally recognized as one of the best ways to quantify the extent of homelessness, outreach workers and other metrics suggest the survey severely undercounts the true scale of the crisis.

The PIT count is a one-night survey of everyone in Pierce County living either in shelters or outdoors. It occurs every January and relies on the efforts of volunteers.

According to the county’s 2025 PIT Count report, 2,955 were counted on Jan. 30, up from 2,661 the previous year. The survey counted 1,522 people in shelters and 1,422 people who were unsheltered at the time of the count.

The report was published Aug. 18. According to the county, the number of people counted in the PIT count has more than doubled since 2015, showing a 130% increase. The county, which maintains the homelessness crisis is directly related to the cost and availability of housing, pointed out that median home prices have seen a 125% increase during the same period.

“This crisis didn’t happen overnight — it’s the direct result of a housing market that has simply become unaffordable for too many of our neighbors,” Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello wrote in a statement regarding the PIT count data.

The most commonly reported reason for being homeless was “family crisis or breakup” at 9%, followed by “eviction,” “no affordable housing,” “loss of job” and “fleeing domestic violence,” cited by 7% of respondents each. Nearly 40% of survey respondents did not answer the question of how they became homeless.

The county’s report noted that count results are influenced by the weather, local encampment removal and relocation, availability of overflow shelter beds, the number of volunteers and the level of engagement of the people whom volunteers interview.

However, other numbers indicate the homelessness crisis is much larger than the PIT count would suggest.

According to the county, more than 17,500 people have entered the county’s homeless crisis response system in 2025 so far, with only 1,375 exiting into permanent housing. The Washington State Department of Commerce issued a report estimating that more than 39,000 people experienced homelessness in Pierce County during fiscal year 2024. To draw the estimates, the study used data from Medicaid, economic programs and the Homelessness Management Information System.

Cameron Sheppard is a WSU News Fellow based at The News Tribune, which published a longer version of this story on Aug. 19, 2025.

Voters in Yakima will decide in November whether to authorize a $6 million levy to cover a sizable portion of the city’s anticipated 2026 budget deficit, preventing deep cuts in public safety and recreation services.

The Yakima City Council voted 4-3 in late July to bring the levy referendum to voters in the general election ballot. The vote came after Council members considered several options to address the $9 million deficit, including covering it entirely through budget cuts.

The levy requires a majority-plus-one vote to pass.

Even if the levy passes, the city will still have to cut $3 million in spending. The proposed cuts include eliminating crime-analyst positions in the Yakima Police Department, reducing funds for downtown beautification efforts, reduced operation of several city-run community centers, closing or reducing hours for local pools and eliminating funding for economic development efforts.

If voters reject the levy, the city will have to make deeper cuts to public safety and parks and recreation services that include eliminating entire police and fire departments, closing a fire station and eliminating dozens of positions.

Three Council members voted against bringing a levy before voters: assistant mayor Matt Brown, Leo Roy and Reedy Berg. 

Roy’s and Berg’s elections to the Yakima City Council in 2023 helped lead to a conservative supermajority of five to two. Addressing anticipated multimillion-dollar budget deficits was a major issue in the 2023 Council election.

However, two members of that conservative majority — Mayor Patricia Byers and Councilman Rick Glenn, who also won election in 2023 — voted for the levy resolution. 

The levy will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Cascade PBS and the Pierce County Library District are hosting a free screening of Priced Out: Fear and resistance in WA mobile home parks. In the short documentary, the Cascade PBS investigative team examines the practices of mobile home park ownership group Hurst & Son. Residents in the parks across the Pacific Northwest say sudden increases in rent and cuts to maintenance have made it difficult to continue to afford their homes.  

The film follows the ensuing tenant organizing efforts, and examines the effectiveness of legal protections for residents in Washington state. Following the screening, join Cascade PBS journalists for a Q&A regarding the reporting process, mobile home tenant protections and updated state laws. 

The event will be held Tuesday, September 16, 6-7:30 p.m. at University Place Pierce County Library, 3609 Market Place West, University Place, Wash. Street parking is available. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP here.  

If you would like to submit a question prior to the screening, please fill out this form for the chance to have your question answered by a reporter. 

A longer version of this article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.  

John Braun, the top Republican in the Washington state Senate, launched his campaign Tuesday to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez next year. 

Braun, Senate minority leader since 2020, will take on the two-term incumbent in southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, which has drawn national attention as an electoral battleground that helps decide which party controls the U.S. House. 

“I think the incumbent is genuine and good at press releases but hasn’t really done much to improve the lives of residents in southwest Washington,” Braun, of Centralia, told the Standard on Tuesday. 

The district encompasses Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum and Skamania counties and a small part of Thurston County.  

President Donald Trump won it three times, including last year. But Republicans lost the congressional seat in 2022 when Gluesenkamp Perez, co-owner of an auto repair and machine shop, beat Republican Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces soldier whom Trump backed. 

Braun, now in his fourth term as a state senator, brings legislative experience, electoral know-how and a brand of Republicanism he hopes will appeal to independent and GOP voters who shunned Kent. 

Asked whether he has Trump’s backing, Braun said there is “a clear path to earning the president’s support. We’ve got to do the work first.” 

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee swiftly blasted Braun’s entrance into the race. 

“Voters know Braun is nothing more than a suit in Olympia who works for special interests like Big Pharma, not for working people,” said DCCC spokesperson Lindsay Reilly. “He’s a swamp creature who will be more of the same in D.C., championing the status quo.” 

Washington State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad said Braun would be a “disastrous choice” to represent the district. 

Gluesenkamp Perez raised just over $900,000 in the most recent three-month period and had $1.1 million on hand on June 30, according to her latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. First-time candidate Antony Barran, owner of Willapa Wild, an oyster farm in Willapa Bay, raised $10,000 in his first three months campaigning.  

In the 2024 election, outside forces spent roughly $18.5 million independent of the candidates, according to Open Secrets.  

The Washington State Standard originally ran a longer version of this article on Aug. 12, 2025. Cascade PBS has edited this article for length.

Two appointed Seattle Public Schools board members appear to be advancing to the general election to keep their seats after Tuesday’s primary, though one is currently in second place.

Seattle voters saw three school board races on the primary ballot. The top two candidates with the most votes in each race in Tuesday’s primary will face each other in the general election in November.

In District 2, incumbent Director Sarah Clark, director of policy for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, who was appointed last year to fill a vacancy, was in second place with 43.10% of the vote; challenger Kathleen Smith, a data scientist at Microsoft, had 45.92% of votes. They led a third candidate, Eric Feeny. District 2 includes the area from Magnolia Interbay to Loyal Heights to Green Lake.

For District 4, incumbent Director Joe Mizrahi, secretary/treasurer of UFCW 3000, had 68.57% of the vote. Mizrahi was also appointed last year to fill a vacancy. In second place was challenger Laura Marie Rivera with 17.84%. They topped a field of five candidates. District 4 includes the area from Downtown up through Queen Anne to Fremont.

For District 5, an open race after incumbent Director Michelle Sarju said she would not run for her seat, former school board Director Vivian Song received 73.25% of the vote. Song had represented District 4 when she was first elected in 2021 but resigned after news reports that she moved to District 5. In second place was Janis White, the founder of an advocacy organization for youth with disabilities, with 15.73% of the votes. They led the field of six candidates on the ballot. District 5 includes Capitol Hill, Chinatown International District, First Hill, Leschi, Madison and the Central District.

In November, voters will also see a race for District 7, which represents Beacon Hill, Columbia City, Mount Baker, Seward Park and Rainier Beach. Carol Rava and Jen LaVallee advanced to the general because they were the only two candidates who filed for the open seat, currently held by School Board Director Brandon Hersey.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office has declined to criminally investigate a Vancouver-based company that, state officials concluded, had violated youth labor laws, resulting in the permanent disability of a teenage employee in 2023.

The sheriff’s office cited a lack of victim and witness cooperation as the reason for not investigating, according to a June 11 letter.

A 16-year-old worker, participating in a school work-for-credit program at Rotschy Inc. in June 2023, had been digging a trench using a machine that state law prohibits minors from operating. When the trench collapsed, his legs were pulled into the machine and they were both amputated. The company faced $208,0259 in fines for safety and youth labor violations.

The injured worker was kept on Rotschy’s payroll throughout his recovery and eventually returned to work in the construction company’s office. He and his family have said they do not blame Rotschy for his severe injuries, calling what happened an accident. 

Earlier this year, the Department of Labor & Industries asked the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to prosecute Rotschy on criminal charges. It was the first time the state’s workplace-safety enforcement agency pursued felony charges over a youth labor violation. The prosecutor’s office sent the referral to the Special Victims Unit at the sheriff’s office for further investigation. 

“Having reviewed the records, I found there was a factual basis for the allegation that a felony crime had occurred in this case; however, further investigation would be required,” a Clark County detective sergeant wrote in the June 11 letter.

‘Beyond failure’: WA teen loses legs at school-based work program

Thousands of students enroll in work-for-credit programs, but a 16-year-old’s case shows life-altering consequences of risky jobs and murky oversight.

Cascade PBSLizz Giordano

The letter went on to say the detective had contacted the injured worker and his family, and that they had declined to participate in a criminal investigation. 

“I respect the right of citizens to decline to participate in criminal investigations and/or assist in criminal prosecutions,” the letter stated. “As such, I have declined to assign this referral for a criminal investigation.” 

Erik Podhora, the senior deputy prosecuting attorney with Clark County assigned to the case, told Cascade PBS the prosecutor’s office is still reviewing the case.