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Cascadia bullet train stuck at the station as feds dole out big bucks for rail
Supporters say the dream of a speedy train between Portland and Vancouver, BC, is not derailed. Meanwhile, other rail fans want to see more money directed to existing Amtrak lines in the region. The Federal Railroad Administration largely passed over the Pacific Northwest while doling out more than $8 billion...
Reforms coming to WA elections after three counties settle with the UCLA’s Voting Rights Project
The case followed InvestigateWest reporting that showed Latino voters were disenfranchised at disproportionate rates. Washington state’s signature-verification procedures are meant to root out exceedingly rare cases of voter fraud. But what they’ve typically done is get a lot of innocent legal votes tossed out. In 2020 alone, the state rejected more than 24,000 ballots.
Patients stuck in Washington hospitals pose quandary for state lawmakers
Health officials and hospital operators want to see further action to help patients with conditions like dementia and mental health disorders transition. Washington needs to do more to keep people from staying at hospitals longer than medically necessary, state health officials told lawmakers this week. Over the last five years,...
An Alaska Native tribal council greenlit a gold mine. Some tribal members aren’t happy.
Some in the Native Village of Tetlin claim their leaders broke tribal laws when agreeing to the Manh Choh mine. People in Alaska’s rugged Interior have long known the hills surrounding the Native Village of Tetlin hid gold. As tribal member Kevin Gunter grew up, his elders told him such riches should be left alone.
Influential Idaho Freedom Foundation quietly hired alt-right propagandist to help shape messaging
Right-wing Idaho legislators stay silent on the group’s affiliation with Dave Reilly. In the months leading to the infamous 2017 Unite the Right tiki-torch rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, then-talk radio host Dave Reilly had some messaging-strategy tips for the attendees from the alt-right, the internet-savvy collection of racist and antisemitic groups that arose during the Trump era.
Washington Three Percenters want to escape the ‘extremist’ label — but experts remain wary
Three Percenters elsewhere were among most indicted members of January 6 attack. It was after Jan. 6, 2021 — after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol — that the Three Percent of Washington started polling the group’s leaders about changing its name, said the group’s vice president Erik Rohde.
A WA worker’s death reveals the limits of safety enforcement
A fatal trench collapse in 2016 set precedent for holding employers criminally liable, but officials still struggle to head off repeat violations. Squeezed down deep inside a narrow ditch, Harold Felton barely had room to turn around as he reconnected a sewer pipe to the main line at a West Seattle home. Several days of winter rain had soaked and softened the muddy walls that rose over his 6-foot-2 frame. A motorized saw that Felton used shook the ground as he worked.
Idaho’s infant, mother death rate is rising, new report finds
Idaho Kids Covered report recommends state legislators revamp Medicaid coverage for children and mothers. State Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt was speaking on the floor of the South Dakota Capitol, four months pregnant with her third child, begging her Republican colleagues to care about her life. A new report released Tuesday found...
Oregon’s labor bureau failed to collect nearly $5 million in wage theft claims since 2015
Employers in industries with more undocumented and low-wage workers left the most wages and penalties unpaid. When Brandon Bondehagen filed a wage claim with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries against Revolution Film Group in 2016, he was in a comparably better spot than some of his co-workers. Bondehagen...
New mothers can stay with their babies at this Washington prison
The state’s prison nursery is one of only a few in the country intended to support incarcerated mothers amid a simmering debate on crime and drug use. Paige Zorn stands outside one August day near the low-slung building that holds the classroom where she’s learning about manufacturing. Zorn, 24, has already dropped off her infant, Zaylin, at day care. Now, as she prepares to finish her pre-apprenticeship program, Zorn is describing her chances at a career in manufacturing.
Some Republicans were willing to compromise on abortion ban exceptions. Activists made sure they didn’t.
A review of 12 of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. Few changed in 2023, as state lawmakers caved to pressure from anti-abortion groups opposing exceptions for rape, incest and health risks. State Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt was speaking on the floor of the South Dakota Capitol, four months pregnant with...
West Coast leaders urge feds to reverse decision allowing natural gas pipeline expansion
The expansion would allow 150 million more cubic feet of gas – on top of the 2 billion now – to be delivered to the region each day. State attorneys general in Oregon, Washington and California and two Oregon-based environmental groups are asking federal energy regulators to reconsider their approval of a natural gas pipeline project that would increase the flow of gas through the Northwest.
Oregon judge rules that voter-approved Measure 114 gun safety law violates the state constitution
State lawyers say they will appeal. A federal judge has ruled the measure legal under the U.S. Constitution. A Harney County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that Oregon’s new gun laws, approved by voters last year under ballot Measure 114, violate the state constitution. The provisions, passed in November...
Oregon pays nonprofit significantly more than foster parents to house vulnerable children in unregulated homes
State child welfare officials signed a contract with a religious nonprofit, paying it more than 100 times the amount they pay foster parents to care for vulnerable children. Oregon child welfare officials have spent years struggling to find appropriate places to house the state’s most vulnerable children. Now, after...
Idaho forms statewide public defence agency, easing county burden after lawsuits over legal representation gaps
The Office of the State Public Defender was created under legislation passed in 2023. After reports of overworked public defenders and years of lawsuits against the state claiming inadequate public defense for those in the criminal justice system, Idaho’s new state agency for public defense is in its early stages of formation to help.
Over 100 detainees go on hunger strike against poor conditions for immigrants at Tacoma detention center
Over 100 people are refusing meals at the privately-run Northwest Detention Center, which has a history of controversy and similar strikes. On a side street in Tacoma, wedged between railyards and the Puyallup River just off Interstate 5, sits the Northwest Detention Center, one of the largest federal immigrant detention facilities in the nation.
Left-wing activists worry anti-doxxing laws will target them
Recent laws in Washington and Oregon, part of a slew of similar laws nationwide, were initially aimed at stopping harassment by extremist hate groups. Arguably the most powerful weapon of anti-fascist groups in the Northwest is information. Anonymous squads of amateur detectives — parts of groups with names like Stumptown...
Oregon’s first large-scale solar park and farm hinges on 50-year-old land use laws
A farmer behind the state’s first “agrovoltaic” farm says critics cannot stop ‘an idea whose time has come’. John Langdon and his brother have experimented with all kinds of crops and techniques on their multigenerational farm in Harrisburg in the Willamette Valley. Nothing has been...
Oregon election offices are underfunded, understaffed heading into 2024 presidential election cycle
A third of Oregon’s county clerks have left their jobs during the past few years. Local election offices throughout Oregon are understaffed and underfunded headed into the 2024 presidential election cycle, according to a “grim” report presented to state lawmakers Tuesday. The report from Reed College’s Elections...
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