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WA bill requiring clergy to report child abuse dies in House committee
Committee rejected a compromise with Catholic lobbyists that survivors argued “protects abusers”. Each of the last two years, Washington state lawmakers on both sides have broadly agreed that clergy should be mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. Washington is one of just five states where that’s not required...
Oregon House passes bill to fix law that forces state to refund child labor fines
State labor officials say bill would allow investigators to crack down on child labor violations. In 2020, a Ford dealership located in a suburb of Portland settled with the U.S. Department of Labor for nearly $28,000 over reported violations of federal child labor law. Federal investigators had learned that six...
Bundy Ranch militant Eric Parker says he’s the driving force behind Idaho bill to narrow definition of ‘terrorism’
Critics argue the legislation “essentially guts” Idaho’s Terrorist Control Act. The 2014 photos, snapped by a Reuters photojournalist, had turned Idaho’s Eric Parker into a kind of legend on the far right: They showed Parker, in body armor and a trucker cap, laying on his belly on the bridge above the Bureau of Land Management’s base camp in Nevada, pointing his semi-automatic rifle through the gap in the concrete toward the federal agents gathered below.
An Indigenous teen in Washington disappeared amid clear signs of danger. It took more than a year before police started investigating
School, police and state CPS officials all received warnings that teen was unsafe. There were no police on the case. No news reporters shoving cameras in family members’ faces. No detectives scavenging for clues. There was only Amythist McCart, a 17-year-old high school senior, riding shotgun in her grandma’s white 2004 Oldsmobile, her grandma at the wheel and her cousin in the back seat.
How local Idaho prosecutors lost the case against Patriot Front’s white nationalist leader
Caught with a “little army” and plans to provoke confrontation at a gay pride event, the white nationalist had his charges dismissed. Nearly two years ago, police in North Idaho had the leader of America’s largest white nationalist group and 30 of his followers unmasked, zip-tied and in custody.
Seattle philanthropists donate $100,000 to support community-focused investigative reporting
While 2023 was an awful year for the news industry at large — with coast-to-coast layoffs hitting everyone from the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times — it was InvestigateWest’s best year ever. The 14-year-old nonprofit newsroom added two investigative reporters and a full-time development staffer....
WA lawmaker wants to make voting mandatory … sort of?
Sen. Sam Hunt reintroduced a bill to legally require people to vote — but there wouldn’t be any consequences if you don’t. State Sen. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, has introduced a bill to make voting compulsory in Washington. But under Hunt’s legislation, there’d be no punishment for citizens who ignore the requirement.
WA lawmakers introduce bill requiring clergy to report child abuse, one year after similar bill died over Catholic opposition
Lawmakers hope a compromise will get Catholic lobbyists on board. After failing a year ago, Washington state lawmakers are trying again this session to pass a bill that would make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse or neglect. Senate Bill 6298 would add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters...
Idaho residents still seeing impacts of decades-old nuclear test fallout
‘The fight isn’t over’: Idaho downwinders persist after Congress cuts compensation for them. For nearly two decades, Tona Henderson collected newspaper articles, letters and photographs documenting who in the small town of Emmett, Idaho, was diagnosed with cancer, including her own family. The result is a wall in her home covered in pictures and pages displaying the names of community members who may have been exposed to lethal radiation during the country’s Cold War-era nuclear weapons testing program.
Ending practice of bunking Oregon foster children in hotels will require widespread reforms
Lawmakers heard recommendations from a court-appointed expert on how to address the practice. If Oregon’s child welfare system ends the state’s practice of putting foster children in temporary hotel rooms, the state will need to make widespread, systemic reforms that guide how children are cared for, housed and helped.
Oregon’s timber industry proposes shifting wildfire protection costs from landowners to public
Several timber companies participated in a workgroup and proposal that would cut the fees they pay to the state for fire protection. Timber companies appear to have played an influential role in a new legislative proposal to find sustainable funding for fighting wildfires. If passed, it could save the industry millions of dollars in fees they now pay to the state for fire protection and shift more of the cost to all Oregon property owners.
WA Democrats propose new tax on real estate sales over $3M to fund affordable housing
Supporters estimate the tax could raise nearly $300 million every two years. Republicans argue it could drive up costs for renters. Washington Democrats are again looking to raise taxes on expensive property sales to help pay for affordable housing. A bill that dropped Tuesday would add a tax to the...
Washington Law Attempts to Fill the Void in Federal Regulation of Hazardous Chemicals
With a years-long backlog in the U.S. government’s risk assessments of thousands of potentially hazardous chemicals, the new law requires companies to disclose what chemicals are used in their products. A new act implemented earlier this year in Washington has banned five chemical classes in 10 product categories throughout...
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