Rep. Matt Shea urges crowd to resist gun restrictions with firearms 'behind every blade of grass'

OLYMPIA – Washington should have a gun behind “every blade of grass,” and behind every gun a person not willing to give up their constitutional rights to bear arms as long as they are alive, a Spokane Valley legislator told a crowd on the Capitol steps Friday.

A crowd of about 150 people – smaller than some similar demonstrations in previous years – was urged not to give up in the face of what Republican Rep. Matt Shea called the “tyranny in Washington state to try to take away our rights.”

The crowd had signs protesting Initiative 1639, approved by nearly 60 percent of voters in November, which puts restrictions on the sale of semi-automatic rifles and has new requirements to store firearms safely at home. Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, said the state Supreme Court is the best avenue for overturning the new law.

The Legislature also has more proposals to restrict firearms it will consider this session. Shea urged the crowd to show courage to win a great victory.

Read more: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jan/18/rep-matt-shea-urges-crowd-to-resist-gun-restrictio/

Oregon lawmakers want to bridge state divide

SALEM, Ore. — Leaders of the Oregon Legislature spoke Friday about the need to bridge divides that exist in the state, days ahead of the start of the 2019 session.

Speaking at The Associated Press Legislative Preview, lawmakers described an Oregon that is divided between urban and rural, Democrat and Republican.

The November election gave Democrats a three-fifths supermajority in Oregon’s Legislature with greater power to impose taxes, but Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said they must wield power carefully.

He recalled that Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., had told him that while Baertschiger represents a minority in the Senate, most people in his district around Grants Pass are Republican.

Read more: https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/jan/18/ore-lawmakers-want-to-bridge-state-divide/

Kids are hurting. The Legislature needs to do away with the onerous 'supermajority' rule

The kids at Bethel High School have nicknames for the cramped spaces they’re forced to endure and horror stories of a facility failing around them.

There’s “The Bunker,” a former girls’ locker room which, after a second life as an JROTC air-rifle range, now serves as a sports medicine classroom

Then there’s “The Bottleneck,” a section of hallway with four entry points that, during passing period, becomes so jammed with students that kids liken it “a stoplight without the light.”

“Every car has to just ram through their all at once,” one student said of “The Bottleneck.” Another, 17-year-old senior Samantha Waycaster, recalled the specific instructions incoming freshman receive about how to avoid it.

Read more here: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/matt-driscoll/article224295015.html

Attorney general threatens to join suit against Navy over hull-scraping

Washington state says it intends to join a lawsuit filed against the Navy by the Suquamish Tribe and environmental groups over hull-scraping practices they believe are harming Sinclair Inlet, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Thursday.

The Attorney General's Office sent a letter to the Navy on Thursday asking that it remedy Clean Water Act violations related to the process it uses to scrape the hulls of decommissioned vessels in the next 60 days. Ferguson said the process resulted in "truck loads of solid materials, including copper and zinc" being released into Puget Sound.

The lawsuit was filed in June 2017 by the tribe, Washington Environmental Council and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. The groups alleged Clean Water Act violations as the hull of the decommissioned USS Independence was scraped in preparation for it to be towed to Texas to be dismantled. The scraping took place outside of a dry dock without any containment.

The Navy is aware of the attorney general's notice of intent to sue, said Rory O'Connor, a spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command. As it is ongoing litigation, O'Connor referred further questions to the federal Department of Justice.

Read more: https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2019/01/18/puget-sound-navy-hull-scraping-lawsuit-attorney-general/2616365002/

After the bitcoin bust and a local bankruptcy, Washington county doubles down on blockchain

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Wash. -- Even as much of the world seems done with cryptocurrency, central Washington’s bitcoin boomtown is doubling down.

In Douglas County, where easy access to cheap hydropower sparked a cryptocurrency boom in 2017 – followed by a collapse in 2018 – local officials are betting that the high-speed computers and the complex “blockchain” technology that drove those digital currencies could now launch another, less volatile industry.

To accelerate that next phase, the county wants to build a “blockchain innovation campus,” where researchers could develop new uses for the esoteric, computer-intensive technology – and, ideally, position this rural community for a share of industry when it arrives.

“There is more to the cryptocurrency story than the boom and the bust,” says Lisa Parks, executive director of the Port of Douglas County, which hopes to locate the campus on an old industrial site in the city of Rock Island, on the Columbia River.

Read more here: https://www.theolympian.com/latest-news/article224611005.html

Statewide bans on plastic bags, straws are on Dems' green to-do list in Olympia

OLYMPIA – As an Edmonds City Council member in 2009, Strom Peterson championed the city’s initiative to become the first municipality in Washington to ban plastic grocery bags. Ten years later, he’s the lead sponsor of a bill in the state Legislature to ban single-use plastic bags across the state.

HB 1205, which is supported by the Washington Hospitality Association, would prohibit retail establishments from giving customers single-use plastic carryout bags, or paper bags that do not meet recycling requirements.

With hefty majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, Democrats say the time is ripe for a shift away from the material that has polluted waters and clogged recycling centers.

“Washington is going to be on the leading edge of reducing single-use plastics,” said now Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/dems-green-agenda-in-legislature-includes-attempts-to-ban-single-use-plastic-bags-straws/

Pierce County pays deputy $950,000 over prosecutor lawsuit

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Pierce County Council members have voted to pay one of the last legal bills associated with former Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

The News Tribune reports that by a unanimous vote Tuesday, members agreed to pay $950,000 to retired sheriff’s deputy Glenda Nissen, ending an 8-year battle over Lindquist’s text messages and associated claims that he retaliated against Nissen for criticizing him politically.

In 2011 Nissen sought access to text messages from Lindquist’s private phone. The case traveled to the state Supreme Court and back, leading first to a ruling requiring disclosure of the messages. The messages revealed Lindquist’s attempts to manipulate online reactions to a news story regarding Nissen.

A second lower-court order required disclosure of nine more text messages and found Lindquist had violated the state public Records Act.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/pierce-county-pays-deputy-95000-over-former-prosecutor-lawsuit/

Seattle woman faces eviction for failing to pay $2 she owed in rent

The outstanding rent Keilani Luxmore owed on her Seattle apartment for the month of December wouldn’t buy you a cup of coffee, a gallon of gasoline or even bus fare in this city.

But Luxmore’s failure to pay $2 last month means she is facing eviction from the home she shares with her three young children, in addition to the possible loss of the federal Section 8 voucher that covers most of her rent.

It could also result in a return to a homeless shelter for Luxmore and her children, ages 3 and under.

“I can’t take care of my three kids without my Section 8 voucher,” said Luxmore, 23, as she wept, standing in a hallway of the King County Courthouse on Thursday, awaiting a hearing on the eviction proceeding. “I just want my kids to be safe.” Her two sons, ages 3 years and 18 months, played around her as she cried to her attorney in frustration. Her 7-month-old daughter cooed occasionally in her stroller.

Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless/seattle-woman-faces-eviction-for-failing-to-pay-2-she-owed-in-rent/

Seattle Set to Propose Eviction Reform

As Seattle’s median income has continued to rise in recent years, high-rent burdens have plagued lower-income renters, some of whom are falling behind on rent. A September 2018 report by the Seattle Women’s Commission and the Housing Justice Project of the King County Bar Association showed that 86.5 percent of the nearly 1,500 Seattle residents who faced eviction proceedings in 2017 had failed to pay their rent. The study, Losing Home: The Human Cost of Eviction in Seattle, found that eviction filings disproportionately affect people of color, with women more likely to face eviction for small sums of back rent amounting to $100 or less. And once renters experience eviction, they can be slapped with legal fees, disqualified from rental-assistance programs, and catapulted into homelessness.

A resolution set to be introduced Jan. 21 by the Seattle City Council could set the stage for eviction reform in Seattle, an action that housing advocates hope is the first step toward significant changes. Sponsored by Seattle City Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Mike O’Brien, the proposed resolution draws on recommendations from Losing Home to highlight the burdens that evictions place on vulnerable populations. Losing Home’s policy recommendations, which advocate for additional financial and social services for tenants who have fallen on hard times, provided the framework for the potential ordinances outlined in the resolution.

“The point of the resolution is to get everyone on the same page as far as what the problems are, so we can use that as a foundation to work together to identify some legislative solutions,” Herbold told Seattle Weekly.

Efforts to address the report’s recommendations began during the 2019–20 budget process late last year, in which councilmembers passed a statement of legislative intent requesting the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) to lead research and suggest strategies to improve the conditions of a rental unit when eviction notices are filed due to habitability issues. The SDCI report, due by June 1, 2019, will also identify additional resources or staffing that would be needed to achieve the recommendations.

Read more: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/seattle-set-to-propose-eviction-reform/

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Rudy Giuliani Lies About Lying About 'No Collusion'