Washington’s Legislature should make a bold move to protect its residents from those who choose to drink and drive by lowering the legal blood alcohol concentration limit from 0.08 to 0.05.
Many people have supported tariffs to raise federal revenue and to pressure foreign leaders. However, any enthusiasm for increased tariffs must be tempered by the economic reality that for us in Eastern Washington, tariffs mean trouble.
If you turn on a faucet today, you care about water policy. It’s that simple. Water is the foundation of our daily lives, our economy, and Idaho’s future. It fuels our farms, powers our communities, and ensures our families have the resources they need to thrive. That’s why Idaho must take decisive action to invest in long-term storage and infrastructure projects now before we find ourselves facing a crisis we could have prevented.
Housing affordability is a real concern, but Washington lawmakers are proposing a deeply flawed solution: rent control. While Argentina reaps the benefits of repealing its disastrous rent control law, Washington legislators are hurling headlong down the path of ruinous third-world housing policy.
Between the two of us, we have more than 50 years of experience in providing long-term health care. Today we work in our respective roles as an SEIU 775 represented certified nursing assistant and an administrator in a skilled nursing facility (nursing home) in Spokane. We each chose our lines of work because we love to help people. That’s why we’re standing together now to raise the alarm on a worsening workforce shortage and concerns about our state’s ability to provide care to the 12,800 older adults who rely on skilled nursing facilities throughout our state. Now is the time to increase investments to stabilize our workforce, not to propose horrific budget cuts.
The cannabis industry is built on the backs of cannabis growers. When we worked on the environmental support specialist and propagation teams at Phat Panda’s Grow Op Farms in Spokane Valley, we sweated in full-body personal protective equipment as we cultivated plants, handled hazardous chemicals, operated in poorly ventilated rooms, hauled around dozens of 50-pound bags, and fed organic waste into wood chippers in all kinds of weather.
Access to reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury – it’s an essential service that opens doors to opportunity in education, health care, employment and community engagement. In rural areas like Medical Lake, however, high-speed internet has often remained out of reach for many residents. That’s why expanding broadband availability in Medical Lake is a significant milestone, not just for the community.
When my sister became critically ill last spring, one of my first thoughts was “Who’s going to take care of my nephew?” I was in the delivery room when my sister gave birth to him almost four decades ago, but it wasn’t until I was thrown into the panic of trying to find him a home last year that I fully understood the extent of what it can mean to care for an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability.
As we celebrate the completion of our first year implementing the Scattered Site Shelter Model at Jewels Helping Hands, we are filled with gratitude for the unwavering support that has made this work possible.
I’ve written extensively about how taxes pay for the services that improve our neighborhoods – from parks to public transportation to roads and bridges. State tax dollars are also critical to help address the kinds of challenges that communities in eastern Washington and across the state are facing, like lack of affordable housing and underfunded schools.
As a fourth-year medical student at the Idaho WWAMI/University of Washington program, I’m compelled to address a major issue affecting the health of Idahoans: the proposed defunding of the Idaho WWAMI program being considered by the Idaho Legislature in House Bill176.
As a family medicine physician in rural Idaho, I have had the privilege of caring for Idaho families for more than three decades. I have celebrated their milestones and stood by them during some of the most difficult days of their lives, helping them navigate challenging times. Many of these hardships have been directly tied to health issues, often triggered or worsened by poverty.
Though time is said to heal all wounds, the scars from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns remain fresh as the nation experienced executive overreach at the federal and state levels. It is important going forward for a proper check and balance to exist. The legislative branch must remain firmly in control of policy, even during times of an emergency.
Our world is an increasingly noisy, busy and concerning place. For a moment, let’s set aside the really difficult challenges that our state and country are facing. The world continues to spin, after all.
We have worked in health care and grocery stores for more than 24 years serving the people of Spokane. We are both union women who have been active in winning improved contracts with higher wages and better benefits for ourselves and our co-workers. When we improve our hospital, and our grocery store, it helps out everyone in the community. And while there is certainly a long way to go to get the respect, pay and staffing levels that we and our co-workers deserve, the situation is far better because we are in a union. That difference of having a union is the difference of having a voice.
The League of Women Voters of Washington strongly endorses Senate Bill 5400 in support of local journalism. This measure seeks to defend democracy in communities that have been hard hit by a changing news landscape. There is amazing access to information in our times; however, this information does not necessarily include what is going on in local communities. This puts democracy at risk.
