OLYMPIA – State initiatives would contain a ballot message that they could require the Legislature to cut programs or raise taxes if they pass under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the Senate. The bill is a reaction by some legislators to recent initiatives that have approved major changes to state policies without providing a way to pay for them, from teacher raises to reductions in the number of students in public school classrooms. It would require any initiative that is estimated to raise state spending by more than $25 million to state the estimated impact on the state budget and a warning: “This means other state spending may need to be reduced or taxes increased to implement this proposal.”

OLYMPIA -- Global climate change is real, the Senate agreed today after a contentious debate, and is possibly -- but not necessarily -- caused by humans.

OLYMPIA – State initiatives would contain a ballot message that they could require the Legislature to cut programs or raise taxes if they pass under a bill passed overwhelmingly by the Senate.

OLYMPIA -- The Senate delayed a vote on a change to its carbon reduction bill after a ruling that they would first have to vote on an amendment on whether climate change is real.

OLYMPIA – In the Legislature, if there is a corollary to the rule “one good turn deserves another,” it is “one stupid thing begets another.” So it was late last month when a Yakima senator seemed to reach back to the 1960s for terminology to describe minorities during discussion of a bill that would have allowed the state to gather better data about racial disparities in some of its social programs.

OLYMPIA – In the Legislature, if there is a corollary to the rule “one good turn deserves another,” it is, one stupid thing begets another. So it was late last month when a Yakima senator seemed to reach back to the 1960s for terminology to describe minorities.

OLYMPIA – Sexually violent predators who don’t take part in prescribed treatment could not be released from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island under a bill approved overwhelmingly by the House. When they are released into community custody, a judge would first consider sending them back to the county where they were convicted, another bill the House approved says.

OLYMPIA – Washington could renew its interest in nuclear energy by finding locations for small reactors and teaching teens about the industry, under a pair of bills the Senate passed Friday. One bill would require state officials to seek potential locations for “modular” nuclear reactors able to produce about a third of the power of traditional power plants. Traditional plants generate 1,000 megawatts or more while modular reactors generate 300 megawatts or less.

OLYMPIA – Many states are banning powdered alcohol – a controversial product that turns water into rum or vodka. But in Washington, lawmakers want to legalize, tax and regulate it just like liquid booze. The product, which goes by the brand name Palcohol, can’t be sold in the United States pending approval from federal regulators. Five states have laws that would keep it from hitting shelves, if that happens, and bans are being considered in at least a dozen more. Lawmakers there say it’s dangerous, unnecessary and too easy to misuse.

OLYMPIA – As legislators worked this week to blend the state’s recreational and medical marijuana laws, Spokane Valley officials asked them to consider one more wrinkle in the rapidly changing marketplace: pot lounges. The Members Lounge, which is connected to a medical marijuana dispensary and allows consumption of some vapor and edible marijuana products on its premises, is an example of where the state’s two very different systems don’t mesh well. Using recreational marijuana in public is not legal, but the law is silent on public consumption of medical marijuana, and the lounge contends its patrons aren’t in public but become members of a private club by paying a fee.

OLYMPIA – As legislators worked this week to blend the state’s recreational and medical marijuana laws, Spokane Valley officials asked them to consider one more wrinkle in the rapidly changing marketplace: pot lounges.

OLYMPIA – A bill to give Washington State University permission to start its own medical school might seem like a locomotive sitting at the station, ready to steam down the track. After all, it’s got two-thirds of the state House of Representatives as co-sponsors. Now supporters must work to keep extra cars from being attached to that train.

OLYMPIA – A bill to give Washington State University permission to start its own medical school might seem like a locomotive sitting at the station, ready to steam down the track. After all, it’s got two-thirds of the state House of Representatives as co-sponsors. Now supporters must work to keep extra cars from being attached to that train.

OLYMPIA – The state would find out how many people with mental illness are being turned away from treatment facilities under a bill the Senate passed unanimously Wednesday. Under the state’s Involuntary Treatment Act, mental health professionals can detain a person they believe to be “gravely disabled” or at risk of physical harm.

OLYMPIA – Washington would raise the minimum wage for most workers to $12 an hour by 2019 under a bill that passed the House on Tuesday after a spirited partisan debate. Democrats said it was a way to give workers at the bottom rungs of employment a chance to pay their way out of poverty. Republicans said it would make it even harder for young workers to get their first jobs and the work skills that would serve them later in life.

OLYMPIA – A controversial package of higher taxes and fees which would raise gasoline taxes by 11.7 cents over three years passed the Senate Monday on a 27-22 vote. By a much larger margin, senators then approved a list of some $15 billion worth of projects those taxes and fees would support, nearly $1 billion of them in the Spokane area.