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Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, center, speaks to reporters alongside Solicitor General Noah Purcell, left, and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Legal Director Matt Adams, right, outside a Seattle courthouse where federal appeals court judges heard arguments over President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship on June 4, 2025. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)

Local News

Appeals court maintains WA’s nationwide block of birthright citizenship order

A federal appeals court on Wednesday agreed with a Seattle judge’s decision to universally block President Donald Trump’s…

The U.S. Capitol pictured on March 25, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

Local News

‘Literally no way’: Idea of redrawing WA’s congressional map gets bipartisan brush off

U.S. House Democrats want to counter a move by Texas lawmakers to elect more Republicans. Washington state lawmakers…

A barred owl at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. (Ray Bosch/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Local News

Plans to shoot thousands of barred owls in doubt after feds cancel grants

The U.S. Forest Service plan is part of a strategy to save endangered spotted owls in Washington, Oregon…

Jake Goldstein-Street / Washington State Standard
Angelina Godoy, director of the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, speaks to reporters alongside advocates outside Boeing Field in Seattle on Tuesday.

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Deportation flights at WA airport up dramatically this year, advocates say

Activists also say King County officials aren’t being transparent enough about the flights in and out of Boeing…

Smoke shrouds the hilltops as the Bolt Creek Fire burns through thick forest in 2022 on U.S. Highway 2 near Index. Members of the public can now view video feeds from artificial-intelligence-assisted cameras placed in 21 high-risk wildfire locations around Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)

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Online feeds from WA’s wildfire detection cameras are now available

Members of the public can now view video feeds from artificial-intelligence-assisted cameras placed in 21 high-risk wildfire locations…

Opponents of President Donald Trump’s executive order indefinitely halting refugee resettlement in the U.S. rally on the steps of the federal courthouse in Seattle on Feb. 25, 2025, after a judge issued a ruling blocking the president’s order. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)

Local News

Refugees from travel ban countries must be allowed to enter US, Seattle judge rules

It’s the latest twist in the legal battle over President Trump’s attempt to block refugee resettlement.

The Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility about 16 miles east of Ellensburg in central Washington is part of Puget Sound Energy’s clean energy portfolio. (Courtesy of Puget Sound Energy)

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Megabill’s elimination of tax credits for clean energy projects could cost WA $8.7 billion

Washington households could see electricity costs increase $115 per year by 2029; 21,800 workers could lose their jobs…

Guns for sale at Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, New Jersey, which has been open since 1967. (Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/New Jersey Monitor)

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After suing, WA gets carveout from Trump administration plan to return gun conversion devices

The Trump administration has agreed to not distribute devices that turn semi-automatic rifles into machine guns in Washington…

Washington State Ferries said it would deploy its new electric ferries first on the Mukilteo-Clinton run. Additional orders are expected to follow to replace more than a dozen other aging vessels in the fleet. (Photo by Tom Banse)

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Washington state to buy new hybrid electric ferries from Florida shipyard

Gov. Bob Ferguson made the final call to turn down a higher bid from a local boat builder.

The Washington state Capitol. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard)

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These Washington laws take effect July 1

Fee hikes for hunting and fishing licenses, workplace protections for immigrants and increased requirements for gun dealers are…

Washington will have the nation’s third-highest state gas tax behind California and Pennsylvania.(Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

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Gas tax will rise in Washington on July 1

Washington’s century-old fuel tax is going up again.

The BEAD program was created under the federal infrastructure law that former President Joe Biden signed in 2021. It was fashioned as a way to expand high-speed internet service into rural areas and other parts of the country where it was unavailable or lacking. (Stock photo)

Local News

Feds throw Washington’s $1.2B broadband program into disarray

States spent more than two years preparing to distribute the infrastructure funding, now the Trump administration is making…

Photo courtesy of Washington governor’s office
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, center, met with several statewide elected officials on Monday to discuss the how federal funding cuts could impact the state.

Local News

Tax collections tumble again in latest Washington budget forecast

The decline in receipts will force the state to draw down savings, but Gov. Bob Ferguson said he…

Firefighters undertake a prescribed burn at the Upper Applegate Watershed near Medford, Oregon on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Such burns can help reduce the risk of large wildfires. (Kyle Sullivan, Bureau of Land Management/Flickr)

Local News

Trump looks to ‘consolidate’ wildland fire agencies

An executive order signed earlier this month by President Donald Trump would look to “consolidate” five federal wildland…

An EV charger in Granite Falls outside of Granite Falls City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024 in Granite Falls, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

Seattle judge orders Trump administration to unfreeze EV charger funding

The preliminary court ruling would unlock the money for more than a dozen states, including $71 million for…

Nearly three-quarters of acute care hospital inspections were late, as of December, according to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee. One facility hadn’t gotten a state inspection since early 2018. (Stock photo)

Local News

Washington faces major lag in state inspections of hospitals

Washington state inspectors are way behind in their examinations of hospitals and fail to investigate when hospitals report…

A classroom inside College Place Middle School in Lynnwood in 2023. New discipline guidelines for public school students will go into effect across Washington state next month. (Annie Barker / The Herald)

Local News

Washington updates student discipline rules for public schools

New discipline guidelines for public school students will go into effect across Washington state next month.

The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, which is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the western U.S. (Grace Deng/Washington State Standard)

Local News

WA looks to strengthen safety net for children whose parents are deported

Detained immigrant parents worried who will pick their children up from school. Mothers who’ve been deported with infants…

An EV charger in Granite Falls outside of Granite Falls City Hall on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024 in Granite Falls, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

Seattle judge considers reversing Trump’s EV charger funding freeze

Congress appropriated $5 billion, but the Trump administration stopped it from reaching states. Washington is leading the legal…

Washington’s payouts — known as tort liability — have skyrocketed from $72 million in fiscal year 2018 to more than $281 million last fiscal year. (Stock photo)

Local News

Washington state lawsuit payouts skyrocket to more than $500M in past year

Claims against the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families are driving a spike in cases.