https://www.washingtonstatestandard.com/

Washington State Standard, Olympia, WA (2026)

01/08/2026

Two years ago, Amanda McKinney, a Republican Yakima County commissioner, made a commercial endorsing Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse for re-election and assailing his GOP opponent who had the backing of then former President Donald Trump.

“I trust Dan,” she says in the 30-second television spot, adding that he has the “experience and clout to keep delivering for central Washington.”

Two weeks ago, McKinney, who is running to succeed the outgoing Newhouse, offered a different story at AmericaFest, an annual event hosted by Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.

She told the crowd that after “her congressman” voted to impeach Trump in 2021, “I knew that I needed to find a way to retire him. I took a couple years … understanding and finding a pathway to retire our sitting congressman.”

Video from her Dec. 21 appearance in Phoenix, Arizona, has been mashed together with snippets from the campaign ad into a meme that’s captured the attention of Republicans in the 4th Congressional District that Newhouse has represented since 2015.

Republican Amanda McKinney got President Donald Trump’s endorsement Tuesday in spite of her backing a congressman who voted to impeach Trump.

01/07/2026

Washington is set to receive $181 million in federal funding this year to boost rural health care amid drastic Medicaid cuts.

The hefty sum falls below what the Trump administration gave to some other states, and the rough average of $200 million to each. But the state is in the middle of the pack when it comes to funding per rural resident.

The return on Washington’s application for $1 billion over the next five years from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program didn’t necessarily come as a shock.

“I don’t think anyone was surprised that we received less than 200,” said Jacqueline Barton True, the Washington State Hospital Association’s vice president of advocacy and rural health. “We certainly internally had operated under the impression that we weren’t going to get $200 million.”

To Elya Prystowsky, the executive director of the Rural Collaborative, the award was a “pleasant surprise.”

“I would have been happy if we got $100 million,” said Prystowsky, whose organization represents Washington’s rural hospitals. “So $181 million is $81 million of gravy, as far as I’m concerned.”

Washington is set to receive $181 million in federal funding this year to boost rural health care amid drastic Medicaid cuts.

01/06/2026

Blanche Barajas and Gary Bode have very different ideas about fluoridation. She’s pro. He’s against.

As city council members in Pasco and Lynden, respectively, they fought two of seven battles in Washington in the past two years over fluoridation in public water supplies. Those fights reflect a spike in skepticism about the long-time, dental-related practice supported by health experts. Washington already is below the national average in residents served by fluoridated water.

At least seven city councils have grappled with whether to remove fluoride from drinking water. Dental experts point to benefits and say the mineral is safe at levels used in the U.S.

01/06/2026

When Cadence was deciding which 8th grade classes to take at Maywood Middle School, a couple of things influenced the 14-year-old’s choices.

“I don’t like ELA,” she said, referring to English Language Arts, the term schools use these days for reading and writing.

So Cadence chose to spend part of her day in Issaquah School District’s experimental microschool, which combines science and English with a focus on the environment, and an emphasis on hands-on learning.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Cadence and her classmates were conducting an experiment to better understand radiation, using skittles and math — and both reading and writing. Earlier in the period, she participated in a class review session employing both writing and conversation. And her class also spoke briefly about the book they had been reading about the groundbreaking chemist and physicist Marie Curie.

In other words, her teacher, Valerie Buck, weaves reading and writing into every day and every project, with or without Cadence and her classmates realizing. It’s a creative approach to meeting students where they are academically.

Customizing education to the needs of individual students is not new. Research has shown for decades that every child requires a slightly different path to academic success. But most schools find it easier to talk about than to actually do in large classes during short class periods.

Issaquah’s microschool program is just one notable example where a Washington school is working hard to overcome those obstacles.

Educators are exploring new and creative approaches to meeting students where they are academically. For some options, regulatory and funding frameworks are still evolving.

01/05/2026

Washington is close to opening a new incentive program for commercial fleet operators to transition trucks and other vehicles to models that run on electric or hydrogen power.

Industry groups and climate advocates anxiously await the $126 million initiative. But the state lawmakers who championed it say it’s taken far too long to come online.

The transportation sector is the biggest driver of Washington’s carbon emissions. Exhaust from big trucks and buses makes up a disproportionate share of those emissions, and diesel air pollution can be especially unhealthy.

To help combat this, the Washington Zero-Emission Incentive Program, or WAZIP, is expected to launch in the spring.

“We are very eager for WAZIP to launch as soon as possible,” said Leah Missik, the Washington legislative director for environmental advocacy group Climate Solutions. “We know from the experience in other states and even from the experience of people who’ve been able to get clean trucks here in Washington that this program will help drivers and businesses save money, and it will benefit communities.”

Washington has already made some progress.

In 2024, nearly one in five new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold in Washington ran on zero-emission technology, according to the state Department of Ecology. Though the adoption rate varies depending on the type. Heavier trucks are harder to come by than, for example, electric delivery vans. Think of Amazon’s ubiquitous Rivian vans.

Heavy trucks, on the other hand, remain prohibitively expensive for many companies, while lacking public charging infrastructure, industry groups say. And they can’t go nearly as far on a charge as their diesel-fueled counterparts, not to mention they’re much heavier.

Washington is close to opening a new incentive program for commercial fleet operators to transition trucks and other vehicles to models that run on electric or hydrogen power.

12/31/2025

The U.S. Postal Service has adopted a new rule that could create doubt about whether some ballots mailed by voters by Election Day will receive postmarks in time to be counted.

A USPS rule that took effect on Dec. 24 says mail might not receive a postmark on the same day the agency takes possession of it. The postal service says it isn’t changing its existing postmark practices and is merely clarifying its policy, but some election officials have looked to postmarks as a guarantee that mail ballots were cast before polls closed.

The new rule holds implications for 14 states and Washington, D.C., that count ballots arriving after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before that day — commonly called a “ballot grace period.” In these states, ballots placed in the mail by voters before the deadline may not be counted if the postal service applies a postmark after Election Day.

The USPS rule says that “the postmark date does not necessarily indicate the first day that the Postal Service had possession of the mailpiece.”

The USPS rule comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider a case that could eliminate ballot grace periods nationwide. The court’s decision, expected late this spring or next summer, could render the issues raised by the postmark rule moot.

The U.S. Postal Service has adopted a new rule that could create doubt about whether some ballots mailed by voters by Election Day will receive postmarks in time to be counted.

12/31/2025

U.S. Highway 2 west of Stevens Pass will fully reopen by Sunday, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said Tuesday.

The major east-west route was badly damaged during heavy rain and flooding that hit the state earlier this month. Closures on both sides of the pass began Dec. 10.

The west-side reopening, from mileposts 50 to 64, will provide access to the Stevens Pass Ski Resort from the Puget Sound region, a welcome development for season pass holders and businesses along the corridor that depend on winter patrons traveling to and from the resort.

“It’ll open as in, all lanes, no restrictions from here to the pass. So it’s incredibly, incredibly good news,” Ferguson said during a press conference in Skykomish, where the road has been shut down on the west side of the mountains.

The major east-west route was badly damaged during heavy rain and flooding that hit the state earlier this month. Closures on both sides of the pass began Dec. 10.

12/30/2025

Tax hikes on big business and rental cars. Unemployment benefits for workers on strike.

Those are just a few of the changes to state law taking effect in Washington on New Year’s Day.

Some bills passed in 2025 became law earlier in the year, while others will take years to go into effect. The next legislative session, lasting 60 days, begins Jan. 12.

Here’s a look at some of the new laws on the books starting Thursday.

Taxes on big business and rental cars. Unemployment benefits for striking workers. Those are some of the changes taking effect in Washington.

12/29/2025

UNION GAP, Wash. — On a chilly fall morning, farmworkers fanned out through an orchard here to pick rose-hued apples from green rows of trees that flank this central Washington valley’s irrigated slopes.

These Pink Ladies were one of the last varieties to ripen in a harvest season that began in late summer amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Local farmworkers — many of them immigrants without legal status — were on edge, while growers worried the federal deportation push could worsen chronic labor shortages.

In a harvest that stretched from August to early December, federal agents did not make large-scale arrests in workplace raids in the orchards. Instead, as in other parts of the country, people often were targeted as they ventured from their homes to shop or commute.

These tactics added a new element of risk and a big dose of fear to many workers’ lives. Still, most continued to make the daily trip to the orchards, where skilled pickers can make from $20 to more than $40 an hour.

“Everybody has work. They got to pay their bills. So, it makes it hard to not come,” said Raul Arroyo Rosas, a Yakima Valley horticulturist working in the Pink Lady orchard.

The Trump administration’s deportation push has caused turmoil within the state’s farm workforce as federal legislation meant to improve the situation has stalled.

12/26/2025

About 20 miles of U.S. 2 are set to reopen Monday on the east side of the Cascades, allowing access to the Stevens Pass ski resort, after devastating flooding and debris slides destroyed parts of the highway this month.

U.S. 2, a major east-west crossing in Washington over the Cascades, has been closed for two weeks along a nearly 50-mile stretch between Skykomish and Leavenworth. Parts of the roadway collapsed entirely.

Fully reopening the highway “is going to take time, a long time, and we’re still evaluating the full extent of the damage,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a press conference Friday.

The partial reopening will be at 6 a.m. Monday between Coles Corner and Stevens Pass, or mileposts 85 and 64, Ferguson said. A pilot car will shepherd drivers for the final stretch to the pass in one lane between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. This system is expected to last at least a month.

About 20 miles of U.S. 2 are set to reopen Monday on the east side of the Cascades, allowing access to the Stevens Pass ski resort,

12/26/2025

In early August, the leader of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife had become so concerned with alleged behaviors of the citizen panel that he answers to that he asked Gov. Bob Ferguson to investigate.

Kelly Susewind, the agency director, questioned whether conduct by members of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission complied with state laws after poring through a trove of their emails and texts obtained and shared publicly by an advocacy group for hunters and anglers.

The Sportsmen’s Alliance had argued that commissioners violated state requirements for open meetings and records disclosure, and that they disregarded mandates to maximize hunting and fishing. The group was pressing Ferguson to remove four commissioners.

Against this backdrop, Susewind made his extraordinary request for an inquiry into the commission, which oversees his department and has the power to remove a director should it choose.

“I know this is a big ask,” he wrote the governor Aug. 5. Susewind said an investigation could clear up a cloud of uncertainty shrouding the nine-person commission. If wrongdoing occurred, he said, the governor could remove members because each is appointed by the executive.

A few days later, it became public that Ferguson had ordered an investigation. “The governor takes concerns from an agency director very seriously,” Ferguson’s communications director, Brionna Aho, told the Standard.

An investigation sought by Gov. Bob Ferguson into the conduct of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission may not be done until next year.

12/25/2025

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared a public health emergency Wednesday over this month’s flooding in Washington state.

The action from Kennedy, the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is focused on helping meet the needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. As part of that, his agency is providing access to HHS emPOWER, which gives data on the number of Medicare enrollees reliant on medical equipment dependent on electricity and other health care services that could make them especially vulnerable to a disaster.

The announcement could be a good sign for the state’s chances of getting a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump to potentially open up tens of millions of dollars to deal with the flooding’s aftermath.

Gov. Bob Ferguson plans to ask for such a declaration in the coming weeks.

The flooding from heavy rain and overflowing rivers forced thousands of evacuations, breached multiple levees and damaged numerous highways. It still didn’t quite reach the levels some forecasts predicted. One person has been reported dead.

Kennedy’s order follows an emergency declaration from Trump that unlocked federal resources to respond to the storm.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared a public health emergency Wednesday over this month’s flooding in Washington state.

Washington State Standard

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