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Washington State Standard, Olympia, WA (2025)

11/24/2025

Colleen Melody said she’s done interviews for two jobs in the past 12 years. Bob Ferguson conducted both.

About a decade ago, Ferguson, then Washington’s attorney general, chose her to lead his office’s new civil rights unit devoted to investigating and enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

On Monday, Ferguson, now governor, named Melody as Washington’s newest state Supreme Court justice.

Melody, 43, will succeed Justice Mary Yu, who announced her retirement in September.

“Anyone who has had any interaction with Colleen in a legal setting would all agree that she has a brilliant legal mind,” Ferguson said at a news conference in the Supreme Court chambers at the Temple of Justice in Olympia.

Melody said “the toughest question” in the hiring process was why she wanted to leave a job she so enjoyed.

“I never dreamt of being a judge,” she said. She added that working the past decade with individuals and juries, and in courthouses across the state, incited the desire.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Monday named Colleen Melody, a senior assistant attorney general, to the state Supreme Court.

11/24/2025

If you have ever wanted to own an iconic Washington state ferry, now may be your last chance to buy one until the 2030s. There are two sizes available with no minimum bid — the decommissioned 144-car Hyak and the 87-car Klahowya.

But before you get carried away with dreams of a palatial waterfront fixer-upper, or opening a floating restaurant, or making a quick buck off the scrap metal, be aware of the scrutiny you stand to receive.

“It’s more challenging than most people would have guessed,” said John Vezina, the deputy head of the state ferry system. “We’re not going to sign off on anything that isn’t ironclad that it can work.”

The Hyak and Klahowya have been sitting on the market unsold for more than a year since the state terminated a prior sales contract with an Ecuadorian middleman in summer 2024.

Businessman Nelson Armas paid $200,000 with the intention of towing his purchases to Ecuador for scrapping. The deal went awry when the hired tugboat could not safely connect to two ferries, among other mishaps. The South American tugboat crew ended up deported.

“It’s incredibly difficult to sell decommissioned vessels,” Vezina said in an interview.

The vessels are lingering on the market as Washington State Ferries scrutinizes potential buyers. Past purchases haven't always ended well.

11/21/2025

Damage at the Washington state Capitol from vandalism last month could cost nearly $1 million.

New estimates released Thursday put the total tab for the Oct. 5 rampage at $623,000 to $914,000 excluding taxes. The biggest cost driver is damage to a historic chenille rug nearly a century old in the state reception room, according to the Department of Enterprise Services.

It could cost $100,000 just to move the rug and affected drapes to another location for the repairs, the agency said. It will require storing them in a climate-controlled space at an estimated $750 per month, which doesn’t count toward the total estimate.

Repairing the unique rug, which suffered smoke and fire damage, will cost from $443,000 to $719,000 while estimates for restoring historic mohair drapes that were burned are between $19,350 and $34,200.

New estimates put the total tab for the Oct. 5 rampage at the Washington state Capitol at $623,000 to $914,000 excluding taxes.

11/21/2025

Washington state lawmakers next year are set to again discuss whether public sector unions can bargain over their employers’ adoption of artificial intelligence technology.

House Bill 1622 looks to require government employers to bargain with unions over the use of the technology if it affects wages or worker performance evaluations.

This past session, the bill passed the House mostly along party lines, with Democratic support, before stalling in the Senate.

Opponents, including business groups and city officials, argued the measure would skew the balance of power between employees and managers too far toward workers. They also said the mandate could delay workplace innovation.

Washington lawmakers are set to discuss whether public sector unions can bargain over their employers’ adoption of AI.

11/21/2025

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez told voters in her 2022 campaign that she was “definitely not your typical candidate for Congress.”

After winning two consecutive U.S. House elections in Washington’s Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, she’s proven it.

Her willingness to cross up her party leaders and crossover to vote with the GOP majority was on display again this week in an episode that made some of her Democratic colleagues uneasy, others outright hostile.

Gluesenkamp Perez, of Skamania County in southwest Washington, authored a resolution reprimanding a retiring Democrat from Illinois for a political sleight-of-hand aimed at ensuring he is succeeded by his chief of staff.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, and pretty much everyone else in the Democratic caucus didn’t want the matter to reach the House floor.

It did. It wasn’t pretty. MGP — that’s how folks refer to her — found herself pitted against fellow Democrats enraged by her dogged pursuit of the public reprimand.

The resolution passed 236-183, thanks to the votes of 213 Republicans.

Gluesenkamp Perez isn’t second-guessing her move.

The Standard spoke with her on Thursday to hear if there’s been any fallout and if the experience might have her rethinking her relationship with the Democratic Party.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez took on her party by seeking a public reprimand of a House member. She doesn't regret doing it.

11/20/2025

Washington served up a new license plate Wednesday, honoring the state sport of pickleball.

In the works for three years, it is the second of seven specialty plates to hit the market since getting approved by lawmakers earlier this year.

“We’re thrilled to see our efforts become reality,” said Kate Van Gent, vice president of the nonprofit Seattle Metro Pickleball Association, the force behind the plate. “The goal has always been to celebrate the sport created here in Washington and enjoyed across the state.”

Pickleball is a tennis-like sport played with wooden paddles and a plastic ball. It was named the state sport under a 2022 law signed by then-Gov. Jay Inslee, in a ceremony at the Bainbridge Island home where the sport was invented in the 1960s. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country.

This is one of 13 specialty plates authorized in the law. Seven are getting phased in now. The timeline for the other six is tied to other factors, such as submitting signatures.

Washington served up a new license plate Wednesday, celebrating the state sport of pickleball.

11/20/2025

Sales of Washington’s pass to access state parks and other recreation areas fell after an Oct. 1 price hike, but fee collections increased.

Figures presented to the state Parks and Recreation Commission on Wednesday show a 23% drop in the number of annual Discover Pass sales in October, compared to last year. Revenue from the passes climbed 16% year-over-year. Day pass sales and revenue slipped 2%.

The decline in annual pass sales was anticipated. Even with fewer sales, the state expects to bring in more money with this fall’s $15 price increase.

“Definitely in the annual pass, we did well for revenue,” said Laura Holmes, State Parks’ administrative services director, told the commission. “We’re right on track with projections.”

Lawmakers during this year’s legislative session approved raising the price of the annual state public lands pass to $45 from $30. Transaction fees can apply too, including a $5 charge for online sales. It was the first price increase since the pass system was established in 2011.

The decline in annual pass sales was anticipated. Even with fewer sales, the state expects to bring in more money with this fall's $15 hike.

11/19/2025

Washington state budget writers got a mild dose of good news on Tuesday, but are still looking at a strained balance sheet.

Revenue projections show collections up $105 million for the current two-year state budget compared to the last forecast in September. That amounts to a 0.1% increase, a change from previous reports showing precipitous drops.

House Democrats’ chief budget writer, Timm Ormsby, called the forecast a “little welcome relief.”

“We’ve leveled out a bit and stabilized, which was pleasing, but it certainly doesn’t take away from the challenges and difficult decisions we’re going to have to make in the upcoming session,” said Ormsby, of Spokane. “At least we’re not going backwards.”

In the late September forecast, anticipated collections had slid over half a billion dollars since Gov. Bob Ferguson signed off on the new two-year budget in May. Tuesday’s projections inch the state back toward even.

Tuesday’s forecast is the last one before lawmakers return to Olympia on Jan. 12 for a 60-day legislative session where they’ll adjust the budget.

Washington state budget writers got a mild dose of good news on Tuesday, but are still looking at a strained balance sheet.

11/18/2025

Washington’s most endangered congressional Democrat in next year’s midterms sparred openly with her own party for an hour on the floor of the U.S. House on Monday night.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is pushing a resolution to disapprove of actions by outgoing U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois, that resulted in his chief of staff as the only Democrat running to succeed him in 2026. A vote on the resolution is anticipated Tuesday morning.

Gluesenkamp Perez’s Democratic colleagues lined up to oppose her resolution and stand up for Garcia. The Illinois congressman, at one point, spoke in his own defense.

Republicans exited the chamber as the debate unfolded. And no Democrats spoke in support of Gluesenkamp Perez’s move. The southwest Washington congresswoman, now halfway through her second term, was left on her own to defend the resolution.

“If you’re not going to run, you don’t get to choose your successor, no matter how noble the work you have done beforehand,” she said. “That’s what this is about, accountability.”

Washington’s most endangered congressional Democrat sparred openly with her own party on the floor of the U.S. House on Monday night.

11/17/2025

Just months after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a Washington law to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports, the Trump administration is looking to block such policies.

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now says federal law preempts laws like Washington’s. The federal agency’s position is a reversal from the Biden era.

Backers of Senate Bill 5480, which stops collection agencies from reporting medical debt to credit agencies, decried the move.

“Overturning safeguards around medical debt is just another indicator that we have a president that prioritizes cash money to special interests over people,” said state Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, the bill’s sponsor. “And honestly, I don’t get this upset typically, but I’m pretty upset.”

The bureau’s new interpretation of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, filed in the Federal Register late last month, doesn’t invalidate Washington’s law, but opens it up to legal challenges.

Just months after Washington passed a law to keep medical debt off credit reports, the Trump administration is aiming to block such policies.

11/16/2025

SEATTLE — Democratic state Sen. Noel Frame traces her interest in tax policy to her time as a teenager in the 1990s, concerned about scarce funding for her school district in Battle Ground, Washington.

“There was something there about taxes that I needed to figure out,” she recalled to a room packed with progressives here this week. “Here I am, I’m 45, and I’m fighting the same exact fight that I was fighting when I was 16.”

The upcoming bouts will be high-stakes, with lawmakers vexed by a budget shortfall that billions of dollars of tax increases, coupled with spending cuts, failed to resolve this year.

In the state Senate, Frame, who is from Seattle, is running point for Democrats on tax policy.

“The Revenue Queen.” That’s how Eli Taylor Goss, who leads the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, described her at the group’s Budget Matters Policy Summit, held this week at the Northwest African American Museum.

It was a crowd brimming with the belief that the state’s corporate titans and tech executives are not paying their fair share, and must shoulder more of the financial burden for publicly funded education and human services.

Pressure is building for Democrats to take a big swing on taxes, beyond this year’s hikes. How far Frame and her allies can deliver on that goal in 2026 is an open question. Next year’s legislative session, which begins in January, is just 60 days and happening ahead of an election.

Sen. Noel Frame warns progressives to buckle up if lawmakers move ahead on income tax legislation targeting higher earners.

11/14/2025

The task of relocating Marcus Whitman’s statue in the Washington state Capitol is becoming a chore.

Whitman was a doctor and missionary in the 1800s. His role in the displacement of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest has been scrutinized in recent decades.

It’s been challenging to find a place inside the Capitol where the 11-foot, 9,144-pound bronze statue won’t damage the historic structure. Moving it outside risks exposure to the elements, vandals or both. Either approach would be an expensive undertaking.

Leaving the towering Whitman where it stands in the north portico appears increasingly off the table, too.

Some state officials envision the foyer as the future home for a statue of Billy Frank Jr., the Nisqually Indian Tribe leader who was an indomitable force in the fight for the protection of salmon and Native American rights. Pairing Frank and Whitman in the same space is a concern in Indian Country.

Officials seek a new home for the Marcus Whitman statue in the Washington state Capitol that is politically acceptable and physically doable.

Washington State Standard

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