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2 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
Washington state auditors have started investigating whether local police departments are properly reporting officer misconduct. As part of police accountability measures passed in 2021, the Legislature required law enforcement agencies to report to the state Criminal Justice Training Commission when officers leave the department for any reason, use force that results in death or serious injury, are charged with a crime or are found to commit certain misconduct.
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3 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
An investigation into a two-year-long string of military equipment theft from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, turned up Nazi memorabilia, white supremacist literature and a cache of weapons in the suspects’ home in Lacey, according to charges filed in federal court Wednesday.
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3 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
SEATTLE — Federal appeals court judges in Seattle on Wednesday questioned a Trump administration lawyer and Washington’s solicitor general over the president’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.
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4 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
A Christian ministry in Yakima and the state of Washington are clashing in federal court over whether the religious group can decline to hire LGBTQ+ employees. The Union Gospel Mission of Yakima runs a homeless shelter, addiction recovery programs and medical and dental clinics. The mission wants only to hire employees who follow the biblical notions forbidding sex outside of marriage and between anyone other than a man and woman.
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4 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
21:25 News Story ImmigrationPolice & CourtsPolitics Nick Brown described a “crisis” surrounding the president’s use of executive power and said he expects to file more lawsuits against the administration, in addition to 20 brought so far.
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5 days ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
Washington is showing promise in its work to combat the epidemic of drug overdose deaths that has ravaged the state and country in recent years. In 2024, fatal overdoses in the state dropped nearly 11% from the previous year, from 3,512 to 3,137, according to preliminary data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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1 week ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
For the rest of this year, Washington landlords are limited to rent hikes of 10% or less under a landmark new state law. House Bill 1217, signed into law this month by Gov. Bob Ferguson, restricts annual residential rent increases to 7% plus inflation, or 10%, whichever is lower. The state Department of Commerce calculated the former option as 10.8%. Since that’s above the threshold, rent increases are capped at 10% through the end of 2025.
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1 week ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
ABERDEEN — For the past few weeks, Kendrick Rochelle has been going to Washington’s overcrowded youth prison in Chehalis to build relationships with the young men held there. Rochelle is trying to recruit them to join a leadership program at a new juvenile detention center called Harbor Heights on the grounds of an adult prison near Aberdeen, where he’ll serve as superintendent. Harbor Heights is set to open June 9.
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1 week ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
A new COVID-19 variant fueling a global rise in cases has been detected in Washington, but health officials aren’t too concerned. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the variant in a sample collected May 15 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to the state Department of Health. As of Thursday morning, that’s been the only case confirmed in Washington, and it’s unclear whether the May 15 case was in a state resident or a visitor.
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1 week ago | 
washingtonstatestandard.com | Jake Goldstein-Street
Coming off a 33-year high, deaths on Washington’s roads dropped nearly 10% last year, according to state data released Wednesday. The state saw 731 people die in vehicle crashes in 2024, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission’s preliminary data. That’s down from 743 in 2022 and 809 in 2023, the most since 1990. But it’s still well above levels in the 500 range recorded annually from 2015 through 2020.
