WA food pantries implement new policies to provide healthy nutrition
Public News Service - May 1, 2025
Research shows people experiencing food insecurity often suffer from chronic health conditions due to a lack of proper nutrition. Now, a group of Washington food banks is working to change it.
The Washington Food Coalition is collaborating with the American Heart Association-Washington branch, adopting the Association's nutritional guidelines for its local food pantries.
...(Read More)
New report: Mass deportations would harm WA economy
Public News Service - April 30, 2025
A new report warned mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in Washington would lead to labor shortages and make many goods and services more expensive.
Washington is home to 325,000 undocumented immigrants, many of whom work in agriculture, construction, and caregiving.
Kaitie Dong, senior policy analyst at the Washington State Budget and Policy Center and the report's co-author, said in 2022, undocumented workers paid nearly $1 billion in Washington state and local taxes, while generating nearly $150 billion a year for the state's gross domestic product.
...(Read More)
WA youth: Money for medicaid, not war
Public News Service - April 29, 2025
A group of Washington youths, fresh from a grassroots leadership development program, is speaking up against the Trump Administration's plans to cut funding for social programs while investing more in the country's military.
The group of young people recently concluded the Young Activist Leaders Program, which teaches social justice and community organizing.
Nico Jaggar, youth organizer for the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, is one of the youth leaders of the program. ...(Read More)
BPA urged to focus on salmon, clean energy in market choice
Public News Service - April 29, 2025
A major player in the Northwest's energy landscape is considering changes in the future as extreme climate events make power delivery in Washington more unpredictable.
Like utilities in the region, the Bonneville Power Administration, a nonprofit federal administration, is considering joining a larger energy market to ensure reliable access for customers. BPA is favoring a market known as Markets+, which it said will be less expensive in the long run but could cost between $79 million and $129 million more for ratepayers in 2026.
...(Read More)
Congressional vote could slow WA's electric vehicle transition
Public News Service - April 28, 2025
Congress is voting this week whether to roll back states' authority to set their own, stricter clean car and truck emissions standards, which could hurt the country's electric vehicle market.
The vote comes as new data shows some Washington residents could save nearly $2,000 a year on gas by switching to EVs.
Rob Sargent, program director for the nonprofit Coltura, which focuses on accelerating the country's transition from gasoline to electric vehicles, said the vote could undermine EV availability, consumer savings and domestic EV manufacturing efforts already underway.
...(Read More)
Rural WA counties face challenges without key federal funding
Public News Service - April 25, 2025
By Claire Carlson and Lane Wendell Fischer for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Isobel Charle for Washington News Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration
When students in rural Trinity County, California, gaze out their classroom windows, they see the tree-filled landscape of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which spans more than 2 million acres in the northeast corner of the state.
The expansive forest might inspire dreams of outdoor adventure for locals, but for Trinity County and other rural forest communities across the U.S., it also represents a fraught cycle of inadequate public school funding.
That’s because these schools rely on the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act (SRS), a federal program that allocates money to counties that overlap National Forest land.
Because public land cannot be used or taxed for local interests, the SRS program offsets this loss of local revenue by allocating federal funds to support essential community infrastructure like roads and schools. SRS requires regular reauthorization, typically every three years and is often accompanied by reductions in funding.
The law temporarily expired in 2016 and rural school districts missed out on a year’s-worth of SRS payments. At the Trinity Alps Unified School District, this budget shortfall prevented the district from fixing a dangerous outbreak of toxic mold. ...(Read More)
WA investments in school mental-health services slowly helping
Public News Service - April 24, 2025
Washington has done well enacting some policies that improve school mental-health systems in the last year, while still falling short in other areas, according to a new report.
Natalie Gustafson, assistant director for Behavioral Health Department, northwest Washington Educational Service District 189, said the state has been making progress by implementing excused mental-health absences as well as alternatives to suspension.
"There's been initiatives to increase hours of training around social emotional learning, around trauma informed practices, around suicide prevention," she said. "...(Read More)
WA's advanced pollen tracking tool can help allergy sufferers
Public News Service - April 22, 2025
Washington's pollen season is starting earlier and lasting longer, thanks to climate change, with research showing airborne pollen levels across the country increasing more than 20% in the last 30 years.
Rad Cunningham, climate and health manager for the Washington State Department of Health, said to track local trends, pollen monitors have been installed across the state. Cunningham explained the goal is to study the effects of climate change on pollen and help allergy sufferers. ...(Read More)
Police reform advocate: WA must do more to reduce deaths
Public News Service - April 21, 2025
Five years after George Floyd's murder by a white police officer sparked nationwide protests and demands for police reform, progress remains slow, including in Washington.
State legislators passed a number of police reforms a year after Floyd's death, including banning chokeholds and "no-knock" raids. One law banning police pursuits was later rolled back. ...(Read More)
WA cattle grazing can harm 'food webs'
Public News Service - April 18, 2025
By Seth Millstein for Sentient Climate.
Broadcast version by Isobel Charle for Washington News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration
Beef production has steadily been rising over the last half-century. Unfortunately, so has the environmental destruction that it causes. Cattle ranching requires the wholesale eradication of natural habitats, and this eradication causes immeasurable damage to an essential component of Earth's overall ecosystem: food webs.
"Cattle are not native to the U.S. ...(Read More)
Unique approach to helping WA homeless youth 'highly effective'
Public News Service - April 15, 2025
A unique approach to preventing youth homelessness in Washington is proving highly effective, with more than 93% of participants still housed one year later.
The Homelessness Prevention and Diversion Fund provides flexible aid to young people in nine Washington counties. In its first three years, it has helped more than 1,700 young people find safe housing. ...(Read More)
For now, WA residents can e-file taxes directly with IRS
Public News Service - April 14, 2025
Washington is one of 25 states where people can use the online "IRS Direct File" system, to file their income-tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. But the future of the program is at risk.
For years, taxpayers' advocates had pushed for a free, simple tax-filing option for people who don't need a third-party tax preparer. ...(Read More)
Wildlife advocates decry WA wolf population decline
Public News Service - April 10, 2025
Wildlife advocates are alarmed by a new report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife showing the state's wolf population fell nearly 10% last year.
The vast majority of the wolves were illegally and legally killed by humans. The report also showed the number of successful breeding pairs, a key population indicator, dropped 25% last year.
...(Read More)
Working people in WA call for higher taxes on the rich
Public News Service - April 7, 2025
Washington lawmakers and Gov. Robert Ferguson disagree about how to address the state's $16 billion revenue shortfall.
The House and Senate have both passed budgets which would tax wealthy residents and corporations in order to balance the budget. ...(Read More)
Trabajadores de WA piden impuestos más altos para los ricos
Public News Service - April 7, 2025
Los legisladores de Washington y el gobernador Ferguson no se ponen de acuerdo sobre cómo hacer frente al déficit de ingresos del Estado, que asciende a $16 billones de dólares.
Tanto la Cámara de Representantes como el Senado han aprobado presupuestos para equilibrarlo, gravando a los residentes más ricos y a las empresas.
En contraste, el plan del gobernador Ferguson recorta programas sociales y despide a empleados para ahorrar $7 billones de dólares al estado. ...(Read More)
