Washington clears rape test kit backlog after years of advocacy

The Washington Legislative Ethics Board has fined state Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, $250 for using public resources at a speaking event where she urged people to register to vote and support pro-abortion candidates.

Dhingra, who is running for state attorney general, must also pay back $92.43 in mileage expenses for the June 2022 news conference in Olympia with Gov. Jay Inslee and others to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade the day prior, according to the board’s ruling.

The ruling by the board – which helps enforce the state Ethics in Public Service Act – came after complaints against several state lawmakers and Inslee for speaking at two events related to reproductive healthcare after the court’s ruling last year in Dobbs.

The public resources used in the June event included a loudspeaker system and podium from the state Department of Enterprises Services, which among other things oversees the Capitol campus. For various reasons, the other legislators cleared elements of a seven-factor test used to decide whether an elected official is heeding the law.

In a statement, Dhingra pointed out that the Ethics Board has never previously made a ruling on the use of resources by a lawmaker of another state agency, such as Enterprise Services.

“The governor invited me and several other key legislators to this press conference in my capacity as a state senator, to comment on the state response to the Dobbs decision,” she said in prepared remarks. “At that time, ethics rules allowed for mileage reimbursement for official events such as this one. With the rules now changed retroactively, I will be reimbursing the Senate for mileage expenses incurred for this event.”

More than 120 organizations will split $25 million in grants from King County for programs that address disparities in health care, mental health and other issues as part of the county’s efforts to tackle racism as a public health crisis. 

The 123 awardees are community organizations, nonprofits and small businesses, including Black Coffee Northwest, Chief Seattle Club, Wa Na Wari, the Tenants Union of Washington State, Young Women Empowered and dozens more.

According to a press release last week from King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office, the grantees will work to address disparities in health care, mental health supports, maternal health, and healthy aging, as well as food access, youth mentoring, housing, art, nature and outdoors groups, and capacity-building for small organizations that provide services and more. The 123 awardees were chosen from 800 organizations that applied.

In 2020 the King County Board of Health declared racism a public health crisis in the wake of the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color and the national racial-justice protests that followed the killing of George Floyd by police officers. In the early months of the pandemic, health care workers in King County gathered by the thousands to demand that public officials declare racism and police violence as crises that public health policies should address.

The awards were determined by the Gathering Collaborative, a King County group that formed in 2022 to work toward reversing the continued impact of systemic racist practices and policies that harm Black and Indigenous people. The group was formed as part of the efforts stemming from the county’s 2020 public health declaration that pledged to support “King County and Public Health - Seattle & King County immediately in the work to advance a public health approach in addressing institutional and systemic racism.”

Two projects in Central Washington received federal grants aimed at increasing water storage and supply in Western states.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation granted $1 million to the Cle Elum Pool Raise project, which will increase the reservoir’s capacity by 3 feet, adding 14,600 acre-feet of water to help manage habitat and migration for salmon and steelhead. The allocation is in addition to a $5 million federal grant announced last fall. The reservoir level will be raised by 2028, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Another $1 million will go to the Upper Yakima System Storage Feasibility Study to help the Kittitas Irrigation District find water-storage alternatives for the region. Both projects are part of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan.

While these projects have been in the works for decades, Washington state has faced increasing drought conditions in recent years, with a drought emergency declared for 12 counties earlier this week. The state attributed the drought conditions to higher-than-normal temperatures in May and lower-than-normal rain in the late spring and early summer months.

The money for the water projects comes from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides billions of dollars to projects across the U.S. including transportation, roads, ports and broadband.

Twelve Washington counties are now officially in a drought emergency, the state Department of Ecology declared this week, after early snowmelt in May, low streamflows and a lack of spring rain.

The affected counties are Benton, Clallam, Columbia, Jefferson, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanogan, Skagit, Snohomish, Walla Walla, Whatcom and Yakima. Drought conditions have made fish passage difficult on the Olympic Peninsula, caused wells to run dry in Whatcom County and led to crop losses and low reservoirs in Central Washington.

The state declares a drought when there is less than 75% of normal water supply and a risk of undue hardship, according to the Department of Ecology. The rest of the state remains under a July 5 drought advisory, which is an early warning of a possible drought. 

The emergency declaration allows the state to grant emergency water-rights permits and makes $3 million in emergency funds available to help communities and public entities facing hardships due to the lack of water. 

According to the state, the hot weather through May and June led to the early melting and runoff of the snowpack that supplies much of the water that flows through the state’s rivers. June was also drier than normal, with only 49% of normal rainfall. This water shortage is unlikely to be made up over this summer because of the warm, dry weather expected through October, according to the state.

Washington’s continued job growth has resulted in a June unemployment rate at pre-pandemic levels. 

The rate of 3.8% in June was a drop from 4.1% a month earlier, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the Washington Employment Security Department. The previous time Washington’s unemployment rate was that low was February 2020, Employment Security economist Paul Turek said in a news release. 

In the Seattle metropolitan area, which includes Bellevue and Everett, the June unemployment rate was 3%, the same as in May. 

In June the state added 11,900 nonagricultural jobs, including 8,800 jobs in the private sector, according to seasonally adjusted figures released by Employment Security. 

Leisure and hospitality, a sector negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, reported 8,900 more jobs in June, including 5,200 for food service and drinking establishments.

Other sectors reporting job gains included education and health services, with 4,600 jobs. Professional and business services reported an increase of 500 jobs. 

While the state saw solid job growth overall, some industry sectors have seen declining job numbers. Manufacturing jobs fell by 2,500 over the month. Retail trade also reported a drop of 2,800, including 900 jobs in food and beverage stores. 

The information sector, which includes tech jobs, saw a sizable contraction, losing 5,500 jobs between June 2022 and June 2023. Seattle-area tech companies have laid off thousands of workers in recent months. 

However, there was robust year-over-year growth in other sectors. Education and health services and leisure and hospitality also reported in June the most job gains year-over-year, with 32,700 more jobs and 25,200 more, respectively. Government was also among the top three sectors for job growth, with 25,600 jobs. 

Employment security provides seasonally adjusted figures, which account for occurrences such as holiday hiring, to make month-to-month comparisons. The year-over-year figures are not seasonally adjusted. 

The Cashmere School District has committed to bystander intervention training for faculty and students, as well as to other anti-harassment programs, after an independent investigation found students at Cashmere High School harassed a Black classmate using racial slurs at school and in a group Snapchat.

In a Crosscut story that ran last month, the student who made the complaint talked about a pattern of harassment and racist language over many months both at school and in a group chat with multiple classmates.

Four students had been disciplined for discriminatory harassment, including the use of racial slurs, according to the school district. An allegation that a staff member failed to respond or address the behavior was “not substantiated.”

District administrators outlined the results of the investigation and its plans for the future in a letter to the community.

The two-page letter read in part “We have committed to making this unfortunate incident a learning opportunity where we can all elevate our awareness, grow and be better,” and was signed by Superintendent Glenn Johnson, Cashmere High School Principal Craig McKenzie, and other district and school administrators.

Separately from the student’s individual complaint, Cashmere community members also told Crosscut they had ongoing concerns about the school atmosphere, citing one student who wore a Confederate flag as a cape at the annual Senior Parade and students who tore down the high school’s Equity Club posters, which bore a rainbow Pride symbol and messages of inclusion and acceptance.

The student, who graduated in June, said he filed the complaint because he hoped the school would do more for future students about combating bullying and racist and bigoted language.

In its letter to the community, the district’s action items included providing professional development around inclusion and diversity; focusing a student-produced public service video on anti-bullying on language and bystander intervention; and developing a school improvement plan in August around well-being, belonging, and safety with student leaders and staff members.

Washington state saw a record-high 394 murders in 2022, according to a new statewide collection of law enforcement data, up from 336 murders in the year before. Released Monday, the 2022 Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ annual crime statistics report also showed an increase in the number of assaults, thefts and other crimes.

The Association has released a crime report every year since 1980. The data is often debated in the Washington Legislature, where elected officials write and rewrite laws on everything from what should be a crime to directing how law enforcement officers conduct their work.

Given Washington’s population growth, the overall murder rate is still effectively lower than it was in 1994, according to Steve Strachan, executive director of the nonprofit Association. Still, recent numbers are a marked increase from before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In 2019, the state saw 205 murders, according to the new report.

There were also 47,448 vehicle thefts statewide last year, according to the new report, up from about 35,400 in 2021.

The new annual report also shows what could be record-breaking use of firearms during violent offenses. In 2022 there were 7,216 instances of violent crimes involving a firearm, more than triple the organization’s 2019 tally of 2,318 instances. The figure has grown in recent years, with 4,358 instances in 2020 and 5,665 in 2021, according to a review of previous reports.

Meanwhile, the number of assaults against law enforcement officers increased after a dip in last year’s statistics. The latest report notes 2,375 assaults against officers last year, up from 1,968 recorded in 2021 and 1,676 in 2018.

The new report notes a decline in commissioned law enforcement officers in Washington by 70 individuals, to 10,666 officers total, said Strachan during a news conference on the report. Washington had a net loss of nearly 500 commissioned officers in 2021, he said.

For 13 years, Washington has had the lowest number of law enforcement officers per 1,000 people among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to Strachan. The figure in the new report is also the lowest on record for the state.

Staff shortages don’t affect only the number of officers on patrol, because they include other roles such as detectives who investigate crimes, Strachan said.

“We are way outside the norm; we are literally at the far end of the curve,” he added.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and other elected officials Wednesday celebrated the opening of a former hotel in Lacey that has been repurposed as housing for individuals who had been living in state right-of-ways, such as beneath interstate overpasses.

The Legislature allocated money to the state supplemental budget to rapidly move unhoused individuals living on land alongside state highways. Known as the Rights of Way Safety Initiative, state agencies are working with local governments to help move individuals residing on state-owned rights-of-way “with an emphasis on permanent housing solutions,” according to the state Department of Commerce.

Inslee, who has pushed to get people living in camps into housing, lauded the project in remarks before a ribbon-cutting at Maple Court, the new name of the former Lacey Days Inn, which will now be able to accommodate up to 125 people in Thurston County who are experiencing homelessness. It is being administered by the Low Income Housing Institute.

“We can’t wait another decade to build new buildings,” Inslee told those gathered, adding later: “These are 125 people who can’t wait another decade under tarps.”

The initiative is one of a slew of attempts by state and local governments in recent years to reverse what has been a yearslong crisis of people living in camps or otherwise unhoused.

Similar motel-to-shelter projects have opened with state dollars in Yakima, Spokane and Seattle.

Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson called Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling “harmful” to LGBTQ+ Americans and signaled that it would impact the way his office enforces its antidiscrimination law.  

In a 6-3 vote, the court said the state of Colorado could not enforce its own antidiscrimination law against Lorie Smith, a Christian web and graphic designer who refused to provide wedding websites for same-sex couples. 

The majority, comprising the court’s more conservative justices, ruled that Smith was engaged in an expressive activity and was within her First Amendment right to refuse the expression of messages that went against her religious beliefs.

Ferguson said the ruling is “a step backward to our nation’s progress toward achieving equality for LGBTQ+ Americans.”

In a statement to Crosscut, Ferguson noted that the ruling applies to “purely artistic businesses.” 

“The vast majority of Washington businesses — selling goods and services other than custom-designed products — must still abide by the clear antidiscrimination mandates in our state,” Ferguson said in his statement. “If they don’t, my office will take action.”

Ferguson has previously sought to enforce the law in an action against a business that attempted to circumvent antidiscrimination laws in the name of religious freedom and free speech. In 2013, he filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Richland florist Barronelle Stutzman for refusing to provide flowers to serve a same-sex couple. The couple Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed also filed suit against Stutzman. 

In 2015, Benton County Superior Court Judge Alexander Ekstrom ruled that Stutzman discriminated against the couple and broke the state’s consumer protection and antidiscrimination laws. 

The Washington Supreme Court, on two separate occasions, upheld the Benton County court’s decision. In 2017, the court unanimously ruled that Stutzman still had to follow antidiscrimination laws because selling floral arrangements and other wedding goods to a same-sex couple did not constitute free speech, nor was it an endorsement of same-sex marriage. 

The 2019 ruling came after the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the Washington Supreme Court after ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a custom cake for a same-sex couple. 

However, the ruling in that case came because the court said a state agency had been hostile to the baker’s religious beliefs. After the Washington Supreme Court determined the courts expressed no hostility toward Stutzman and her religious beliefs, it let its initial ruling stand. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling against race-based admissions at college campuses likely will not have any immediate impact on Washington policy or higher education admissions.

Affirmative action has been outlawed in the state since 1998, when voters passed Initiative 200, which prevents government entities from using race as a factor in hiring or admissions.

But in 2022, Gov. Jay Inslee issued a guidance to state agencies that they should be using whatever tools they have to identify and eradicate discrimination and disparities in their institutions. Inslee’s January 2022 order called the state’s previous guidance on how to comply with Initiative 200 overly restrictive.

In that guidance, the governor asked the Washington Student Achievement Council, which works to encourage Washington students to go to college, to track student success across subpopulations and to gather information about the success of programs designed to address discrimination in higher education.

In a statement after the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, Inslee said, “Our state will continue advancing the cause of equity in higher education and government. As with past rulings from this court that have made our society less equitable for women, people of color, and other marginalized communities, Washington state will respond however necessary to continue advancing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the arc of the moral universe that bends toward justice.”

Eight other states have also banned affirmative action: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. Texas joined that group because of a court decision, and other courts have chimed in on affirmative action, contributing to the nation’s patchwork of rules on this issue.