If you’ve yet to get your state-issued and REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, you may want to schedule a trip to the DMV to avoid a new fee when traveling from the Tri-Cities Airport or other airport. 

Reviews are in for Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s debut budget blueprint. They are mostly two thumbs down.

The Washington State Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments this week in a case challenging the constitutionality of Initiative 2066, a voter-approved measure that protects natural gas as an energy option in the state. 

The city of Richland has raised its electricity utility rates by 8.5% as of Jan. 1. Ambulance Service Utility fees have increased as well. 

The state Department of Commerce has awarded funds to support 56 affordable housing units in the Tri-Cities. 

The city of Sunnyside will compensate residents after its police officers ordered them to leave or be removed from their homes without notice or due process under a settlement with the Washington Attorney General’s Office.  

A three-bill package that will pay for the cleanup at the Hanford site and research activity at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is headed to President Donald Trump’s desk. 

Crews have begun removing the causeway linking Bateman Island to the Richland shoreline, restoring waterflow that has been blocked for decades.

A recent federal report found the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) office can’t easily identify how much it will cost or how long it will take to clean up contaminated soil and landfills at 12 of the 15 sites it manages, even though data that could support those efforts is available.

As lawmakers go about their work this session, let’s hope they understand that they can’t make Washington more affordable by making it more expensive.