With contract negotiations nearing a critical deadline, hundreds of Washington state workers recently walked off the job for an hour to highlight demands for wage hikes in their next two-year deal.
Washington marked a milestone Aug. 28 with the final structural beam placed on a new psychiatric facility on the Western State Hospital campus in Pierce County. A few yards away, on the other side of a 6-foot chain-link fence, a different group of workers was not there to celebrate. The handful of state employees loudly chanted their displeasure with the progress of talks on a collective bargaining agreement with negotiators from Ferguson’s budget office.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson has been traveling the state to build support for his forthcoming legislation to ban cellphones in public schools – including a recent stop in Pasco.
The Pacific Northwest will need a massive buildout of new energy infrastructure over the next six years to meet rising electricity demand, according to a draft regional power plan. Implementing the plan will cost the Pacific Northwest approximately $2.3 billion. And the rate of building will need to quicken to make it happen by 2032.
Washington’s Department of Agriculture did not complete hundreds of mandated inspections at egg production and packing plants for the past two years, posing health risks to consumers, according to a new state audit.
Of the agency’s top priorities is the eradication of Japanese beetles in south central Washington. They’ve been found in Kennewick, Pasco, Sunnyside, Mabton, Wapato and near SeaTac.
