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WA Senate passes bill to lower unemployment insurance tax hit next year April 13, 2021 at 5:00 pm
A woman heads into a restaurant with its windows covered by sheets of plywood, one block south of the State Capitol. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The Washington State Senate unanimously passed a bill to lower the unemployment insurance tax hike for small businesses next year.
Unemployment insurance is paid solely by taxes on business owners. The taxes are set to skyrocket in the next few years to refill the Unemployment Trust Fund, which has been all but depleted from the record number of people on jobless benefits this past year.
Lawmakers divided on Washington education bill that eliminates state testing requirement for some student teachers By Elise Takahama, The Seattle Times
Published: April 14, 2021, 8:02am
Share: The Legislative Building is shown partially shrouded in fog at the Capitol in Olympia. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
OLYMPIA – Washington lawmakers are divided over an education bill that would eliminate a standardized assessment for student teachers that critics say is inequitable and unnecessary.
While the Senate passed the bill over the weekend, it’s on its way back to the House floor because it was approved with a new amendment that brings the test back in two years. And many aren’t happy with the change.
by Rich Smith • Apr 13, 2021 at 10:55 am
My photo editing may be sloppy, but these five people are trying to kill the clean fuels bill, so let s just try to focus on priorities here. WA LEG
Over the weekend, five Democratic Senators and five unions who almost always oppose major climate legislation signed a hostage letter addressed to Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, demanding he swallow the poison pills the Senate slipped into the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) bill or else lose their support. Fitzgibbon sponsored the proposal at the request of the Governor s office, so he s the one who leads negotiations on the transformative bill, which passed the Senate late last week for the first time ever.
BY DAVID KROMAN / CROSSCUT
Originally published March 12, 2021 on Crosscut.com
When Kelly Vomacka first read that the Washington Supreme Court had struck down the law criminalizing drug possession in the state, she was in disbelief. The Blake decision, named for the woman at its center, was not at all on Vomacka’s radar. While she was peripherally aware of the case, she would not have guessed that this is where it would lead.
In this, she was not alone attorneys, advocates, lawmakers, even the lawyer who argued before the nine justices on Shannon Blake’s behalf, were all surprised that the court would take the case of a woman with drugs in her jeans pocket to such lengths.