WA vaccination rates lower than states with measles outbreaks, says DOH
Public health authorities in Washington are raising alarms over low vaccination rates as measles cases continue to be identified across the country.
Washington state health officer Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett said as of last school year, 91 to 92 percent of kindergarteners in the state were up to date on the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
"That's a concern because that's below the level of Texas and below the level of New Mexico, and those are two states that are currently dealing with large measles outbreaks now," he told SPR News. "And it's also below the level that we need to keep measles under control.”
To keep measles controlled, Dr. Kwan-Gett said public health officials aim for a 95% vaccination rate.
While he thinks parents being thoughtful about immunizations and what goes into their children's bodies is a good thing, he said the MMR vaccine has decades of data showing it is safe and effective.
Pointing to the possibility of severe and potentially life-threatening complications from measles — including pneumonia and brain inflammation — Kwan-Gett said the benefits of the MMR vaccine far outweigh any risks.
So far, all five measles cases identified in Washington have been in King County.
Legislative session ends, budget bills head to Ferguson
The Washington state legislature has gaveled out their 2025 session.
Lawmakers were working up to the end, negotiating over state budgets to try to close a looming multi-billion-dollar shortfall.
The plans going to Gov. Bob Ferguson for final approval combine billions in cuts with new taxes to increase revenue.
Ferguson praised lawmakers for increasing education funding, setting aside $100 million for police hiring, reducing their proposed tax increases and accepting many of his suggestions for budget cuts.
However, the governor didn’t give a full endorsement of the budget bills heading to his desk, saying in a statement late Sunday that he looks forward to “carefully reviewing the budgets line by line over the next few weeks.”
The revenue package passed by the state Democrats totals about $9.4 billion over the next four years.
More than half of that figure would come from increases to the state’s main business tax.
Republicans slammed the tax hikes and insisted the state could have balanced its budget without raising taxes.
The $15.5 billion, two-year transportation budget did easily pass on a bipartisan vote, however.
That plan earmarks money for highway megaprojects like the North-South corridor in Spokane.
INW Afghan community anxious over potential deportations after TPS revocation
Community leaders say there’s growing anxiety among Afghan families in Spokane after the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to strip protections for those with Temporary Protected Status.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has decided the conditions in Afghanistan no longer meet the requirements for the TPS designation.
But Mark Finney, executive director of Thrive International, said this decision from the federal government will put local families in danger of going back to a country that still isn’t safe to return to.
“They have nowhere left to go, and so they've come here to the United States, where they share our values, and many of them have deep friendships and relationships with members of the United States military, Department of Defense, embassy staff who sponsored them to get here," Finney said. "And to now say that we are going to strip their legal status and send them back to a Taliban-controlled territory is just absolutely unconscionable.”
TPS holders from Afghanistan are set for potential deportations starting May 20.
According to data from the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance in Washington state, nearly 15,000 Afghans have resettled in Washington between 2020 and 2025.
However, it’s unclear how many of them have this protected status.
ICE detainees at WA facility have doubled says Rep. Randall
The number of detainees at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Tacoma has nearly doubled since November.
That's according to Washington U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-Tacoma) who toured the facility last week.
Unlike in the past, fewer individuals are being released while they await their hearing, she said.
However, Randall said the detention center has made progress in hiring staff to provide medical care for detainees.
"While they have made up their big deficit in healthcare staff, that doubling of detainees means that they need more bodies. And they're still down 40 individuals in the workforce," she told KNKX public radio. "So I would like to see them staff up to ensure that they can take care of people in the way they're responsible for doing."
Representative Randall says every person in the U.S., regardless of citizenship status, has the right to due process.
WA launches its own 'Seek then Speak' site for sexual assault survivors
The Washington Attorney General’s office has launched a state-specific version of a national resource for survivors of sexual assault.
Seek then Speak is a website that advocates say will let survivors find all the options for resources and next steps.
"All of this information really didn't exist in one place before," Lauren Vlas, a public policy analyst with the state Attorney General's Office, said.
"Having all of this information on one website, SeekthenSpeakWA.com, allows someone to kind of figure out maybe, you know, I need emergency medical care, maybe I need an advocate to support me with helping decide what is the best next step," she told SPR News. "And then there's information kind of about what the reporting process looks like."
The site also allows survivors to fill out a self-guided interview about their experience.
Advocates say letting a survivor write down their story and using that to file a police report prevents the individual from having to relive their experience multiple times when speaking with law enforcement and health care officials and helps to prevent retraumatization.
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Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Emil Moffatt.