Austin Jenkins
Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy, as well as the Washington State Legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia."
Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise.
Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. In 2019, he received his Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington Communication Leadership program.
Austin's reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists. Austin was part of a team that won a 2018 national Edward R. Murrow award for breaking news coverage.
-
This week Oregon and California took steps to slow or rollback their re-openings, and Washington could be next, Gov. Jay Inslee said. Dramatic growth in COVID cases over the past month has pushed the state over its previous peak in April. -
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is responding to President Donald Trump’s threat to penalize states that don’t reopen schools this fall. At a news conference Thursday, Inslee pushed back hard on the president and said the state won’t be bullied.
-
For the first time since Herbert Hoover won the presidency nearly a century ago, the state of Washington won’t have a statewide initiative to the people... -
Over the objections of a bipartisan group of nearly two dozen state senators , Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) has decided to stick with... -
Hours after Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced a statewide mandate for people to wear masks in public, a Republican sheriff in southwest Washington appeared to urge open defiance of the order. “Don’t be a sheep,” Lewis County Sheriff Robert Snaza said to loud applause from a mostly mask-less crowd gathered in a church parking lot. -
Hours after Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee announced a statewide mandate for people to wear masks in public, a Republican sheriff in southwest Washington... -
After weeks of relying on voluntary compliance, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday afternoon announced an enforceable, statewide requirement that... -
At Christmastime last December, Sharon Gowdey was a healthy 56-year-old woman with Down syndrome. A video from a holiday party shows her in a Santa hat... -
In a move not seen since the Great Recession , Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday canceled pay raises for some state employees and ordered... -
Stepping up an attack he began on Twitter last week, President Trump on Monday spent more than four minutes at a White House meeting inveighing against...
