CISA employees can't stay on leave says Hobbs
Washington’s Secretary of State is sounding the alarm over a move by the Trump administration to put employees from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, on leave.
Those employees work with state elections officials to provide details about cyber and ransomware attacks, as well as physical security for election officials.
Sec. Steve Hobbs said the agency worked with Washington state after incidents like a cyberattack that took down the website of one county election office and the mailing of suspicious white powder to offices in Spokane, Pierce and King Counties.
"I remember being in a Zoom call, and one of the analysts said, ‘Hey, I just got information that these envelopes were being sent to Georgia and California," Hobbs said during a press conference Wednesday. "And our own election folks were able to inform these secretaries of state that these letters were coming could be intercepted before they were opened.”
He said replacing the service provided by CISA at the state level would be an expensive proposition.
Hobbs worries about “deepfake” videos, like one where a Haitian immigrant was shown with extra ballots — videos he said CISA was able to debunk.
"This is what overseas actors, our adversaries want," he said. "They want Republicans and Democrats, they want Americans to tear each other apart, to take their eye off the ball while they do their national security goals."
Hobbs is sending a letter to the state’s congressional delegation, asking that they take direct action and demand reinstatement of the CISA team, or determine who will take over its responsibilities.
ICE isn't just detaining migrants, it's targeting Native Americans, Indigenous activist says
For the past few weeks, many immigrants across the nation have feared deportations as immigration raids have increased. But it’s not just migrants that are worried. Some Indigenous people, including in Spokane, believe they’re being targeted as well.
At a recent rally outside Spokane City Hall on Monday, War Bear held a microphone in one hand and pointed one finger to the sky.
"I'm demanding tribal sovereignty. I'm demanding my rights," he said. "I'm demanding to be honored as the original peoples on this land."
War Bear, who is of mixed descent of Pueblo and European and part of the Lakota tribe, is urging leaders to stand against the racial profiling of indigenous peoples.
He told SPR News that his friend, who is an Amazonion Indigenous person, was arrested on Sunday night even after showing her tribal enrollment papers.
At least 15 indigenous peoples have been questioned and detained in Arizona and New Mexico, according to news outlets. No confirmed detainment of indigenous peoples have been reported in Washington state, including War Bear's friend.
"My people and their roots go back thousands and thousands of years, far before colonization, and we're having to carry our tribal enrollment papers and our tribal IDs on us at all times, including myself," he said. "This is a violation of our sovereignty. He's coming for our citizenship rights, which is a violation of our sovereignty as well. And overall, it's just plain racist, idiotic, and I'm disgruntled."
As a traditional tribal person. War Bear said he feels a sense of responsibility to make sure people hear their voice and to stand against the violations of their sovereignty.
New bill would allow for WA state employees to address AI in bargaining
Artificial intelligence is changing how we do everything — even our jobs. But state employees don’t get a say in how that technology impacts them.
Some Washington state lawmakers are looking to change that.
Back in the age of flip phones and pagers, Washington state passed a law. That law made it so that public employees, like those who work for state agencies, can’t bargain on the use of technology. Management gets to make those decisions.
Kati Durkin, a lobbyist with the Washington Federation of State Employees, said the state won’t discuss A-I issues with employees because of this law.
"Because this law specifically was their excuse every time a state union has tried to talk about it at the bargaining table," Durkin told NWPB.
She said that won’t change unless the law does. There is both a House and Senate bill looking to make an exemption to allow public sector employees to bargain on AI.
"The public sector workers, the labor unions don't want to stop AI, they just want to have a say in how it's implemented," Representative Lisa Parshley, the primary sponsor of the House bill, said.
Labor leaders say making this change is important to give workers the ability to determine how this technology could become a part of their jobs.
ID legislature moves forward on controversial education issues
A private school choice tax credit is closer to passing the Idaho Legislature after passing a Senate committee yesterday largely along party lines.
Under the bill, families could apply for a $5,000 refundable tax credit per child to pay for things like private school tuition, textbooks or tutoring. The measure passed the House on Friday, but it's competing with a separate private school choice bill that's still awaiting amendments in the Senate.
The Idaho House has narrowly approved a bill targeting public resources that go to teachers’ unions.
The bill bars public school districts from giving union presidents paid leave and would prohibit teachers’ union members from paying their dues through an automated payroll deduction.
The bill cleared the House by just six votes after 20 Republicans sided with the House’s nine Democrats and now goes to the state Senate.
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Reporting contributed by Steve Jackson, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Lauren Gallup and Owen Henderson.