New website aims to help Washingtonians seeking civil protection orders
A non-profit devoted to preventing gun violence in Washington state has launched a new website to demystify a vital tool for Washingtonians experiencing threats or violence: a protection order.
In Washington, civil protection orders are available for people experiencing dangerous situations like domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
They can prohibit contact between victims and their abusers, and in some cases, order them to temporarily give up their firearms.
But the process of trying to understand how to file and obtain one can be tricky to navigate.
That’s why non-profit The Alliance for Gun Safety has launched a new website.
"It will then walk them through helping them to identify which type of protection order best suits their needs and then information about how to best prepare for filing a protection order," Renee Hopkins, the CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Protection, said.
Protection orders can play a vital role in preventing violence on a greater scale, she told KUOW public radio.
"There’s also a huge intersection between domestic violence and mass shootings," Hopkins said. "And extreme protection orders have been a really valuable tool in intervening in threats of mass violence as well."
Washingtonians who think they may need to file a protection order can now go onto WAprotectionorders.org and learn how to file one.
CDA Tribe looks to transfer west Spokane land into trust
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe is seeking to transfer land it owns near Latah Creek into a trust.
The transfer would make it easier for the Coeur d’Alenes to build a fish hatchery there.
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe bought about 50 acres of land in Latah Valley a few years ago for roughly $3 million.
It’s currently “fee” land, which means the tribe does all the things that owning property typically requires, like paying taxes and obeying city zoning laws.
This year, the tribe is asking the federal government to transfer those acres from “fee” to “trust” lands.
That means the land would be held in trust by the federal government for the tribe.
It would be under tribal jurisdiction and therefore excluded from local taxes and land use regulations.
"The Board of County Commissioners has seen several of these requests over the past several years," special prosecutor James Emacio said while presenting information about the transfer to Spokane County Commissioners a week ago. "We’ve received one recently from the Kalispel Tribe. And we’ve received, recently, one from the Spokane Tribe."
Both the County and city have to give the Bureau of Indian Affairs information on how the transfer will affect them.
County Commissioners sent a letter this week that says they’ll lose roughly $600 in property taxes each year if the land is put into trust.
The BIA almost always grants transfer requests and gives extra weight to applications with environmental stewardship goals, like the Coeur d’Alene’s.
"Their long term use may be a fish hatchery—because this property is located near Latah Creek, and they’d like to connect Latah Creek to the Spokane River someplace down the road," Emacio said.
The BIA has 120 days to make a decision once it has all the required information.
WA GOP Senators call on Ferguson to comply with Bondi
A small group of Washington state senators are pushing Gov. Bob Ferguson to comply with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand to overturn the state’s so-called “sanctuary” policies.
Sen. Leonard Christian (R-Spokane Valley) and three other Republicans in the state Senate's Freedom Caucus released a statement Wednesday, calling on the governor and legislature to repeal the Keep Washington Working Act and several of the governor’s executive actions.
The Keep Washington Working Act, passed in 2019, prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration actions.
“I signed up to serve our country after graduating high school to protect our citizens," Christian said in the statement. "You don’t protect our country by allowing illegal-alien criminals to have free rein in our communities as this state has done."
Supporters of the law say it lets local and state law enforcement prioritize working on local and state crimes, rather than being required to divert limited resources to federal priorities.
In a press conference Tuesday, Ferguson said he has no intention of changing the state’s policies to comply with Bondi’s demands.
"Pam Bondi seems to think and seeks to have Washington State bend the knee to a Trump administration that day by day drags us closer to authoritarianism," he said. "That’s not going to happen."
No changes recommended to Gov. Little's nearly $60,000 housing stipend
A state committee is recommending Gov. Brad Little’s annual housing stipend stays flat at about $60,000 a year.
The Governor’s Housing Committee on Wednesday recommended Little’s $4,551 extra monthly check remain the same for the upcoming fiscal year that starts next July.
Idaho is one of five states without a governor’s mansion. It sold the last one in Boise’s North End in 1989 and former Gov. Butch Otter never occupied a donated home from his ex-father-in-law, J.R. Simplot.
State officials eventually demolished the Simplot mansion and has otherwise paid its governors monthly to cover expenses.
Rep. Jaron Crane (R-Nampa), who serves on the governor’s housing committee, suggested officials remodel an existing state-owned building to save money, like the Alexander House a few blocks from the capitol building.
“I use that building as an example of one that … could be remodeled and facelifted a little bit, restored, repurposed maybe for that as an option,” Crane said.
Little owns a home in Emmett, as well as a condo in downtown Boise.
The committee last year considered building or buying a new governor’s mansion but never took action.
The state owns 15 acres along West Horizon Drive in the Boise Foothills. In addition to the account used to pay for the governor’s stipend through the Permanent Building Fund, another account holds about $217,000 that could be used for the construction or furnishing of a future mansion.
State lawmakers could tweak the stipend when they return to Boise in January through the Department of Administration’s budget.
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Reporting by Noel Gasca, Eliza Billingham, Owen Henderson and James Dawson.