HHS Sec. Kennedy a 'charlatan,' says Sen. Cantwell
Some members of Washington's congressional delegation are demanding that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., step down or be fired.
They're unhappy with his controversial vaccine policies and the turmoil caused by firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday where Kennedy was testifying, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell called him a “charlatan."
She said it will be up to the new West Coast Health Alliance, which now includes Hawaii, to bring the focus back to science, when it comes to vaccines.
"Washington, Oregon and California will take up the efficacy of science," Cantwell said during the hearing. "Yes, the University of Washington will deliver the science that American will depend on because you don't want to depend on it."
Washington Senator Patty Murray demanded Kennedy's firing yesterday on the Senate floor.
And, along with her colleagues in the Democratic Doctors Caucus, Washington Congresswoman Dr. Kim Schrier wrote a letter calling for Kennedy's resignation.
They cited "repeated actions that have undermined evidence-based public health guidance and jeopardized the health and safety of the American people."
Spokane eviction case in the hands of a jury
A jury could decide today whether a Spokane woman who hasn’t paid her rent in four years is justified in not doing so.
Most eviction cases are decided by a single judge.
But Arlin Jordin has tried and failed so many times to evict Lisa Brayman from 1827 W 9th Avenue that a previous judge said more people would need to get involved if he tried to evict her again.
Now, a jury of a dozen community members are deliberating Jordin’s case, which boils down to some of the most basic and universal tenant-landlord questions.
Did Jordin do what a landlord needs to do? Did Brayman do what a tenant needs to do?
If Jordin hasn’t kept up with electrical or plumbing issues, or has lied about how much rent is due, does that justify Brayman to withhold rent, even if she stays in the building?
In closing arguments, both attorneys pointed fingers at the other party for neglecting their duties listed in Washington’s Landlord Tenant Act.
Brayman’s attorney Hannah Swenson also said that the law doesn’t “favor forfeiture”—that is, it tries to avoid kicking people out on the street.
Previously during the trial, the jury asked Brayman why she didn’t move out after she started complaining about the building’s living conditions in 2021.
Brayman started talking about her prior experience without a home and implied she didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Washington initiative sponsor tees up two more for the legislature
Washington initiative sponsor Brian Heywood is beginning a campaign to put two new citizen initiatives before state legislators next year.
One continues the saga over Heywood’s Initiative 2081, the so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights. It was approved by the 2024 legislature, then changed by lawmakers this year.
“They gutted specifically the parts that require schools to notify and not keep secrets from parents about things going on at the schools," he told SPR News. "They did a law called 1296. And it does a whole mess of other terrible things. But in particular, it guts our Initiative 2081. So we're doing a straight up repeal of that law.”
Democrats say their bill doesn’t strip parents of their rights—it just balances them with the rights of students.
The measure maintains the rights of parents to review school curricula and requires districts to “immediately” notify parents if a student is a victim of abuse, sexual misconduct or assault.
It also guarantees nine specific rights to students, including the right to receive an education in a supportive environment, free of harassment and bullying.
Heywood's second initiative is aimed at ensuring public school girls’ sports include only athletes who were assigned female at birth, excluding transgender girls. It would require athletes’ doctors to provide school districts with proof of the students’ sex assigned at birth.
“I’ve listened to several athletes from Spokane who have been directly impacted by this. And just in saying that we've got a legislature, an OSPI, a governor who are sort of hellbent on destroying women's sports," he said.
The measures will be placed onto the legislature’s agenda if Heywood’s organization, Let’s Go Washington, collects signatures from about 310,000 registered voters. If that happens and legislators decline to act, the initiatives would go to Washington voters in November 2026.
WA report says prices would jump, job numbers could drop if proposed tariffs actually take effect
Higher costs for Washingtonians, job losses and drops in state revenue: that’s the forecast from the state Financial Management Office if President Trump’s proposed tariffs go into full effect.
“This report gives us a range of scenarios of how U.S. tariffs and retaliatory tariffs could impact the state's economy and future budgets,” OFM Director K.D. Chapman-See said in a statement. “It helps us see which industries could be affected, and where support for Washington families and businesses might be needed.”
The office found that if tariffs in effect as of Aug. 7 are continued through 2029, the state could lose 20,000-25,000 jobs.
Using the tariff rates proposed by Trump on "Liberation Day" this spring, OFM found that grocery prices could rise by 16% in the next two years, while the state could lose $2.2 billion in revenue to its general fund by 2029 thanks to weaker sales and business activity.
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Reporting contributed by Kirsten Kendrick, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Owen Henderson.