Despite growing bipartisan support for passing legislation mandating paid family leave, there has yet to be an agreement on funding. Senator Joe Fain (R-Auburn) has proposed SB 5149 which would provide a “phased-in schedule of paid family leave,” with the length of time increasing over the next five years.

One of the few taxes House Democrats did not include in their budget proposal was Gov. Inslee’s tax on carbon.  In November, voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative that would have established a carbon tax.

House Democrats are trying to overrule the state’s income tax ban. Despite voters repeatedly showing their opposition to an income tax, Democratic lawmakers are trying to slide it into law with HB 2186 by deceptively slapping the title “excise tax” on what is actually a capital gains income tax and hoping voters don’t notice.

Sound Transit has become even more asinine in their justification for inflated car tab fees. Sound Transit Board Member and Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland feigned innocence in saying, “I don’t think we could have been more transparent and more overt about what the potential tax responsibility would be.” KIRO’s Jason Rantz said it best, “I know how they could have been more transparent: they could have told us that they were going to use an outdated formula to take more money from us than we expected.”

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has been fined at least $1.5 million for a natural-gas explosion that occurred last March. The destructive blast resulted in an estimated $3 million in damage to surrounding businesses and injured nine firefighters. PSE is being fined as the blast came from lines that were improperly cut and capped – lines that were supposed to be retired in 2004.

Pierce County is being sued by the company that formerly provided the jail’s medical services. Conmed provided medical and dental care at the Pierce County jail during 2014 and 2015 but the county stopped paying the company for what they said was a “morally reprehensible” level of service. Pierce County is counter-suing to win back the money they say they spent on covering the fees that resulted from the “deplorable” services they received.

Tesoro Anacortes Refinery has applied for a construction permit from the Northwest Clean Air Agency. If approved, the permits would allow the refinery to install equipment which would reduce sulfur in the refinement of their fuel products and allow the refinery to extract a compound usable to create plastics and polyester. The permits are now open for comment through April 28^th.

Amazon is breaking into the world of grocery stores in Seattle. The online giant will be expanding even further into the $600 billion grocery market to upset Wal-Mart as the world’s largest retailer. The company’s newest experiment is to allow people to order groceries online and pick them up at a Seattle location. Stores are currently only accessible by Amazon employees but will eventually be open to Amazon Prime members.

Kittitas Valley farmers have joined the lawsuit to overturn an initiative raising the state minimum wage. “We try to hire on younger kids and teach them a skill in farming… you’re paying them a wage to learn a skill so later on they can demand a higher wage because they have a skill,” explained Brad Haberman, who has signed onto the lawsuit and is also the vice president of the Washington Farm Bureau.

Yakima County farmers’ mosquito abatement fees are skyrocketing. Rather than being charged a fee based on property assessment, property owners are charged $20 with an additional $1.39 per acre of land – a $740 increase for one property owner near Konnowac Pass.

A Sunnyside police officer on paid leave resigned from jail on Monday. Anthony Russell, who has been on the force for eight years, was arrested earlier this month and is being held in the Yakima County jail on domestic-violence charges.

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