WEA says “screw the truth,” sticks to lies: Already one of Olympia’s biggest political spenders, the WEA is running radio ads in markets around the state to bash Republicans. Read through our account of the WEA’s distortions and omissions here.

Washington’s 20 percent estate tax is the highest rate in the nation. Read more about the compliance costs that estate taxes burden states with and how they are disincentives for business investments here.

20-year-old Republican Jake Walker is running for Monroe City Council. “I’ve always wanted to get into this kind of work and I saw an opportunity to represent the city I’ve lived in for two decades,” saying he is passionate about the City of Monroe. Conservative millennials have become more politically active in Western Washington as of late. Nate Nehring, 22, is currently running his re-election campaign for Snohomish County Council.

Everett City Council is expanding the areas of the city that are off-limits to people convicted of drug-related crimes. The Stay Out of Drug Areas ordinance allows police to arrest people if they are found in these areas and have convictions on their record of drug-related crimes.

Firearm sales have gone down but shootings in Seattle have been on the rise, indicating a possible failure in the city’s new firearm tax. “Gun violence and drug violence is an enforcement problem, it’s not a matter of getting people’s guns and ammunition away from them. It’s a matter of getting these bad guys off the streets. It’s something that Seattle is just not doing right now,” said Alan Gottlieb in an interview with the Dori Monson show.

8 weeks of construction on northbound I-5 between Des Moines and Tukwila begins June 2^nd and will require multiple lane closures over weekends throughout the summer, excluding the weekend of UW’s graduation. Dept. of Transportation member Tom Pearce has said they will be replacing concrete panels, remove ruts, repair concrete and replace expansion joints.

Seattle’s Central District may soon be presented with a new option for affordable housing, as a coalition in the city has purchased a 2.5-acre block in the area to be used for low-income renters. Of the 520 planned units, the coalition intends on using at least half of them as subsidized housing for low-income renters.

57 people move to Seattle a day, according to an average calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau using statistics from July 2015 to July 2016. This has made Seattle the fastest-growing city in our nation.

A Spokane developer has presented his plans for a $60 million renovation of the old YWCA towers by the Spokane River, planning to redevelop the towers into a mix of a residential and commercial property. “It’s a wonderful addition. It provides shoppers for our retailers; it activates the park; it makes the streets safer at night,” Juliet Sinisterra, of Downtown Spokane Partnership, said of the plans to renovate more downtown properties.

Spokane Police says they will be increasing law enforcement in Manito Park after the city has seen a rise in shootings. “We have in the past had issues in Manito Park, and so we know that as we put some resources in there, it’s going to have some effect in the long term over the summer,” Spokane Police Major Kevin King said.

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