Individual insurance rates have been raised over 36% in Washington. “I’m very disheartened to have to approve these rates,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has said. (The Seattle Times)

A challenge to Initiative 594 – which requires gun transfers to use background checks and was voted into law in 2014 – has been rejected by the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (The Seattle Times)

Seattle may spend over $300,000 defending Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant as they have decided to defend her in the defamation lawsuit two Seattle police officers have filed against her. Council President Bruce Harrell says that claiming the two officers had committed a “brutal murder” happened “within the course and scope of employment,” thus justifying the decision to defend her. (The Seattle Times)

Chair of Bartells Drugs has said “enough is enough” to the tax threats by Seattle Councilmembers – who wish to tax businesses with over $5 million in taxable gross receipts so that they can fund services for the homeless in Seattle. George Bartell wrote, “I returned from a trip to find that there is a proposal for another, additional tax, on top of all of the other restrictions, requirements, and fees that have grown massively the past few years. Enough is enough.” (King 5) 

Sound Transit does not tax trucks over 6,000 pounds – the tax exemption coming from a law that was created in 1990, before Sound Transit taxes were enacted in 1997. “I think it’s something that needs to be looked at. That’s not a fair and equitable thing in my book,” said State Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Curtis King (R-Yakima). (The Seattle Times)

Teenagers at King County’s Maleng Regional Justice Center are suing the King County for being placed in solitary confinement – claiming the practice violates equal-protection clauses and the Constitution, as well as proper access to educational services. (MyNorthwest)

In a classically liberal flip-flop, Seattle mayoral candidate Cary Moon now claims to pity tech workers – saying she understands “how much they want to be integrated in the city,” and is looking at “what it would take for them to feel more welcome.” Of course, this comes shortly after a tax on those very residents has been proposed by the Seattle City Council… (MyNorthwest)

The dean of the dental school at the University of Washington has resigned. The school has developed a $36 million deficit, leaving the former dean to resign because, “he believes it will be best for the School of Dentistry to have fresh leadership to resolve its urgent financial challenges.” (The Seattle Times)

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