Four people were sent to the hospital after a suspicious substance was found in a letter delivered to a Capitol Campus building in Olympia. The package was discovered Monday morning by an employee sorting mail. The employee was wearing gloves but was sent to the hospital as a precaution. Three others were also sent to the hospital for precautionary purposes, said State Patrol spokesman John Shaffer said. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Republican legislative candidate Jeff Sax, challenging state Rep. John Lovick (D-Mill Creek), leaves no doubt where he stands on Sound Transit’s car tab fees. Sax, a former Snohomish County Councilmember, says he’ll fight to bring car tab relief. “The car tabs – I believe what they’ve done is wrong. They used a valuation metric that isn’t even in state law anymore and they bamboozled the voters when they did it, so we need to fix that.” (My Northwest)

Despite collecting record tax revenues, officials at Thurston County’s Intercity Transit are threatening to cut service by 15%. That is, unless voters approve a giant sales tax increase of course. Mariya Frost with the Washington Policy Center writes, “Forecasting financial trouble and threatening service cuts to people who depend on Intercity Transit for mobility and already pay high sales taxes seems dishonest, given some of the agency’s cost-saving options.” (Washington Policy Center)

President Trump’s trade war with China hasn’t been all fun and games for the workers at the REC Silicon manufacturing plant in Moses Lake. In late September Cong. Dan Newhouse released a letter warning President Trump that the continuing trade dispute with China “is forcing REC to consider a complete shutdown of its operations in Washington state within the coming months.” While that outcome was avoided, things don’t seem to be getting better. Last week, REC reported a $6.1 million loss, due in large part to the trade dispute. (Seattle Times)

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