Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Featured Stories

The Seattle Times

State Senate passes package of education policy bills (Schlicher, Hatfield, Hobbs, Conway)

Ballard News Tribune

Tarleton passes first bill, would require landlords to secure spare keys (Tarleton)

The Daily News

Wash. House moves to restrict flame retardants (Van De Wege)

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AP-State

Feds look to ship Wash. radioactive waste to NM

First legislative steps: What's in the gun bills?

Senate committee approves gun trafficking bill

Wash. House moves to restrict flame retardants (Van de Wege)

Wash. Senate OKs K-12 principal hiring power bill

Wash. Senate passes A-F school grade scale

Job growth in January but unemployment rate unchanged

Members of new Charter School panel announced (Chopp)

State Senate passes education reform bills (McAuliffe, Rolfes)

Bill would require justices to draw straws for job

Wash. House looks to strengthen adoption rules (Roberts)

Hanford contractor to pay $18.5 million

Language barriers part of health exchange outreach

Report: 24,000 jobs gained in Washington in January

State disputes report of job gain in January

Feds: Still no decision on Washington marijuana laws

AP-Federal

House Oks bill to avoid government shutdown

Holder: Still no decision on Washington, Colorado pot laws

Ballard News Tribune

Kohl-Welles helps push through more anti-sex trafficking bills (Kohl-Welles)

Tarleton passes first bill, would require landlords to secure spare keys (Tarleton)

Bellingham Herald

Eric Holder gets an earful on marijuana, promises quick decision

Pasco first-grader suspended for toy gun talk

Op-Ed:  Sequestration cuts likely to impact those who can least afford it

Blog:  State senator proposes amendment to keep coal out of SB 5805  (Hobbs, Ranker)

Bothell Reporter

Pick the Democratic legislator | Cartoon

Columbian

VIDEO: Rep. Jim Moeller discusses binding arbitration (Moeller)

Charter school panel's 9 members announced (Chopp)

Editorial: In Our View: Regulate Gun Sales

The Daily News

Wash. House looks to strengthen adoption rules (Roberts)

Wash. Senate OKs K-12 principal hiring power bill

Wash. Senate passes A-F school grade scale

Editorial: Caution in order when considering new public records bills

Everett Herald

Washington Post: Opposition to same-sex marriage narrows

 9 named to charter schools commission 

Cities join online crime-mapping system

Content Gregoire will only go if Obama really needs her

Editorial: Yes on Voting Rights Act (Moscoso)           

Letter: Sales tax holiday sought in August (Moeller)

Bill would increase penalty for car prowls (Harper)

Highline Times

Highline receives grant to update physical education program

Courtney Gregoire selected to join the Port of Seattle Commission

News Tribune (subscription required)

Background checks effort struggles in Legislature (Pedersen)

Editorial: Lawmakers: Please ignore the skin-radiation lobby (indoor tanning beds)

Olympian (subscription required)

Lacey couple hope to become ‘potrepreneurs’ later this year

High new-jobs number called suspect

Senate OKs grades for schools, teacher rejection by principals (Murray, Kohl-Welles)

Marijuana ruling coming soon, says Attorney General Eric Holder

Editorial: Bill would reflect changes in agriculture (Reykdal, Haigh)

Op-ed: Tighter gun laws won’t help to protect us from harm

Blog: Sen. Baumgartner pushes back at Supreme Court’s ruling on taxes, files bill to reduce bench from 9 justices to 5

Blog: Sequester cuts starting to land in Washington, but impact on such sensitive programs as Head Start for kids won’t be felt right away (Seaquist)

Blog: UPDATED: Bill to give principals authority over teacher reassignment passes Senate (Rolfes)

Blog: Letter grades for schools gets Senate approval

Blog: TVW earns Cronkite award

Peninsula Daily News

Ecology joins with Jefferson County in mill landfill case

Redmond Reporter

New legislation brings good news to Friends of Youth amidst federal budget cuts

Renton Reporter

State unemployment rate remains unchanged in January

Seattle Times

Gay-rights movement’s new focus: immigration

Holder says little about states’ pot laws; supporters buoyed

Sodo arena design tweaked, gets a preliminary OK

Kevin Quigley: a ‘disruptive force’ picked to head DSHS

Bill to abolish death penalty gets hearing (Carlyle)

Op-ed: Don’t let local governments gut the Public Records Act

Editorial: Strong appointees power state’s charter-school commission (Chopp)

Blog: Lawsuit against Puget Sound Energy alleges coal-plant pollution violations

Blog: Days after losing state Supreme Court case, Republicans seek to lay off justices

Blog: Immigration seeing strong Republican support in Olympia

Blog: State Senate OKs bills for grading schools and letting principals veto teacher placement (Schlicher, Conway, Hobbs)

Blog: Former Seattle School Board president, 8 others named to state charter school commission

Blog: State House passes bill preventing alcohol poisoning deaths (Liias)

Blog: Sen. Baumgartner’s tilt at the Washington Supreme Court

Seattle Medium

House Passes “Troubled Youth Legislation” (Orwall)

Seattle Weekly

Senate and House Both Pass Bills Allowing Alcohol Service in Movie Theaters (Harper)

Spokesman Review

Hanford contractor CH2M Hill to pay $18.5 million for fraud

Baumgartner: Cut 4 Sup Court judges

Tri-City Herald

Governor, DOE want to send some tank waste to New Mexico

West Seattle Herald

West Seattle's Sally Jewell in Senate confirmation hearing today for Interior Secretary post

Yakima Herald Republic

Feds look to ship Hanford waste to New Mexico

‘Disruptive force’ picked to head DSHS

Five Valley dairies agree to reduce nitrate levels

BROADCAST

KING 5 TV (NBC)

Bill calls for state to cut four justices from Supreme Court

KPLU FM

Seattle Mayor aiming high on green infrastructure for stormwater

Meet the people who will choose Washington's charter schools

MyNorthwest.com (KIRO FM)

Cops shoot down Washington state gun control deal

Republicans declared 'Education Day' in the Washington state Senate (Rolfes, Frockt)

NW Public Radio

Inslee: Best Case, Tank Waste Removal Will Take Years

Voices Of Coal: Local Business Owners

House Committee Takes No Action On Death Penalty Bill  (Carlyle)

WEB

Adelante con Demócratas

Reuniones comunitarias legislativas pueden estar llegando a su vecindario 

The Capitol Record

Senate passes bill to create A-F school grading system

House committee considers bill to abolish death penalty in Washington state (Carlyle)

Crosscut

What will sequestration mean for Washington state?

Bargaining Chip: Community reform group takes on teacher contracts

Hanford would like to send nuclear waste to reluctant New Mexico

The Daily Troll: McGinn takes a breath on police. Here come the charter school leaders. Overlooking NW racism.(Chopp)

HDC Advance

Stanford's knack for numbers upgrades Caseload Forecast Council (Stanford)

A Legislative town hall meeting may be coming to your neighborhood....

Publicola

Fizz: The vote count (Billig, Frockt, McAuliffe, Kohl-Welles, Murray)

Overwhelming public support may not be enough for gun control bill (Pedersen, Takko, Kline)

On other blogs today: closing loopholes, ousting the executive and mending fences

SDC Hopper

Democrats push public education funding discussion, voice concern over hollow promises (Billig, McAuliffe, Rolfes)

Who needs a fully functioning Supreme Court anyway? (Harper)

Seattle PI

Hawaii Senate votes to decriminalize pot

Blog: Inslee at Hanford: Send ‘hot stuff’ to New Mexico

Slog

The Good, the Bad, and the F*cking Nuts (Cody, Ranker, Farrell, Murray, Fitzgibbon, Ryu, Schlicher)

Op-ed by Sally Bagshaw: We Need Your Help Requiring Background Checks for Guns (Pedersen)

Are Seattle Schools Racist?

Quote of the Day

“Millions of dollars fund capital and transportation projects in all 39 of our state’s counties. These projects create jobs, make our communities safer, and improve our quality of life. But the public has no way to look up or track where their money goes, and we want to change that.”

Rep. Marcus Riccelli, Sponsor of HB 1733

Story of the Day

Rep. Tina Orwall

House passes Orwall’s troubled youth legislation

This afternoon, on a 90-8 vote, the Washington State House of Representatives passed a measure that would increase the capacity for school districts to recognize and respond to troubled youth.

“This bill will give our schools basic skills and tools to identify early signs of troubled students and make sure they get referred for help,” said Rep. Tina Orwall (D-Des Moines) the bill’s prime sponsor, who authored another suicide prevention measure last year.

“This bill will ensure that our schools have detailed crisis plans along with partnerships with agencies so they can intervene and help troubled students before it’s too late.”

House Bill 1336 requires certified school nurses, school social workers, and school counselors to complete training in youth suicide screening and referral as a condition of their certification.

The bill also contains several requirements for schools – for example, it would require that school districts adopt a plan for recognition, initial screening, and response to emotional or behavioral distress in students, including indicators of possible substance abuse, violence, and youth suicide.

 School districts must develop a formal partnership with a local mental health center to improve access to screening and treatment services.

“This bill would create a proactive way to get to troubled students before they drop out of school or hurt themselves and others,” said Rep. Cathy Dahlquist (R-Enumclaw).

“We want to detach the stigma associated with students who are going through a rough time.

Training staff that work with our students daily to detect and intervene when a student is exhibiting signs of substance abuse, depression or violence is one step we can take to make our better learning environments.”

“This bill will save lives. We know that every week we lose two young adults between the ages of 14 to 24 to suicide.

But suicide is very preventable if we have the tools in our schools and the partnerships in place to keep our kids safe,” Orwall added.

Testimony given at the bill’s hearing in the Education Committee in early February was very moving. Survivors of suicide and family members of suicide victims, including Kurt Cobain’s aunt, Mary Earl, stressed the need for Orwall’s legislation. Video of the hearing is available in TVW here.

HB 1336 now heads to the Senate for further consideration.Orwall’s 33rd Legislative District includes Normandy Park, Des Moines and parts of Kent, Burien, SeaTac and Renton