In the News

Outrage at Derek Chauvin was apparent from the moment video surfaced of his knee pressed into George Floyd's neck for 9 ½ minutes.

Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder in April, became the face of intolerance, injustice and police brutality, his actions driving worldwide protests against those ills.

But the inaction ...

Following a rise in domestic violence rates during the course of the pandemic, Sen. Manka Dhingra and others spoke at a town hall Wednesday, Nov. 3, highlighting new state legislation which is making it easier for survivors to seek protections from their abusers. “We wanted to make sure that we were addressing long-standing issues that were highlighted by the pandemic,” Dingra ...

A dozen bills that would reform the way police are trained in Washington state are under consideration by lawmakers. Kris Van Cleave visited the state's Criminal Justice Training Center to see how that new training is encouraging officers to slow down and take a step back.

OLYMPIA — The Washington Legislature on Tuesday passed a bill to require law enforcement officers to intervene if they witness another officer using excessive force in an encounter. Senate Bill 5066 is one of a slew of proposals designed to reshape police tactics and oversight of law enforcement in the wake of last year’s protests over the death of Black people ...

After years of trying, Washington legislators appear poised to free up doctors at Catholic hospitals to provide medically necessary abortions when pregnancies go wrong. The legislation would allow patients to sue a hospital if they are denied medical care to hasten miscarriages or terminate nonviable pregnancies that threaten the patients’ health. It also would allow providers to sue if they are ...

Lawmakers in Olympia are scrambling to respond to a Washington Supreme Court decision that declared the state’s law criminalizing drug possession unconstitutional because it did not require prosecutors to prove intent. Dueling proposals reflect the range of philosophical beliefs about how the state should respond to drug possession and use — from a quick return to the status quo, to an ...

About a month after the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state's drug possession law and effectively decriminalized controlled substances statewide, lawmakers in Olympia have introduced nine pieces of legislation to address the ruling's major ramifications, which include $100 million tabs from courts and prosecutors who now need to clear records and refund fines, plus a suddenly urgent need to expand drug ...

A group of Democratic lawmakers have met in recent weeks, attempting to understand the decision and strategize next steps. Sen. Manka Dhingra, who works as a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in King County, has framed the Blake decision as an opportunity to build on the state’s progress toward a public-health approach to substance use disorder.

OLYMPIA, WA — State legislators are considering a new legal framework for drug possession, one month after the state's highest court struck down Washington's felony drug statute. In February, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the state's "strict liability" statute was overreaching and did not require prosecutors to establish intent to sell or use drugs. The high court's ...