Republicans name Kretz, Maycumber to Washington legislative leadership positions

November 25, 2020

(PRESS RELEASE/Washington State House Republicans)

Rep. Joel Kretz (right)

Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber

Wilcox named leader of House Republicans…

Rep. J.T. Wilcox has been re-elected as Leader of the Washington State House Republicans. The 2nd Legislative District lawmaker was chosen for the leadership post during the caucus’s reorganizational meeting which was conducted online and remotely today.

“It is an honor to serve with these great lawmakers. What I have learned about our members is that we run toward challenges during difficult times, not away from them. And that is what you are seeing right now as we call for a special session to address our state’s health and economic crisis,” said Wilcox, R-Yelm. “We look forward to the work ahead and being a part of solutions, when possible. And we will continue to speak up for the people who feel like they are being ignored in Olympia.”

Secretary of State and AG issue statement on what would happen if Inslee leaves for Biden Administration

November 25, 2020

(STAFF REPORTS/Chewelah Independent)

The Washington Secretary of State and Attorney General’s office released a joint statement of what would happen if Governor Inslee left his job for a position in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. The oddly timed statement said that if the governor did leave, the lieutenant governor, Denny Heck, would take over gubernatorial duties while also still serving as the lieutenant governor as well. More

‘Our staff is getting sick’: health care leaders talk hospital impacts of rise in COVID-19 cases

November 25, 2020

(RICK BANNAN/Centralia Chronicle)

Washingtonians urged to follow restrictions ahead of vaccine administration, which Is likely to begin next month

Those working on the frontlines in hospitals are feeling the pressure of the current wave of COVID-19 in Washington state as leaders in the medical community warn that not adhering to restrictions in place intended to stop the spread of the disease could lead to a care crisis across the board.

During a press conference Nov. 14, Gov. Jay Inslee said Washington’s recent COVID-19 case rate was 300 per 100,000 of population in the past two weeks. As a result of the increase, hospitalizations in Washington were near an all-time high, Inslee said, near where they were in March when the governor made the first round of executive orders restricting businesses and activities in an effort to halt COVID-19 activity.

Washington State Medical Association President Nathan Schlicher also said that hospitals were hitting record capacity. An emergency room doctor himself, Schlicher said that capacity issues were more than just the number of available hospital beds, but also the number of staff working in buildings.

Inslee sends letter to Congress urging them to immediately resume COVID-19 relief negotiations

November 20, 2020

(PRESS RELEASE/Governor’s Office)

Governor Jay Inslee

Gov. Jay Inslee sent a letter today to congressional leadership and the Trump administration, urging an immediate restart to negotiations on another coronavirus relief package that can be passed and signed into law before the end of the year.

Minor 2.9 earthquake hits Southwest Washington

November 20, 2020

(STAFF REPORTS/Centralia Chronicle)

A minor 2.9-magnitude earthquake was felt near Onalaska in Southwestern Washington Thursday afternoon. Although calls came into the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Lewis County Emergency Management was made aware of the incident, emergency responders were not dispatched, as there was no concern of structural damage. Deputy Director of Emergency Management Andy Caldwell said no response was warranted due to the low magnitude of the quake. More

Cathy McMorris Rodgers looks to two more years in Congress

November 20, 2020

(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TALKS WITH NEWSPAPER: McMorris Rodgers will focus on recovery, broadband and healthy forests…

Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been Washington’s 5th Legislative District U.S. House Representative since 2005. After results came in on Election Night showing that she would be serving a ninth term, the Kettle Falls native will now look to the future and work on the direction that the country is heading.

McMorris Rodgers talked with the Chewelah Independent about what she will be working on in the next two years, with priorities including timber management, broadband in rural areas, working on an economy recovering from COVID-19 and veteran affairs.

NE Washington has been a particular focus nationally when it comes to timber management. In the A-to-Z project which has seen more private thinning of public lands in the Colville National Forest, the area has served as a national pilot program. More

Inslee to address state on COVID-19 Thursday evening as cases surge

November 12, 2020

(STAFF REPORTS/Chewelah Independent and Centralia Chronicle)

Gov. Jay Inslee and his wife Trudi will address the state this evening and provide an update on the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a notice from the governor’s office.

The address will take place at 5:30 p.m. and can be viewed at TVW.org in addition to local network television stations. More

ELECTION 2020: Inslee, McCart and Young win

November 5, 2020

(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

MAKING A CHOICE: Inslee wins re-election; Wes McCart and Young win county commissioner seats in unofficial results…

Election Day has come and gone, with voters both nationally and locally making decisions that will shape the coming years. In Stevens County, turnout was large with 40.71 percent of ballots returned by election night.

This is expected to grow as 10K more ballot are counted by the Stevens County auditor’s office. For historical perspective, in the 2016 presidential election, 78.9 percent of voters cast a ballot.

In 2020, there were several big races that dominated the headlines. The presidential race probably requires no introduction. Republican incumbent Donald Trump currently has 174 electoral votes, while Democratic challenger and former Obama Vice President Joe Biden has 223 electoral votes. These aren’t the final results but the information we had at press time. Before election day, 101 million people had already cast their ballots. More

Washingtonians affected by data breaches nearly doubled in 2020

October 29, 2020

(PRESS RELEASE/Washington Attorney General)

New data breach protections give Washington one of the most robust data breach notification policies in the country…

Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s fifth annual Data Breach Report, released today, showed that the number of Washingtonians affected by breaches nearly doubled in the last year and ransomware attacks tripled.

The report is the first since new Washington state legislation proposed by Ferguson took effect in March strengthening the state’s data breach notification law. The new laws require agencies and companies to provide earlier and more detailed notices to consumers. The report also comes in the midst of a global pandemic where more people are storing their personal information online.

The total number of Washingtonians affected by a data breach increased significantly, from 351,000 in 2019 to 651,000 in 2020. Overall, there were fewer breaches reported to the Attorney General’s Office in 2020, decreasing from 60 reported breaches last year to 51 this year. More

Washington will join Western States in independent review of COVID-19 vaccine

October 28, 2020

(RICK BANNAN/Centralia Chronicle)

PACT: Panel will look at vaccine after FDA approval…

Washington has joined four other western states in creating an independent review panel of any federally-approved COVID-19 vaccine in an attempt to assure anything that becomes available is safe and effective, Gov. Jay Inslee announced.

During a press conference Oct. 27, Inslee announced that Washington would be involved with the Western States Pact’s own review of a vaccine for the disease. He said the review panel would approve based on the “safety and efficacy” of vaccines following their approval from the Food and Drug Administration, calling the review an “added layer of assurance” for Washingtonians that any vaccine distributed in the state would be safe to use.

The pact was initially announced in April in which Inslee, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had agreed to align their respective states’ reopening efforts along a set of principles on the use of scientific data and protecting the states’ residents’ health. More