State & Regional News | Thurston Chronicle

Gov. Tina Kotek in 2024 signed a law creating the America 250 Oregon Commission, tasking it with coordinating the state’s celebration of the country’s 250th year of independence.

Here’s how Oregon is celebrating America’s 250th year of independence

Bigfoot is officially helping Oregon celebrate the country’s 250th birthday. This September, the Dallas Area Visitors Center will host its second annual Bigfootstock, a one-day festival … more

Mia Maldonado / Oregon Capital Chronicle | 6/26/26

Gov. Bob Ferguson, left, and director of the Department of Ecology, Casey Sixkiller, right, hold the signed agreement to link Washington’s carbon market with California and Quebec’s.

Washington agrees to join carbon market with California and Quebec

Washington took a key step Thursday to combine its carbon market with one operating in California and Quebec, a move expected to drive down costs for carbon-emitting businesses once the programs are … more

Aspen Ford / Washington State Standard | 6/26/26

A harvester crane processes a log on a thinning project in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington state. A new lawsuit targeting a timber harvest in Oregon could upend management of federal lands across the West.

Oregon lawsuit could upend federal management of public lands

A new lawsuit challenging a logging project in Oregon threatens to unravel the management plans governing hundreds of millions of acres of federal public land. At stake are thousands of leases … more

Alex Brown / Washington State Standard | 6/26/26

Gov. Bob Ferguson answers questions from the press during a legislative session preview in a Senate Hearing room in Olympia on Friday, Jan. 9.

With cracks showing in Washington economy, Ferguson forms new council to look for fixes

SEATTLE — Warning lights are flashing for Washington’s economy. Job growth has been slower than expected , and the unemployment rate is above the national average. There are mounting layoffs … more

By Jake Goldstein-Street and Jerry Cornfield / The Washington State Standard | 6/25/26

A healthy sunflower sea star is seen on the seafloor in 2014. Sunflower sea stars are important for fish habitat because they eat sea urchins, which can mow down kelp forests if left unchecked. A wasting disease that struck more than a decade ago wiped out about 90% of the population, with the most severe losses in the southern part of the species’ range, off Mexico and California. Sunflower sea stars in Alaska have also died from the wasting disease, but the losses have not been as severe. (Photo by Ed Gullekson/Washington Department of Fish and WIldlife, provided by NOAA Fisheries)

Lawsuit aims to put sunflower sea stars on endangered species list

An environmental group has sued the Trump administration over its failure to grant Endangered Species Act protections to sunflower sea stars, a keystone Pacific Ocean species that lost 90% of its … more

By Yereth Rosen / The Alaska Beacon | 6/25/26

With Oregon precedent, Washington lawmakers reflect on anti-corporate medicine legislation

An Oregon law that addresses hospitals’ corporate involvement in clinicians’ decisions regarding treatment has the attention of Washington state lawmakers. As U.S. healthcare has … more

By Owen Racer / Cascadia Daily News | 6/25/26

‘I voted’ stickers in the entry room of the Thurston County Ballot Processing Center in Tumwater on Thursday, Oct. 30.

Trump order limiting voting by mail halted by federal court

A federal judge on Thursday blocked major portions of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting voting by mail, finding he had exceeded his constitutional authority. The decision … more

By Jonathan Shorman / States Newsroom | 6/25/26

A Christensen fuel truck leaves a refinery in Anacortes. Christensen, a major agricultural fuel distributor, was among the first to offer exemptions under the Climate Commitment Act. (Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

Washington Supreme Court upholds state climate law’s farm fuel exemption rules

The state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld Washington’s hotly contested regulations for how farmers and haulers of agricultural goods receive the exemption on fuel purchases promised … more

By Jerry Cornfield / The Washington State Standard | 6/25/26

Income tax lawsuit spotlights Gov. Ferguson's Supreme Court appointees

Washingtonians are being asked whether two recently appointed justices should remain on the Supreme Court as a lawsuit challenging a new state income tax looms over the election. Critics of the … more

Tim Clouser / The Center Square | 6/25/26

The Centralia coal plant hasn’t operated since last December, but is required to remain on standby by order of the Trump Administration. Its owner, TransAlta Corporation, wants reimbursement. Electric ratepayers across the Pacific Northwest could end up paying. (Photo by Tom Banse)

Cost to keep TransAlta's Centralia coal plant on standby keeps rising — who will pay?

Electric utilities across the Pacific Northwest are fuming that their customers might be saddled with the costs of a coal-burning power plant that isn’t producing any power. The messy dispute … more

By Tom Banse / The Washington State Standard | 6/25/26

Through the first three months of 2026, Washington saw four deaths and 3 near-deaths among children in the state's child welfare system. (Photo courtesy of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.)

Washington child welfare deaths drop significantly after record year

Deaths and critical injuries among children in Washington’s child welfare system fell steeply in the first quarter of 2026, state officials reported Wednesday. Still, four children died and … more

By Jake Goldstein-Street / The Washington State Standard | 6/24/26

Ballots that had arrived by mail or were set aside on Election Day, 2024, sit on a table at the Cass County Courthouse in North Dakota on Nov. 18, 2024.

States that won’t obey Trump order will have their mail ballots halted, postmaster says

The U.S. Postal Service won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters under a proposed rule, the agency’s chief executive said Wednesday, angering Democrats who … more

By Jonathan Shorman / States Newsroom | 6/24/26

Gas prices in Washington are among the highest in the country. The state's gas tax will rise by 1.1 cents on July 1. (Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)

Washington’s gas tax is going up, but state transportation revenue is falling short

Washington state’s gas tax, already among the highest in the nation, is going up next week. The state’s per-gallon fuel tax of 55.4 cents will climb 1.1 cents on July 1. The 2% bump is the … more

By Jerry Cornfield / The Washington State Standard | 6/24/26

Washington state workers set for July 1 raise as union contract talks begin

State workers in Washington are about to get a raise, while secretive union negotiations that could include another raise get underway. A two percent pay hike negotiated as part of a 2025 … more

By Carleen Johnson / The Center Square | 6/23/26

The courtroom in the Temple of Justice is pictured on Thursday, Feb. 19, in Olympia.

Washington transgender prisoner policy lands before state Supreme Court

Washington’s state Supreme Court justices will weigh in on where a transgender woman held in state prisons should be confined, as the state faces a federal probe over the issue. The court on … more

By Jake Goldstein-Street / The Washington State Standard | 6/23/26

A construction worker balances atop a roof. States and cities are loosening building code requirements in an effort to lower construction costs and boost affordable housing.

States are changing fire codes to make housing cheaper. Some safety experts are worried.

States and cities are loosening building code requirements in an effort to lower construction costs and boost affordable housing. Some of these changes include allowing low-rise apartment … more

Robbie Sequeira / Stateline | 6/23/26

The Oregon Supreme Court and Oregon Court of Appeals are pictured in Salem on Dec. 14, 2023. A new decision from the Oregon Court of Appeals touches on the involvement of criminal investigations in public records law.

Oregon appeals court sides with OPB in case over public corrections records requests

Documents that show up in criminal investigations undertaken by Oregon law enforcement are not automatically exempt from disclosure under state public records law, the Oregon Court of Appeals … more

Shaanth Nanguneri / Oregon Capital Chronicle | 6/23/26

A view of glacier-clad peaks in Washington’s North Cascades. Snow in Idaho, western Montana, the Washington Cascades and Snake River Basin melted two to five weeks earlier than normal in 2026, and in parts of the Oregon Cascades, mountain snowpack melted two months earlier than normal, according to Washington’s state climatologist.

Northwest potentially in for ‘one of the strongest El Niños we’ve had,’ climatologists say

Warming temperatures at the equator could paradoxically bring the Northwest a wet fall and high winter snowpack, according to climatologists. The West could be in for “one of the strongest El … more

Alex Baumhardt / Oregon Capital Chronicle | 6/23/26

When the Washington State Democratic Party held its convention in Spokane last weekend, a focus was on winning elections in the state and across the country.

Four takeaways from the Washington state Democratic Party convention

As the Democratic Party’s national leaders engaged in public soul-searching after a disastrous 2024 election cycle, their counterparts in Washington state celebrated a banner year. Democrats … more

Jerry Cornfield / Washington State Standard | 6/23/26

A view of the Nippon Dynawave Packaging plant on May 27, 2026, following the catastrophic failure of a tank that contained a corrosive chemical. (Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Ecology)

Findings expected by year-end in state investigation into Longview tank implosion

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries expects its investigation into the deadly Longview tank implosion that killed 11 workers to take most of the six months allowed under state law, … more

By Paul W. Taylor, TVW | 6/22/26