Concerned about conditions in federal immigrant detention facilities but often barred from entering them, some Democratic-led states are fighting to enforce their own health and safety standards at the sites. The Trump administration, citing the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, argues that states don’t have the authority to regulate federal facilities. But states counter…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House departed Wednesday for a seven-week campaign break after spending less than two weeks in session during August and September. The extended “district work period” is intended to give incumbents from both political parties time to meet with constituents and fundraise back home before voting in this year’s midterm elections ends…
Two of Washington’s hottest ballot battles will be the subject of prime-time televised debates next month. On Oct. 8, a former congresswoman and the leader of a statewide labor organization will square off on Initiative 645, which, if passed, would repeal the income tax on households earning more than a million dollars a year. Jaime…
Declining birth rates mean fewer students. And that means more districts grappling with whether to close or merge schools. “The big shrink” is how Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, described what is happening nationally. “When there are fewer young people, obviously it’s going to change the shape of public education,” Roza said.…
States, cities and counties filed a pair of lawsuits Monday challenging new federal rules that will allow immigrants’ use of safety net resources to be taken into account for green cards and other applications to stay in or enter the country. The new federal policy goes into effect Friday and broadens the discretion of immigration…
In an unexpected move, President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Pete Serrano, a former state attorney general candidate from Pasco, to be the next U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington. Serrano now leads the federal prosecutor’s office in eastern Washington in his dual roles of first assistant U.S. attorney and special attorney to…
WASHINGTON — Both chambers of Congress return to Capitol Hill this week for a brief session before heading back to the campaign trail until mid-November. The House will be in for one week and the Senate for three, giving Republicans little time to enact any laws or confirm nominees before voters decide whether to give…
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Sept. 4 giving the U.S. secretary of interior 90 days to decide whether to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves and Mexican wolves in the United States. The Supporting America’s Ranchers executive order calls for Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum to decide within 90 days whether…
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the one-term Oregon congresswoman tasked by the Trump administration to head the nation’s leading worker protection agency, oversaw harassment within her office, consumed alcohol on the job and had an inappropriate relationship with her security detail, according to an official federal watchdog. The 44-page report last week from the…
President Donald Trump has, at times, justified his campaign against mail-in voting in explicitly partisan terms, claiming Republicans’ electoral chances hinge on whether the practice is allowed. A new analysis from a Democratic-aligned voting rights group, shared first with States Newsroom, shows he may be right: Eliminating mail-in voting would be more disruptive to Democratic…
