Obamacare is popular in Washington State
Seattle News:
Mayor Bruce Harrell announced some key changes to his Cabinet. Jessyn Farrell, who ran against him in 2021 and has since served as the Office of Sustainability and Environment Director, has been promoted to Deputy Mayor…so I guess she won’t be running for Mayor this year!
Natalie Walton-Anderson is being promoted to “Chief Public Safety Officer, a member of the mayor’s Executive Team and the portfolio manager overseeing the Seattle Police Department, Community Assisted Response and Engagement Department, and the Office of Emergency Management, effective immediately.” Walton-Anderson previously served as the Mayor’s Director of Public Safety after a stint at the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, where she wrote the infamous memo that basically prevents Judge Pooja Vaddadi from acting in the capacity as judge at Seattle Municipal Court that she was elected to do.
The Seattle City Council needs to appoint someone to fill the now empty District 2 seat. The six finalists participated in a candidate forum on Tuesday night that sounded a bit like a train wreck, with no questions on land use or the comprehensive plan, even though this appointee will be chairing the Land Use committee. The new councilmember will be selected next week.
King County News:
King County Executive Dow Constantine has chosen a shortlist of candidates to fill the empty King County Council position: Karen Keiser. former State Senator, 33rd District; Julia Patterson, former King County Councilmember and State Legislator, 33rd District; and De’Sean Quinn, current Tukwila City Councilmember. The King County Council has until mid-March to make the appointment, and that person will serve until someone new is elected in November.
Former Auburn police officer Jeffrey Nelson was convicted of the murder of 26-year-old Jesse Sarey, who was homeless at the time. Sarey was unarmed and experiencing a mental health crisis. Nelson was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison. PubliCola reported that Nelson had a long history of excessive use of force. This case was the second test of the new I-940 state law, which went into effect in 2019.
We’re seeing a side effect of the acute shortage of public defenders in the University of Washington’s new behavioral health hospital, which was meant primarily for patients involuntarily committed due to mental health issues. The hospital is only admitting long-term patients on a limited basis, and two thirds of its beds are empty. This is because they do not have public defenders to take on these patients’ cases.
Washington State News:
Demand for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, otherwise known as Obamacare, is at an all-time high in Washington State, with about 38,0000 new enrollees for 2025. More than 75% of enrollees receive federal premium tax credits, and many also receive savings through the state’s Cascade Care Savings program. However, if the state legislature doesn’t act, it looks like Cascade Care Savings will run short of funds, which could impact coverage in 2026 and beyond. The extra federal subsidies are also set to expire at the end of 2025.
The state legislature is taking a look at a new batch of gun control laws:
HB 1152, concerning safe storage of firearms
HB 1163, creating a “permit to purchase” system
HB 1132, limiting the number of firearms and amount of ammunition a person can purchase in a month
The Senate is also considering two new gun control measures.
Another bill, HB 1228, would allow private laboratories to test blood samples in DUI cases, a measure meant to address the backlog at the Washington State Toxicology Lab, which is currently the only lab allowed to process these samples. Seattle City Attorney Ann Davision is supporting the bill.
Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to rescind birthright citizenship. His order will last at least 14 days as lawsuits continue to move forward. New Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued the Trump administration over the order on Tuesday along with Oregon, Arizona, and Illinois. Another similar suit is moving forward in Massachusetts.
InvestigateWest reports that Washington State Patrol troopers search indigenous people five times more often than white people, and this disparity has increased since 2020. The Traffic Safety For All Bill, HB 1512, is current legislation meant to help address these disparities.
In Praise:
For the last several weeks, when my brain has needed a bit of a rest, I’ve been watching Netflix’s Virgin River, based on the romance series by Robyn Carr. This is not necessarily a TV series I’d recommend; it is steeped in soap opera drama and seems to operate under the premise that when in doubt, it should add another pregnancy or mystery of parentage. The romance aspect is simply okay.
But what I find fascinating about this show is the other fantasy it is presenting: namely, the fantasy of community and care. The show is set in this little Northern Californian town that is unsurprisingly gorgeous, but what matters even more than the natural beauty is its close-knit commuity. So many things go wrong for plot reasons, but every time there is a new eruption of drama, everyone is there to help and chip in. People routinely feed each other, find each other places to stay, and provide free childcare. They are constantly offering to help each other, and if a person is lonely, they can just go on over to Jack’s Bar and people will definitely want to hang out with them. There is also as much medical care as you could possibly need, with compassionate medical practitioners who figure out what’s going on within a single episode, and no one ever worries about paying for it!
So that is what I’m writing in praise of this week: the idea of a community where everyone cares for one another and has adequate health care.
Recent Headlines:
Facing Budget Crisis, Washington’s Leaders Downplay Focus on Highway Expansion
No More Pretrial Punishment: “These trends demonstrate that the widespread use of pretrial detention is a relatively new phenomenon, and its expanded use was largely untethered from the problem of flight or public safety.”
Safer Cities: Three things to read this week