Latest Washington Headlines

All the headlines from our Washington Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Washington Atmospheric River Brings Threat of Floods, Landslides

Jan 13 2021 // The Pacific Northwest is bracing for flooding and landslides, while the mountains will see heavy snow and possible avalanches on Wednesday as an atmospheric river collides with Washington and Oregon. The Snoqualmie River...

Washington Bill to Ban Insurers from Using Credit Scores Heads to Senate

Jan 12 2021 // Editor’s note: This article has been updated to remove life insurance from the list of lines of insurance that the bill covered. That language was removed from earlier versions of the bill, and no longer...

Washington County, Deputy to Pay in Civil Case

Jan 7 2021 // An appellate court has ordered lawyers for a Washington state county and its deputy sheriff to pay more than $56,000 in attorney fees and costs for filing frivolous appeals in a federal civil-rights case filed by the...

Washington Ambulance Company Settles Suit With Pregnant Employee

Dec 30 2020 // Ambulance company American Medical Response will settle a discrimination lawsuit after it refused to provide a pregnant Spokane, Washington employee a temporary reprieve from heavy-duty work, regulators announced...

Washington Farm Fined $2M for Virus Rule Violations

Dec 28 2020 // An investigation into the COVID-19 deaths of two workers at a Central Washington farm has reportedly found dozens of safety and health violations. As a result, the Washington state Department of Labor & Industries has...

Washington Drug Chain Settles over Invalid Prescriptions

Dec 21 2020 // The U.S. Department of Justice says it and Bartell Drugs have resolved allegations that the pharmacy chain filled invalid prescriptions between July 2016 and August 2020 in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. U.S....

Washington Gym Defying Virus Orders Fined Nearly $10K a Day

Dec 14 2020 // The state has levied a large fine against a Graham gym that is defying Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s orders meant to slow the spread of the virus. Graham Fitness was accused of eight violations totaling $77,112 by the...

Woman Abused by Washington Band Teacher Settles for $2M

Dec 11 2020 // A school district in Washington state has agreed to a $2 million settlement after a woman sued over sexual abuse by a band teacher 30 years ago – a trauma so profound she said it caused her to stop teaching music to...

Washington Wrongful-Death Lawsuit for $1.5M

Dec 10 2020 // The City of Seattle will pay the family of Che Taylor $1.5 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed after two police officers shot and killed Taylor outside a Wedgwood neighborhood home. A federal judge two...

Vital Insurance Partners Adds Estes in Washington

Dec 9 2020 // Vital Insurance Partners has named Joy Estes vice president of programs. Estes, who will be based in Seattle, Wash., will be responsible for the development and placement of programs within the specialty insurance...

Washington City Settles Shooting Lawsuit for $8M

Dec 7 2020 // The city of Tacoma, Wash., has agreed to an $8 million settlement for a man who was paralyzed and had his legs amputated after being shot by a police officer during a low-speed car chase in 2011. The settlement came two...

Washington Man Shot in Leg During Raid Gets $1.25M Settlement

Dec 1 2020 // The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office in Washington has agreed to pay $1.25 million to a man who was shot in the knee by a deputy during a SWAT team raid at a residence in Bonney Lake. Jerad Wooten, 37, suffered a...

Human Nature Thwarts Widespread Use of Apps Tracking Coronavirus Exposure

Dec 1 2020 // The app builders had planned for pranksters, ensuring that only people with verified COVID-19 cases could trigger an alert. They’d planned for heavy criticism about privacy, in many cases making the features as...

D.C. Postpones All P/C Insurance Rate Increases During COVID Crisis

Dec 1 2020 // The Washington D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) issued a new insurance bulletin to notify all property and casualty insurers that for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, all filed rate...

No Increase in Average Washington Workers’ Comp in 2021

Nov 30 2020 // For the first time in two decades, Washington workers’ compensation rates have dropped or stayed steady for four years in a row. The state Department of Labor & Industries on Monday announced there will be no...

Next Virus Shutdown May Cost Washington Restaurants $800M

Nov 25 2020 // A four-week shutdown on indoor service at restaurants and bars prompted by an alarming statewide spike in COVID-19 cases is expected to cost the industry some $800 million, a representative said Monday. Anthony Anton,...

Judge Upholds Washington’s Orders Against Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network

Nov 20 2020 // An administrative law judge upheld Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s fine and cease-and-desist order against Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network Inc., for illegally acting as an insurer in the...

Washington Man Faces Theft, Fraud Charges After Filing $65K in Claims

Nov 18 2020 // Jaskaran Singh Gill, of Tukwila, Wash., was charged in King County Superior Court in Washington with two counts of first-degree theft, one count of second-degree theft and four counts of filing a false insurance claim...

Washington Insurance Agent Charged with Wire Fraud in Alleged $750K Scheme

Nov 17 2020 // A 57-year-old Snohomish, Wash., insurance agent was charged this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle with five counts of wire fraud for her theft of approximately $750,000 in premium payments from various insurance...

20 Farms in Washington Fined for Not Protecting Workers From COVID-19

Nov 17 2020 // Three Mid-Columbia farms are among those receiving the biggest fines in the state from the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries for serious violations of agriculture regulations to prevent the spread of the...