Bill to establish statewide oversight of jails in Washington dies in Legislature
Washington is one of 12 states without enforceable state standards or oversight — that won’t change in 2026
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This month in SIDEBAR, an exclusive monthly dispatch from inside our newsroom just for InvestigateWest members, Robert McClure shares a story from his reporting.
Spring has just sprung, and yet this summer’s fire outlook already is ominous across the Northwest. Snowpack in Washington’s Olympic Mountains is at something like 7 percent of normal. In the drier climes of southwestern Oregon conditions are even more parched. This on the heels of the most destructive wildfire in Washington state history, the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire, which destroyed more than 300 homes.
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