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 how a spokesperson for the Marine Stewardship Council ducked, dipped and dived around our questions about seafood sustainability.
“But the Filet-O-Fish is the only thing I ever order at McDonalds!”
I’m pretty sure my wife Sally wasn’t the only one to express this sentiment when she read Lee van der Voo’s terrifically reported news analysis of a little-covered fight between Alaska Natives and a corporate-owned, Seattle-based fleet of trawlers that pulls in America’s single largest catch of fish.
InvestigateWest called the story “A supposedly sustainable fishery is harming Native Alaskans.” That "sustainable" label comes from the Marine Stewardship Council, a London-based group whose U.S. office is in Seattle. We'll get back to the MSC and how it justifies the label shortly.
To read the rest...

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