An update for our readers

Arts and cultural organizations across Washington learned this week that the National Endowment for the Humanities is cancelling or rescinding upward of $10 million in cultural funding the state was set to receive.  

The cuts are part of a broader clawback of federal humanities funding by the Trump Administration and its DOGE initiative. The money was appropriated by Congress and awarded in all 50 states.  

The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that supports state and local museums, historic sites, universities, teachers, libraries, documentary filmmakers and local humanities programming.  

Local and state organizations began receiving letters late Wednesday night from the federal agency stating that: “Your grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination. … Your grant’s immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities.” 

Humanities Washington is the state humanities council. It uses federal funding to run children’s reading programs in libraries and schools, adult education, the Washington State Poet Laureate program, history and culture speaker series, humanities fellowships and other programming in cities and towns across the state. It also disburses grants for initiatives like cultural history projects about Washington.  

“The attack on the NEH is an attack on community-minded people and cultural organizations across the state,” said Julie Ziegler, executive director of Humanities Washington in a news release. "People working to educate themselves and their children, wanting to better understand others in their communities, and looking to live fuller, happier lives will all be affected. The humanities provide all of these things and more.”  

Humanities Washington is set to lose $6 million from the cancelled grants. According to Inspire Washington, a statewide cultural advocacy organization, the National Endowment for the Humanities has provided $14 million for cultural programming in the state over the past five years. 

This article originally appeared in the Washington State Standard.

Washington is suing a property management software company and a handful of landlords over allegations they colluded to inflate rents through a price-fixing scheme, Attorney General Nick Brown announced Thursday.

The state says RealPage has three products to help landlords calculate rental prices and manage occupancy. The company uses nonpublic information that landlords agree to share to create an algorithm that pushes them to raise rents, according to the lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court. 

Instead of competing, the landlords all raise their prices together based on RealPage’s recommendations, according to the complaint. So instead of the market helping determine rents, it’s software.

RealPage also tells landlords to nix discounts they give to attract tenants, the lawsuit alleges. And it reportedly recommends keeping units vacant to keep rents up, instead of leasing them for a lower price.

In a press conference Thursday, Brown said property managers used the Texas-based RealPage software to price an estimated 800,000 leases in Washington between 2017 and 2024. About a third of Washington residents are renters, according to the lawsuit.

In 2023, more than half of Washington’s renters paid more than 30% of their income toward rent, according to a state report released in December.

“Pricing is higher and occupancy is lower for properties managed by landlords using RealPage than for those that don’t,” Brown said. “Washington needs a competitive market to help with our critical shortage of affordable, multifamily housing. RealPage’s unfair practices are drowning renters and pricing more and more families out of stable housing in Washington.”

The lawsuit alleges RealPage and nine landlords violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act by stifling competition.

“It’s price fixing, it’s illegal and it hurts Washingtonians,” Brown said.

Chris Vialpando, a renter in Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, said his landlord raised his rent over 50% in 2022 based on RealPage’s algorithm. He said he is one of many “falling victim to the collusion, thereby perpetuating this already complex, systemic housing crisis.”

“And I also understand that inflation and market adjustments are naturally part of the rental economy, but what I don’t understand is how these predatory companies can continue to operate freely without continuous authoritative examination and scrutiny,” Vialpando said.

In a statement, a RealPage spokesperson said the company’s software “is purposely designed and built to be legally compliant and has always used data legally and responsibly, and we have a long history of working constructively to show that.”

“We believe the claims brought by Washington State AG Nick Brown are devoid of merit and will do nothing to make housing more affordable,” spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock said. “Washington State should stop scapegoating pro-competitive technology, and we encourage Washington State’s public leaders to focus on meeting the greater demand for housing with more supply.”

Gov. Bob Ferguson, when he was still attorney general, launched an investigation into the RealPage software in early 2023. 

The investigation came on the heels of a ProPublica report on RealPage’s algorithm that found just 10 property managers oversaw 70% of apartments in a Seattle neighborhood. All of them used RealPage’s pricing software.

The state had previously been part of an ongoing federal lawsuit along with other states and the U.S. Department of Justice over antitrust concerns, but dropped out of that case in late February. The attorney general’s office withdrew from that lawsuit because “We saw a bigger problem,” Brown said.

“We saw a conspiracy, and we saw a greater path to help more renters,” he said. “We filed this case in state court because we believe that state law protects a greater number of Washingtonians and tenants than the federal case.”

Tenants across the country have also brought a class-action lawsuit against RealPage and its property management clients that is ongoing in federal court in Tennessee. 

Washington’s lawsuit asks a judge to declare the conduct illegal, award restitution and hand down civil penalties.

The landlords named as defendants in the complaint are Greystar, Cushman & Wakefield, LivCor, UDR, Prime Administration, Quarterra Multifamily Communities, LaSalle Properties, MG Properties and Sares Regis Management Company.

Lawmakers in Olympia are also looking to ban algorithmic rental price-fixing this year. Senate Bill 5469 would prohibit the collection of data that feeds recommendations for rental rates and bar landlords from obtaining those recommendations. The attorney general would enforce violations of the proposed law.

The state Senate passed the measure on a party-line vote this month, and it is now moving through the House.

This week, RealPage sued the city of Berkeley, California, over a similar ordinance aimed at stopping landlords from using algorithms to set rents.

In an interview the day he took office in January, the new attorney general said one of his top priorities was tackling “unjust, illegal, misleading business practices” in the housing sector.

“It’s our job to be a watchdog, and make sure that housing is affordable and available for everyone,” Brown said at the time.

The Washington State Standard originally published this story on April 3, 2024.

Gov. Bob Ferguson announced Tuesday he will not sign either proposed budget released last week by legislative Democrats, saying the plans rely too heavily on a “wealth tax” on the state’s highest earners. Ferguson called the tax “untested” and “difficult to implement.”

House and Senate Democrats each released proposals for how to fund government services for the next four years. To fill an estimated $15 billion shortfall, both proposals rely on a slate of new tax proposals, including a tax on individuals with more than $50 million in stocks, bonds and other financial assets.

Ferguson said Democrats are proposing “far too much” in new taxes and that a wealth tax is an unsustainable idea that may not hold up in court.

“If the Legislature wishes to complete our work on time, they need to immediately move the budget discussions in a significantly different direction on both of these issues,” he said.

Ferguson’s reservations about a wealth tax are not new. A week before he was inaugurated, Ferguson told reporters that he was skeptical of the idea. In his inaugural address, he said he would not sign a budget that requires “unrealistic revenue growth to balance.”

On Tuesday, he said he understands that lawmakers cannot balance the budget on cuts alone but would not commit to any new taxes. Democrats have also proposed new taxes on wealthy employers, and increased business and property taxes.

Ferguson said he is continuing to have conversations with lawmakers about how to move forward.

Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, said she is confident that lawmakers and the governor will work together to complete a budget that puts the state on “strong financial footing for the future.”

“I appreciate the governor providing more clarity today on his vision for the operating budget and his commitment to a balanced approach – one that includes both new revenue and responsible, targeted reductions,” Robinson said in a statement. “This aligns with the thoughtful, forward-looking mindset that’s guided our process from the start.”

Ferguson said crafting a sustainable budget will be even more important with looming federal funding cuts that could cause uncertainty in the state’s financial future. He emphasized the importance of keeping the rainy-day fund – the state’s savings account – intact.

“Our budget situation is grim, but it may soon become dire,” he said.

House Democrats have proposed leaving the state’s $1.6 billion in reserves untouched, while Senate Democrats propose dipping into the fund and paying it back by 2027.

Ferguson said lawmakers must continue to focus on trimming spending. He released a plan last month for about $4 billion in proposed cuts on top of the $3 billion former Gov. Jay Inslee proposed in December. Most of those cuts were included in Democrats’ proposals.

If lawmakers want to finish the legislative session on time, they will need to reach a compromise with Ferguson by April 27. If they don’t finalize a budget by June 30, state funding will run out.

This article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

Washington was among 23 states that sued the Trump administration Tuesday over the cancellation of $12 billion in federal funding to address infectious diseases, substance abuse and mental illness, including about $160 million for Washington.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the abrupt termination last week of grants related to disease tracking, vaccination efforts and other work that officials said could cost thousands of jobs in public health departments nationwide. This pot of money makes up $11 billion of the $12 billion cut. 

The cuts in Washington reportedly include $118 million for the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases program, impacting 150 full-time employees. Losing this money will hurt the state’s ability to respond to emerging outbreaks, including measles and bird flu, according to the complaint.

That money also continued to support COVID-related surveillance efforts, the lawsuit says.  

In total, Washington’s Department of Health stands to lose around $130 million, an agency spokesperson said last week, with the termination affecting upward of 200 department employees, and more at local health departments, tribal health clinics and community-based organizations.

One of the specific programs affected is Care Connect, which the department launched early in the pandemic to provide food and other needs to people with COVID so they could isolate. The program later shifted to meet the needs of those suffering from long COVID, among other things.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown also cites the state’s Care-A-Van mobile health clinics, which provide vaccinations and other services to underserved communities. Officials have already had to cancel clinics due to the lost funding. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rolled back the grants “for cause” because “the pandemic is over,” so the funding is no longer needed, according to the lawsuit. The states counter that the money was never intended to be used only to respond to the COVID pandemic.

The lawsuit also tackles the separate but simultaneous Trump administration axing of another $1 billion in Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration funding, including $34 million for Washington. 

Brown is one of several attorneys general leading Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. The Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are named as defendants. The Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

“We can’t make America healthy by spreading preventable diseases,” Brown said. “Aside from the illegality of these actions, the administration is also choosing to neglect the biggest public health challenges, including substance abuse and mental health crises, facing our communities.”

The states say the cuts violate the Administrative Procedure Act by suddenly terminating the grants without much explanation. The plaintiffs asked a judge for a temporary restraining order to reverse the cuts. 

The state Department of Health’s now-canceled federal grant dollars were expected to expire between June 2025 and July 2026, agency spokesperson Marisol Mata Somarribas said.

Also on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services began its purge of 10,000 federal workers.

As part of the layoff announcement, Kennedy also said he’d be halving the number of Health and Human Services regional offices from 10 to five. Seattle’s office serves Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. Its fate was unclear Tuesday.

This is at least the eighth lawsuit Brown has led or joined against the Trump administration since January. Most have resulted in preliminary court orders blocking implementation of a variety of actions, including eliminating birthright citizenship, blocking gender-affirming care for minors and mass firings of federal workers.

The Washington State Standard originally published this story on April 1, 2025.

In their proposals to fund statewide construction and upgrades over the next two years, Washington lawmakers are prioritizing projects focused on housing, education and the environment. The capital budget proposals released Monday by the House and Senate each allocate about $7 billion in funding.

The capital budget is one of three state funding plans the Legislature must pass this year, along with the operating and transportation budgets. Democrats released those proposals last week. Lawmakers must pass a compromised version of each budget by April 27 if they want to end their session on time.

Both chambers’ proposals for capital projects are similar and have bipartisan support.

“I wanted this budget to meet the basic needs of Washingtonians in all parts of our great state and to be responsive to our state’s most essential infrastructure needs,” said lead Senate capital budget writer Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma. “I think this budget accomplishes that mission.”

The Senate’s plan sets aside $600 million over the next two years for the Housing Trust Fund, the state’s largest pot for affordable housing grants. Similarly, the House would allocate $598 million for this fund, with specific earmarks for mobile home restoration, homeownership projects, housing for people with developmental disabilities, farmworker housing, tribal housing and local projects across the state.

In total, both proposals set aside more than $700 million over the next two years for housing and homelessness programs. That includes money for youth shelters, improvements to transitional housing for veterans and housing around transit.

"At a time when other state budgets are facing pressure and shortfalls, the capital budget stands out as a bright spot,” said Rep. Mike Steele, R-Chelan, top Republican on the House Capital Budget Committee. 

Both budgets would make significant investments in the state’s natural resources through fish hatcheries, state park renovations and clean water supply projects. The proposals each set aside $2.2 billion in this area.

The Senate plan would change how the state pays to remove barriers like culverts that impede fish migration, specifically salmon and steelhead. Culverts carry streams under state highways but can block fish passages.

State officials are currently in mediation with western Washington tribes after delays and rising costs pushed back the state’s plan to remove these barriers across the state. The Department of Transportation says it likely needs another $5 billion to complete work to meet the state’s legal obligation to remove fish barriers.

Currently, the state pays for these projects through the transportation budget, but that funding faces a deficit over the next two years. To ensure the state can pay, capital budget writers in the Senate propose a $5 billion bond to be repaid over time from a share of taxes on public utilities.

The House, on the other hand, proposes continuing to fund this work in the transportation budget.

Both proposals invest heavily in schools, with the Senate and the House each setting aside more than $1 billion to support school construction, modernizing small district and tribal schools, classroom air-quality projects and seismic safety grants.

The capital budget would also fund expansions for behavioral health facilities, grants for early learning centers, stadium improvements ahead of the World Cup and restoration of historic buildings and museums.

The Nosh with Rachel Belle newsletter is a biweekly slice of the Pacific Northwest food scene, from the inimitable perspective of the host of The Nosh and Your Last Meal.  

Today we’re asking Rachel some questions about the forthcoming newsletter, which will hit inboxes April 9. You can subscribe here. 

Q: For people who aren’t already fans of your TV show on Cascade PBS or your James Beard Award-finalist podcast, could you introduce yourself? 

Hello, I’m Rachel Belle! I love to read cookbooks in bed, devour dim sum, make matzo ball soup for sick friends, grow heirloom tomatoes specifically for tomato sandwiches and I’m honestly curious about what you ate for breakfast this morning. So, yeah, my life revolves around food. And since you subscribed to this newsletter, I have a feeling yours does too! 

This August marks my 20th year in Seattle! I moved here from northern California to work as a reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Over my 15 years at the station, I hosted the popular “Ring My Belle” segment, won an Edward R. Murrow Award for feature reporting and was named “Seattle’s Best FM Radio Personality” by Seattle Weekly. 

August also marks my ninth year of hosting and producing my podcast Your Last Meal, where I interview celebrities about their last meals, then invite experts to dig into the history, culture or science of those dishes.  

I host The Nosh with Rachel Belle, a food and drink storytelling TV show on Cascade PBS, and my first cookbook, Open Sesame, was published in November!  

Q: So what’s this newsletter’s deal? What can subscribers expect? 

It will be a mix of food and restaurant news, dispatches from my local culinary explorations, the occasional recipe and a fun, food-centered Q&A with a local notable person. I’m here to inform and entertain you, so if you have a food- or drink-related question (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?), send me a note and I just might answer it in a future newsletter! (rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org) 

Anyone who signs up for the newsletter now through April 8 will be automatically entered to win a copy of my cookbook, Open Sesame, and a jar of Soom tahini. 

Q: Can you give us a sneak peek at what will be in the first issue? 

The inaugural newsletter coincides with the kickoff of The Nosh’s second season, and the first two episodes focus on something near and dear to my heart: zero waste in the culinary space. I’ll share some of my favorite zero/low-waste kitchen habits, and there will be a Q&A with Lara Hamilton, owner of Seattle’s fantastic all-cookbook bookstore, Book Larder. 

Q: Last but certainly not least in importance, what’s your Dick’s order?  

As much as I love a vegetable and the contrast of hot and cold, crunchy and squishy, I will always order the simple, scrawny little cheeseburgers over a lettuce-and-relish-dressed Dick’s Deluxe. One of my favorite parts of a Dick’s or In-N-Out cheeseburger is ... the “cheese paper!” I love to scrape the rubbery bits of melted American cheese off the wrapper with my teeth. I also have a soft spot for Dick’s hand-cut fries, which are often criticized for being too soggy.  

The Sound Transit Board of Directors voted unanimously Thursday to hire King County Executive Dow Constantine as the agency’s new CEO.  

Constantine has served as county executive since 2009, but announced last November that he would not seek a fifth term. A member of Sound Transit’s board for 15 years, he played an important role in supporting the 2016 voter-approved authorization of Link light rail’s third phase of expansion.  

The county executive was chosen from a pool of 60 applicants. He will be paid a base salary of $450,000 along with performance bonuses and other benefits.  

“Much of my service as an elected official has been devoted to building the world-class transit system our region has long needed and creating vibrant, transit-connected communities throughout Central Puget Sound,” said Constantine in a statement released after the vote. “I can think of nothing I would rather do than lead this agency into the future, and I thank the Board for their vote of confidence.” 

Constantine takes the helm of an agency beset by delays, cost overruns and maintenance struggles as it works to complete its second phase of light-rail expansion and finish planning the third expansion, which will complete the “spine” of rail from Everett to Tacoma and build the West Seattle-to-Ballard line.  

Frequent electrical issues and breakdowns in the past year have resulted in lengthy delays for light-rail riders. Light-rail expansion is behind schedule and estimated costs of completion have ballooned by billions of dollars.  

“The new CEO really is going to be facing a number of challenges,” said Dave Somers, board chair and Snohomish County Executive during Thursday’s meeting. “The person best able to do that is someone who’s well-grounded, well-versed in the agency, the region, the partners, the communities and really the issues. And Dow really, at the end of the day, rose to the top.” 

Transit advocates were divided by Constantine’s nomination. Kirk Hovenkotter, executive director of Transportation Choices Coalition, and Alex Hudson, executive director of Commute Seattle both testified in support of Constantine at Thursday’s board meeting.  

“Executive Constantine has been one of the Puget Sound region’s greatest champions for transit. He led the passage at the ballot of the country’s second-largest transit expansion. We are excited to work with Executive Constantine in this role to address the challenges ahead and deliver great transit to this region,” said Hovenkotter in a statement after Constantine’s nomination was announced Monday.  

Others, including representatives from Seattle Subway and the advocacy group Seattle Transit Riders Union, criticized the pick. They alleged that the hiring process was not sufficiently transparent and that Constantine had an unfair advantage since he personally nominated half of the 18-member board of directors and is himself a board member. 

In their final comments before the vote, nearly every board member defended the hiring process along with celebrating Constantine’s qualifications for the role.  

Constantine will begin as CEO in April. His term as county executive runs through the end of this year.  

Once he resigns from that post, Constantine will pick one of his staff to serve as interim executive until the County Council appoints someone to fill the seat until voters elect a new county executive in November. 

PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger and NPR CEO and President Katherine Maher are scheduled to testify to at a hearing of the U.S. House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency on Wednesday at 7 a.m. PT. 

The testimony comes amid criticism from Republicans in Congress about news coverage from the outlets, and calls for federal funding cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

You can watch this live stream of the testimony from the PBS NewsHour YouTube page: 

PBS NewsHour will also have further coverage of the hearing on its website. 

The Last Reefnetters, a five-part docuseries, centers around the innovative method of reefnet fishing developed by the Lummi Nation and other Northern Straits Salish tribes thousands of years ago. Following punitive legislation, environmental damage and devastation caused by a budding cannery industry looking to capitalize on a seemingly abundant resource, the practice was all but removed from the tribes’ culture. 

Today, just 12 captains with a reefnet fishing license are left in the world, and only one of them is an enrolled tribal member. Filmmaker Samuel Wolfe follows the Salish Sea’s last reefnetters, examining the legal, spiritual and cultural subtext that intertwines them.

The Last Reefnetters broadcasts Friday nights at 8:50 p.m. on Cascade PBS and streams through the Cascade PBS app. Watch the first episode here.

The docuseries was the Season 3 recipient of the Cascade PBS Origins grant. Each year, the stories told in Origins reflect the makeup of our region from an insider’s perspective: stories grounded in ancestry, connection, culture, influence and rootedness. In that spirit, the key requirement is that the filmmaker needs to be part of the community they are documenting (i.e., Indigenous stories told by Indigenous filmmakers, Latino stories told by Latino filmmakers, etc.). 
 
The winning project is awarded $40,000 toward their production costs. The Cascade PBS Original Productions team also supports the filmmaker through the process. From identifying the project budget and talking through the concept all the way through scripting and editing, we are here to support and advise to ensure the project stays on track. 

Submissions for the next season of Cascade PBS’ Origins are now open. Submissions close April 18. 

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this week filed a complaint against REI Co-op, after finding the retailer illegally withheld benefits packages from workers at unionized stores. 

The NLRB is seeking an order that would require REI to retroactively give unionized workers wage increases and bonuses that match those at non-union stores. REI has until April 2 to respond to the complaint, and a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9. 

Eleven REI stores have unionized since 2022 in a contentious organizing battle that’s shaken the Washington-based outdoor co-op’s progressive reputation. None of the unions have yet secured a contract. Union organizers recently tried to nominate pro-labor candidates to the co-op’s board of directors for this year’s board election, but the board did not nominate either of them for a membership vote.

The complaint filed Thursday alleges that REI violated several aspects of the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain in good faith and withholding annual pay raises and bonuses at stores that voted to unionize. This was done at least since February 2024 to “discourage employees” from engaging in union activity, the complaint said.  

The complaint lists nine stores across the country where benefits were allegedly withheld, including the REI in Bellingham, the only Washington store that has voted to unionize. 

Dan McCann, an REI employee in Bellingham, said in a statement provided by the union that REI withheld “thousands of dollars” from himself and his unionized co-workers. 

“This complaint is a victory for workers like me who have been retaliated against by REI because we joined a union,” McCann said. 

In an emailed statement, REI said it “has negotiated — and will continue to negotiate — in good faith with stores that have chosen union representation.” 

“Federal law requires us to bargain in good faith on all aspects of the employment agreement, including pay and benefits, rather than making unilateral changes,” the statement said. “We’re actively negotiating these topics with the union, so no pay changes have been implemented — there’s nothing to ‘withhold.’” 

The complaint specifically alleges that REI excluded unionized employees from annual “merit pay” wage increases and from participating in the company’s “summit pay plan” — REI’s annual bonus program for employees. Those benefits have been part of REI’s workers’ benefits package for over a decade, the union said. Workers at non-union stores have continued to receive those benefits, the complaint said.

In a statement, the REI union said the complaint is “the first step to rectifying REI’s ongoing illegal union busting.” 

“We call on REI leadership to comply with the remedies the NLRB is demanding, return to the bargaining table with real proposals and real decision makers, and finally live up to the progressive values it claims to uphold,” the union said. 

Unionized REI workers recently rallied outside the flagship REI store in downtown Seattle and called on REI members to protest the company’s direction by casting “withhold” votes in this year’s REI board of director elections. 

Note: This story was updated on 3/22 to correct the title of the National Labor Relations Board.