A bipartisan majority of the Washington State House has endorsed updates to the law governing police pursuits, lowering the standard for police officers to instigate a chase from probable cause to reasonable suspicion while attaching a number of new conditions to police departments’ use of that pursuit authority.
Category: Civil Liberties
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Nearly three-fifths of Washington voters support the Firearm Industry Responsibility & Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act
59% of voters surveyed last month for NPI by Public Policy Polling said they supported enacting a new law to protect public safety by establishing duties of firearm industry members. 36% said they were opposed and 4% were not sure.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Firearm fanatics remind us that they believe guns should have more rights than people
For firearm fanatics, those “unalienable Rights” of people are a secondary concern. More important to them than lives, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness is the manufacture, sale, import, and availability of guns. It’s as if the guns are alive. The concern these firearm fanatics have for guns is really something.
Posted inPolicy Topics
VICTORY! Washington State House votes to remove death penalty and Eyman’s two-thirds nonsense from our state’s body of laws
Legislation that would formally scrub a long list of statutes no longer in effect from the Revised Code of Washington is now going to Governor Inslee after receiving a vote in both chambers.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Senate sends My Health, My Data Act back to WA House with strong private right of action
By a vote of 27–21, the Senate voted to pass an amended version of House Bill 1155, prime sponsored by Representative Vandana Slatter (D‑48th District: Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Medina, the Points communities) that has the support of Slatter, Senate prime sponsor Manka Dhingra (D‑45th District: Redmond, Kirkland, Sammamish, Duvall), Ferguson, and advocates like NPI.
Posted inPolicy Topics
More than three-fourths of Washington voters support the proposed My Health, My Data Act
76% of 874 voters interviewed from March 7th-8th, 2023 by Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute said they were supportive of blocking health tracking apps and advertisers from collecting and selling Washingtonians’ health data without their consent, barring location-specific targeting of people who visit reproductive and gender affirming healthcare facilities, and requiring companies to maintain and publish a privacy policy for people’s health data.
Posted inPolicy Topics
ACCOUNTABILITY: Donald Trump indicted!
Trump’s lawbreaking predated his four years in the White House, continued while he occupied the Oval Office, and continued even after he left. Yet until March 30th, 2023, he had only been the subject of investigations and no charges. That has changed. The logjam has broken; we have an indictment.
Posted inPolicy Topics
“Pro-life” Idaho Republican Governor Brad Little just signed a firing squad execution bill
Idaho Republicans are most definitely not trying to change their state’s laws to abolish executions. They could be, but they are choosing not to be. It’s a choice.
Posted inPolicy Topics
68% of likely Washington voters support enacting a permit-to-purchase law for guns
68% of 874 voters interviewed across the state from March 7th-8th support the policies proposed by Representative Liz Berry (D‑36th District: Seattle) and dozens of her House colleagues in House Bill 1143, which is now under consideration in the Senate. 29% are opposed and 3% said they were not sure.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Two-thirds of Washington voters support barring gender-based price discrimination
67% of 874 likely voters interviewed in March of 2023 by Public Policy Polling voiced support for prohibiting people or businesses “from charging different prices for two substantially similar goods based on the gender of the persons to whom the goods are marketed,” which is what Senate Bill 5171 would do if enacted. 59% were strongly supportive and another 8% were somewhat supportive.
Posted inCivil Liberties, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics
VICTORY! Washington State House votes to ban military style assault weapons
“The House today put public safety above the interest of the gun lobby,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “The devastation of mass shootings extends far beyond the casualties and injuries. Mass shootings traumatize entire communities. We must stop selling these weapons of war in Washington.”
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Washington State Senate approves bill to update, loosen restrictions on police pursuits
The substitute bill passed by the Senate consisted of a compromise striker offered by Senator Manka Dhingra (D‑45th District: Redmond, Kirkland, Sammamish, Duvall), Chair of the Law & Justice Committee. The compromise deeply divided both caucuses in the Senate.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Support for an assault weapons ban in Washington State is growing, NPI poll finds
58% of respondents to NPI’s winter 2023 Washington State poll said they are supportive of banning assault weapons, while 40% said they were opposed and 3% said they were not sure. A majority of likely voters continue to be strongly supportive.
Posted inCivil Liberties
Manka Dhingra’s youth-inspired bill to ban gender-based price discrimination advances
SB 5171 is youth-inspired legislation that Dhingra, a Northwest Progressive Foundation boardmember, introduced in partnership with civically-oriented students from Lake Washington High School in Kirkland. If passed, it will stop retailers from charging Washingtonians (especially those who identify as female) extra for products merely because they are marketed to a particular gender.