OLYMPIA… Little more than two years after the landmark State v. Blake court decision, a bipartisan majority of state senators today approved legislation that would make possession and use of hard drugs a gross misdemeanor, and significantly restore the legal leverage that can compel people to seek and complete substance-use...

Senate Bill 5599 removes parents from health and mental health care decision-making process OLYMPIA…Senate Republican Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, made the following remarks after the state Senate’s majority Democrats passed legislation that would give youth-related facilities a troubling new excuse for withholding the whereabouts of runaway children from their parents....

OLYMPIA… Senate Republican leaders are encouraged by a House committee’s approval of legislation to loosen restrictions on police pursuits, but concerned that the bill still would not restore the ability of officers to pursue suspected car thieves. This morning the House Community Safety, Justice, and Reentry Committee passed House Bill...

OLYMPIA… The state senators who represent southern Thurston County reacted today to an effort to convert a residence near Tenino into “less restrictive” housing for convicted sex predators – thought to be Level 3 sex offenders now in custody in a Department of Social and Health Services facility on McNeil...