By Bill Lucia | Editor
Opponents of Washington’s new income tax on higher earners are trying to gather the more than 300,000 signatures needed to get an initiative that could repeal the tax on this year’s ballot. Let’s Go Washington, the conservative group backing the campaign, said that as of yesterday morning, they’d collected 165,000. A deadline to get the remaining signatures is less than a month away.
Also in today’s edition…
Nippon Dynawave Packaging says it’ll keep paying workers at its damaged Longview mill at least through early August.
A measure to ban hunting and fishing could be headed for the ballot in Oregon.
And, movement in Congress to rein in the war in Iran.
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Doug Hicks signs an initiative petition on June 3 in Tumwater. (Photo by Jerry Cornfield / Washington State Standard)
By Jerry Cornfield
July 2 is the deadline to submit signatures to get initiatives on the November ballot. At least 308,911 valid signatures of registered voters are required to qualify. State election officials suggest turning in at least 390,000 to account for invalid ones.
“This is 100 percent against the state constitution,” David Sellstrom said of the income tax. Sellstrom is a senior pastor at The Remnant, a church in Thurston County, where tax opponents held a “Super Signer” event for the initiative yesterday.
The 9.9% tax, approved earlier this year, would apply to household wage income over $1 million. It’s set to take effect in 2028.
By Aspen Ford
Following last week’s chemical tank implosion that killed 11 people at a mill in Longview, the plant’s owner said yesterday it would pay employees at least until early August, even if stoppages at the damaged facility prevent them from working.
“Nippon Dynawave Packaging wants to ensure all employees are supported,” said Sam Jefferies, spokesperson for the company. “We are committing to paying staff through August 8, even if they are instructed not to come in because of the May 26 incident.”
The packaging plant employs 550 people. It’s unclear how many are unable to work but will be paid.
By Mia Maldonado
Hunting, fishing, and slaughtering livestock would be banned in Oregon under a measure animal rights activists are close to getting onto the state’s November ballot. Initiative Petition 28 aims to expand animal cruelty laws and criminalize injuring, breeding or killing animals except in cases of self-defense or for veterinary care, such as spaying, neutering or administering euthanasia. Last week, initiative supporters surpassed the 117,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot — submitting more than 126,000 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. The advocates have acknowledged that it’s “an unlikely scenario” the initiative can pass this year even if it makes it onto the ballot.
President Donald Trump salutes as a U.S. Army carry team moves a flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Declan J. Coady at Dover Air Force Base on March 7, 2026, in Delaware. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
By Ariana Figueroa
The U.S. House passed a resolution Wednesday to force President Donald Trump to withdraw from the war with Iran and require congressional approval for further military action in the country. The 215-208 vote, in which four Republicans voted with all Democrats to adopt the resolution, is the strongest rebuke to date against Trump’s handling of the months-long war.
Washington’s two Republican House members — Reps. Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner — voted against the measure. Seven of the state’s eight Democratic members voted for it. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., did not vote. Jayapal said she was in India with her mother due to a health emergency. “Had I been in Washington, D.C., I would have voted YES,” she said in a statement. “Today, Congress took a critically important step to reassert our power,” she added.
ICYMI
WA urges US Supreme Court to take redistricting case | by Jerry Cornfield
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