By Bill Lucia | Editor
A 21-year-old man was arrested early Thursday after allegedly smashing 13 windows and damaging two large doors at the state Capitol, according to police. The preliminary cost estimate for the damage is $100,000, state officials said. It’s the second vandalism incident in the past year at the Capitol. A hammer-wielding man broke into the building through a window in October, setting fires and toppling a pair of statues once inside.
Also in today’s edition…
New research shows Northwest utilities turning to natural gas to meet the growing power demand of data centers.
Mask bans in Washington and Oregon for federal law enforcement go unchallenged by the Trump administration.
And, the outlook remains tough around the country for first-time homebuyers.
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A vandal broke windows at the Washington state Capitol in the early morning hours of June 4, 2026. (Photo by Jerry Cornfield / Washington State Standard)
By Jerry Cornfield
The suspect in the Capitol vandalism incident was heavily intoxicated at the time he was arrested, according to police. They said he took off in a vehicle, down a service road toward Capitol Lake. Officers pursued the suspect, who police said drove over a wooden bridge on a pedestrian walkway by the lake before crashing. After the October break-in, the state installed a security film on windows at the Capitol. It worked as intended, as the window glass broke but remained in place, according to police. “The good news is he did not get in,” Washington State Patrol spokesman Chris Loftis said.
A data center in Umatilla County, Oregon. (Photo by Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
By Alex Baumhardt
Northwest utilities are spending on new gas-powered energy infrastructure or buying gas-powered energy from other states to meet demand from a growing number of data centers, according to analyses from Columbia Riverkeeper and the Seattle-based think tank Sightline Institute.
“In the absence of enough renewable energy supply, we’re seeing utilities turn more to gas in this situation,” said Audrey Leonard, a staff attorney at Columbia Riverkeeper. “That is new, because up until the last few years, we were making progress towards our clean energy targets in Washington and Oregon.”
By Shaanth Nanguneri
Despite passing some of the nation’s first laws barring federal law enforcement agents from concealing their identities, Oregon and Washington have yet to face the same legal challenges from the Trump administration as other Democratic states. The U.S. Department of Justice sued California last year over a law criminalizing the use of masks by federal and local law enforcement, winning a federal court order blocking that policy in February. The Trump administration has also sued New Jersey and Connecticut in recent months seeking to strike down similar laws.
By Tim Henderson
Homebuying help from family and even shared living arrangements are becoming the norm in higher-priced areas around the U.S.
A typical single-family home cost $422,300 in April, up $4,300 from a year before, according to the National Association of Realtors. But the typical family made about $6,000 more in that time, and mortgage rates came down a little, improving affordability. Still, home prices have been settling at new higher levels.
“Affordability today is still nowhere near what it was for much of the last decade,” said Nadia Evangelou, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors.
The nation needs another 311,000 houses selling for less than $261,000 to meet the needs of middle-income families — buyers earning around $75,000 — according to a May report that Evangelou co-authored.
Meanwhile, Zillow is out with a “Rent vs. Buy” analysis that looks at how long it takes for homebuyers to break even in different parts of the country, and whether it makes more sense to rent.
Nationwide, the typical buyer breaks even in about six years, according to the report. And in some affordable Midwest cities, they can reach that point in even less time. The Seattle metro area is among the places where the timeline to reach the break-even point buying is much longer — nearly 20 years.
The findings suggest that in cities like San Francisco and New Orleans, renting can beat buying over 30 years.
ICYMI
Foes of WA income tax race to collect initiative signatures | by Jerry Cornfield
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