In the News
COLCHUCK LAKE, Chelan County — Can a lone ranger patrol 900 miles of trails in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest by herself? In the federal wilderness of Washington’s Cascades, the answer this summer is a resounding no — but right now that’s the reality.
A bill calling for more transparency in hydroelectric dam relicensing is making its way through Congress.
Chelan County PUD Senior Policy Advisor Suzanne Grassell said the Hydropower Relicensing Act, or H.R. 3657, would require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to submit annual reports to Congress on the progress of the relicensing process. She said relicensing involves many steps, including studies and a preliminary application five years before a dam is up for relicensing.
LEAVENWORTH - Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08), is calling on top federal officials to address a dire staffing shortage impacting the Enchantments region of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Central Washington. In a letter sent to Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, Schrier demanded urgent staffing increases to reverse what she described as “dreadful and even unsafe” conditions at the popular wilderness destination.
A Washington congresswoman is the latest lawmaker to push back on Trump administration plans to dramatically slash federal research funding.
The administration is working to reduce discretionary funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by 40%. This comes in addition to federal cuts within the “big, beautiful bill.”
Congresswoman Kim Schrier (D-08) addressed the cuts while meeting with researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center on Wednesday.
Take a tour of the new Lake Chelan Boys & Girls Club inside the Chelan Community Center with unit director Angela Collins and you’ll see up close and personal what programs aimed at school-age children can do, aside from just keeping them occupied during summer or before and after school.
The American College of Radiology has thrown its support behind new bipartisan legislation that seeks to shore up enforcement of the No Surprises Act, which aims to protect patients from surprise medical bills.
House Energy & Commerce Republicans held a hearing Wednesday (July 16) to discuss a series of bills aimed at strengthening rural health care -- an effort that committee Democrats told Inside Health Policy is nothing more than damage control amid mounting backlash over the GOP’s near $1 trillion Medicaid cut in their recently passed reconciliation package.
While Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth’s gross incompetence take up a lot of air time, RFK Jr. is actually the cabinet appointment I worry the most about. As the head of Health and Human Services, he oversees the CDC, FDA, and NIH, among other departments. He’s gutting medical research and, as an outspoken anti-vax grifter, firing experienced vaccine researchers. So I reached out to Congresswoman Kim Schrier, an experienced pediatrician and representative of the Washington 8th, to ask her your (and my!) questions about what’s going on. We discussed:
Washington Democratic Congress members are demanding answers after the Trump administration froze billions of dollars of education funding nationwide, including nearly $137 million meant for the Evergreen State’s public schools. U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland led her colleagues in writing a letter advocating for the release of those federal funds to Washington by Aug. 1.