Sen. Pam Roach is holding a press conference on Department of Social and Health Services in the wake of the Josh Powell case. You can watch on the web at tvw.org.

“Our family has had to deal with an overwhelming amount of tragedy in this past two years,” said Chuck Cox, grandfather of the Powell boys, who were killed earlier this month by their father, Josh Powell. Cox said he thinks DSHS is comprised of “good people” but he thinks there are much-needed improvements to the system.

He said his son-in-law’s concerns were always given priority throughout DSHS involvement. He said DSHS aims to reunify children with their biological parents, which seemed “ridiculous” in the case of his grandsons. “We have to do something,” he said, “We are convinced that the flaws in DSHS can be fixed and we’re convinced that the Legislature and the good people — the law abiding citizens — can change these things.”

He said his biggest complaint with the system is the idea that children should always be reunified with their parents.

Sen. Pam Roach said she’s met a lot of people who have been treated unfairly by DSHS. One woman that Roach introduced to the crowd said her son was removed from her home due to false allegations three years ago. She said the allegations were determined to be unfounded, but it hasn’t made a difference. “I’ve not had any visitation for three years.”

Roach outlined bills she wants to get through the Legislature, including one to require that social workers be certified, licensed and bonded similar to police officers.

Cox said another issue was Powell’s lying in court. He said “every allegation” that he could come up with was given credence and DSHS then looked into it. One reporter asked what the state could have done to make sure this didn’t happen. He said one bill proposed by Roach would prevent visitation with parents accused of murder.

Judy Cox said people across the world have reached out in the wake of her grandsons’ deaths. She said the morning of the visit the boys didn’t want to go. She said she considered calling in and saying the boys were sick. “I had a very strong feeling that something bad was going to happen that day … but I had to follow the law, because that’s the right thing to do,” she said, fighting tears.

Roach said looking ahead, the state will have a new governor and hopefully either candidate — Rob McKenna or Jay Inslee — could look at the issue with fresh eyes and come to the conclusion that “any one of these things could have helped,” she said, referring to her list of proposed bills.

Tags: Chuck and Judy Cox, DSHS, Josh Powell, Sen. Pam Roach

A bill heard in the House Labor and Workforce Development committee on Friday would give smaller farms in Washington the opportunity to offer internships. Though the farms would be able to pay the interns, it is not required by the legislation. This legislation re-authorizes a internship pilot program that was established in 2010 and extends it until 2017.

Under the original pilot program, only farms in Skagit or San Juan county with gross sales of $250,000 or less were eligible. This bill keeps the earnings requirement in place, but extends the program to 12 additional counties in the state, including King, Spokane, and Yakima counties.

Each farm can have up to three interns at a time after the state approves the farm’s application. To get interns, requirements include having an established curriculum in place and paying industrial insurance for the interns. In addition, the interns are not permitted to serve as a replacement for experienced workers.

Addie Candib, with the Washington Young Farmers Coalition, said the experience she got while interning on small farms in Washington was “essential to get where I am today.” Candib owns a small farm today, and said she wants to provide the internship opportunity to others.

One thing still up in the air is the program’s funding source.

The bill originally stipulated that the internship pilot program be funded through workers compensation funds. Sen. Holmquist-Newbry (R-Moses Lake) brought forth an amendment that would change the funding source to the state general fund. The amendment was adopted in the Senate last Saturday.

Representatives from the business and farm communities expressed their support at the meeting for designating money from the General Fund rather than Workers’ Compensation. Patrick Connor, from the National Federation of Independent Business, said he supports the program, but not if the funds backing it come from workers compensation.

Tags: Agriculture, farm, internship

After a compromise was reached by lawmakers on teacher evaluation legislation, the bill passed through the Senate with bipartisan support. The House Education committee heard the bill today, with a mixed response from advocates in the education field.

The bill takes elements from two different teacher evaluation bills heard earlier in the session. Here’s my segment from Legislative Review on the previous bills:

This bill gives a deadline of the 2015-2016 school year to have the new teacher evaluations in place. It stipulates that student growth data be used as a significant factor in teacher evaluations. Results of evaluations must be taken into account when making reassignments or cuts to staff. The legislation is estimated to cost $5.7 million for 2013.

A representative from superintendent Randy Dorn’s office said he supports the legislation, but wants lawmakers to make sure the implementation of the new evaluation system is adequately funded.

Most people who spoke in opposition to the legislation were concerned about using student growth data in the evaluations and using evaluations as a factor in staffing decisions.

Another concern expressed in the committee was the timeline the legislation requires. Gary Kipp, the executive director of the Association of Washington State Principals said it doesn’t allow time for the schools participating in the teacher evaluation pilot project to finish their work and report back their findings.

A few education lobbyists expressed support for the legislation. Anne Luce, of the Partnership for Learning, said that in business, evaluations are used to inform decisions, and that it “shouldn’t be different in education.”

Heather Cope, of the League of Education Voters, said using student growth statistics as a factor in evaluations gives the results of the evaluations meaning.

The House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill to help crack down on Medicaid fraud. It passed the Senate with bipartisan support.

“This measure is one of the best and most important healthcare reform measures,” said Larry Shannon with the Washington State Association for Justice. “It works and it’s proven that it works.”

The bill creates a civil liability for defrauding Medicaid. It also protects whistleblowers and creates an account to fund fraud prevention services. Shannon said this bill creates a strong enforcement mechanism and a strong partnership with whistleblowers.

He said there’s been some fear of frivolous claims, but he said the law would require that claimants demonstrate fraud — not just negligence — in their filings.

But Tim Layton with the Washington State Medical Association said if you look through the data, states with similar protections don’t necessarily fare better. Plus, he says, the program would cost more than $300,000 this budget cycle. He said there are other programs that would be worth funding. (more…)

Tags: fraud, Medicaid

Rep. Maureen Walsh and Sen. Cheryl Pflug, two Republican supporters of same-sex marriage, smile as supporters cheer.

Click through to see more photos of the bill signing

Tags: same-sex marriage

We’ve got today’s headlines, from the Governor signing same-sex marriage legislation to health care reform.

Hundreds of people are waiting outside the reception room where Gov. Chris Gregoire is scheduled to sign same-sex marriage legislation at 11:30 a.m. Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) and Sen. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) are expected to speak at the ceremony. We’ll be live with coverage of the signing on TVW, and we will also be live-blogging and tweeting the event. Watch live coverage of the event here.

Here’s a shot of the crowd waiting outside the reception room:

Supporters, including Sen. Ed Murray’s partner, Michael Shiosaki, file in for the bill signing:

This event has attracted national media attention. Here, photographers are seen taking pictures of the bill:

Here’s a picture of some of the 40-plus lawmakers waiting for the bill signing:

Here’s an update on the bill to allow religious objection to autopsy that I covered earlier this year.

This bill would allow close family and friends of a deceased person with a religion in conflict to autopsy to request that a court decide if an autopsy is necessary. This would only occur if an agreement cannot be reached between the family and medical examiner. The bill is in response to a case earlier this year in Pierce County.

Under the bill, if law enforcement or public health say an autopsy is needed, there is no requirement that it be stopped. The bill stipulates that “any autopsy that is performed must be done so in the least obtrusive way that will meet the purpose,” according to Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle), the prime sponsor of the legislation.

Kline says this bill puts into law what has been common practice among medical examiners.

“This is the balancing of two very closely held interests. One — the interest of religious people to have autopsies done or not done according to their beliefs. The other — the needs of our public health and law enforcement institutions to make sure that in those cases that an autopsy is required, they are done. And this, I believe, we have worked out with the medical examiners and religious authorities and have a balanced approach,” Kline said.

Sen. Joseph Zarelli (R-Ridgefield) also spoke in support of the bill. He said coroners from the state of New York, which have operated under a similar system for years have written a letter of support for the bill.

No one spoke in opposition to the bill and it passed 46 to 2 in the Senate.

Here’s my segment on this legislation from earlier in the session on Legislative Review:

A supporter cheers after the House vote on same-sex marriage

Click through to see more photos

Tags: House, same-sex marriage

Gov. Chris Gregoire just released this statement:

“This is truly a historic day in Washington state, and one where I couldn’t be more proud. With today’s vote, we tell the nation that Washington state will no longer deny our citizens the opportunity to marry the person they love. We tell every child of same-sex couples that their family is every bit as equal and important as all other families in our state. And we take a major step toward completing a long and important journey to end discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“I commend our House members and thank Rep. Jamie Pedersen for sponsoring this bill. Our legislators showed courage, respect, and professionalism. I look forward to signing this piece of legislation, and putting into law an end to an era of discrimination.”

Tags: Governor, same-sex marriage