Kari Plog

Pierce County voters might get to choose whether they will continue electing their sheriff come November. The Pierce County Council is considering a ballot measure that, if approved this fall, would change the sheriff from an elected position to an appointed one. 

Leaders in Tacoma are considering a plan to overhaul residential zoning in the city at a time when home prices and rents are skyrocketing amid unprecedented growth. 

The Tacoma City Council held a highly anticipated public hearing during its regular meeting Tuesday on the so-called Home in Tacoma Project, which previously earned a recommendation from the planning commission in a split vote.  

For the first time, the Pierce County Council is formally recognizing LGBTQ Pride month, which Tacoma traditionally celebrates in July. The council approved the proclamation during its regular meeting Tuesday.

But unlike other proclamations that are typically approved unanimously with little reaction from the public, Tuesday’s vote was preceded by polarizing remarks from residents and concluded with a split vote and two abstentions from councilmembers.

The family of a Native man who was killed by a Poulsbo police officer two years ago has filed a lawsuit against the city and police officials. 

The coroner in Cowlitz County is facing potential criminal charges after two state investigations found he personally received more than $12,600 in reimbursements for county-paid travel expenses. 

Coroner Tim Davidson, who also serves as president of the Washington Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (WACME), acknowledged that he had received the reimbursements for travel costs between February 2016 and May 2019. Davidson offered to repay the county with personal funds during an interview with state auditors in December 2020, according to records obtained by KNKX Public Radio. 

Six months into his job, Secretary of Health Umair Shah faces his first summer in Washington state. And it’s not quite what he expected.

“What I did not know was that Washington was going to have the record heat that we have had, and oftentimes what I would associate with my former stomping grounds,” Shah said during a media briefing Wednesday.

The City of Tacoma is canceling a contract with the organization in charge of managing a proposed community trauma response team. 

A statewide coalition has filed civil rights complaints against Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer, in response to an off-duty encounter the sheriff had with a Black newspaper carrier earlier this year. 

The Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance met with the FBI’s Seattle field office this week to discuss the group’s first complaint, which was filed last month. In a statement released Friday, the alliance also said it filed a second civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. 

UPDATE, May 25: The Attorney General's Office said in a statement Tuesday, May 25, that it will announce a charging decision in the case on Thursday, May 27.  

It’s been more than a year since Manuel Ellis was killed by Tacoma police and six months since the Washington State Patrol concluded its investigation into his death. Now, a highly anticipated charging decision is expected to come out of the state Attorney General’s Office in the coming weeks. 

Public health officials in King and Pierce counties are preparing to administer COVID vaccines to adolescents ages 12 to 15 after the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for young people.

Those efforts include working closely with school districts to get that age group vaccinated.

Local governments throughout Western Washington are passing hazard pay ordinances requiring extra income for grocery store workers during the pandemic. The Pierce County Council passed its own measure earlier this week. But it was swiftly vetoed by County Executive Bruce Dammeier. 

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit as its massive response to the pandemic continues.

Agency leaders anticipate a funding gap of at least $14.8 million for 2021, even after factoring in state and federal COVID-relief dollars. And some of that funding is subject to pending eligibility, meaning it isn’t a sure thing just yet.   

The request was straightforward: remove stickers from three of Pierce Transit's 21 police vehicles. 

Sue Dreier, the agency’s CEO, made the request in a phone call to Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer on Jan. 19 — one day after a resident spotted one of the vehicles with the decal and complained, according to records obtained by KNKX Public Radio.  

The sticker in question: a black-and-white American flag with a blue line across the center, also known as the “thin blue line.” 

The ceremonial ringing of a bell concluded the reading of 119 names during a virtual memorial Wednesday — names of people who left for work one day and never came home.

Each year, the state Department of Labor & Industries pays tribute to the workers who died on the job. L&I resumed its Worker Memorial Day tradition despite the pandemic, which forced the closure of the event in 2020.   

In Washington’s smallest counties, elected prosecutors investigate suspicious and unusual deaths when they aren’t trying cases. Some say the dual role is ripe for conflicts of interest — especially in cases of police using deadly force. 

A new bill signed by Gov. Jay Inslee marks the beginning of the end of the practice. 

Pierce County residents had their first opportunity to respond to a controversial proposal that would terminate a public health partnership between the county and the City of Tacoma.
 
And their collective response during Monday’s Pierce County Council committee meeting was overwhelming: many called the effort “reckless” and “dangerous” as the county faces a surge of COVID-19 cases.

UPDATE, Dec. 4: Adds remarks from Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and details about Monday's committee meeting.

As public health officials continue to deal with an exponential surge in COVID-19 cases, the Pierce County Council is preparing to vote on a proposal that would dissolve the public health partnership between the county and the City of Tacoma.

The Washington State Patrol has finished its investigation into the killing of Manuel Ellis, who died in March while being restrained by Tacoma police officers.

Sharlett Mena’s campaign for Washington’s 29th Legislative District may have ended after the August primary. But the driving force behind why she ran in the first place is continuing into Tuesday’s general election. 

Mena launched the #VoteAsYouAre project to center voices of people who she says have been historically overlooked or made invisible in government. It’s a movement of young women and non-binary people who are working to empower others with similar lived experience — especially within millennial and Generation Z populations — to use their voting power.