Locally and nationwide it’s clear the child welfare system is in a dire state of disrepair. We recently highlighted one of the bigger problems facing the system: caseworker burnout and turnover. One possible solution on the horizon is a dramatic restructuring of the Department of Social and Healt…
The Youth First Initiative, a national advocacy campaign, is seeking to end incarceration of youth by closing youth prisons and investing in community-based alternatives. The Initiative believes that the system of incarcerating youth is so beyond repair that is does not need mere improvement but …
One of the biggest crises in the child welfare system is caseworker turnover. Many involved families have ten or more new workers through the life of their case. According to Crosscut, turnover is around 20 percent a year in Washington State and has been as high as 30 percent in King County (almo…
There has been a great deal of conversation in recent weeks about the impact of the new Trump administration on birth control in the United States. While much of the panic is warranted, it is important to understand the real threats facing birth control access rather than being overwhelmed by fea…
How does divorce impact your coverage under the Affordable Care Act? What are the potential complications under President-Elect Trump?
The Affordable Care Act is arguably the most important legacy of president Obama’s time in office. It has provided tens of millions of previously uninsured pe…
Upon news of Trump’s new status as President-Elect, the stock market went haywire. The market reacts negatively to uncertainty and as one CNN reporter put it “Trump is uncertainty on steroids.” While I, and many of my fellow Americans certainly may felt shocked, this type of stock market downturn…
Today, a week after securing his spot as president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump announced Reince Priebus as his chief of staff. This move is in line with post-election Trump behavior yet contrary to his anti-establishment positions during his campaign.
Reince, chairman of the Republi…
The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) recently modified its visitation policy in a major way. There is now a presumption that visits between parents and children be unsupervised and in the least restrictive setting unless the presence of threats and danger to the child requires the …
“She (Hillary) will not get my vote. Period.”, claims Washington State elector Robert Satiacum, a member of the state’s Puyallup tribe and avid Bernie Sanders supporter. Hillary Clinton is all but guaranteed to win the vote in Washington State yet Satiacum claims that is not enough to obligate hi…
With the election a week away, the Clinton campaign is spending additional funds in what were very recently considered guaranteed blue states. Six-figure sums have been spent in Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, and Colorado after the FBI reopened its investigation into Hillary’s ongoing email scan…