Other LanguagesSEATTLE — A Benton County Superior Court judge ruled today that a Richland florist will pay a $1,000 penalty and $1 in costs and fees to the state for discriminating against a same-sex couple seeking to buy wedding flowers in 2013.
PORT ORCHARD — A Kitsap County jury has decided that repeat sex offender Rick Allen Monroe is a sexually violent predator and must be confined in the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.
SPOKANE —The Washington Attorney General’s Office filed a petition last week in Spokane County Superior Court seeking to civilly commit a sex offender and prevent his release into the community.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson will testify before the House Finance Committee tomorrow regarding his agency-request bill to raise the smoking age.
KENNEWICK — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a complaint in Grant County Superior Court against Gary Chavers, owner of Sun & Sand Mobile Home Park in Mattawa, Wash., for forcing tenants to sign “purchase” contracts so that he could evade city health and safety inspections and thereby avoid the expense of improving the poor condition of the mobile homes. The tenants, mostly farm workers whose primary language is Spanish, were told they must sign the contracts or move out.
OLYMPIA — Premera/Blue Cross today announced it has been the target of a major data breach.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson has appointed Senior Counsel Karin Nyrop as the new chief of his office’s University of Washington (UW) Division. The division provides legal services to the university, which includes campuses in Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma as well as the UW Medical Center.
SEATTLE — The Attorney General’s Office filed a response brief yesterday in the Washington State Supreme Court defending the will of the voters in enacting Initiative 502.
OLYMPIA — A new scientific report issued yesterday by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) strongly concludes that increasing the age for the sale of tobacco products to 21 will have a substantial positive impact on public health, helping to fight the scourge of tobacco use and save lives. The findings add additional weight to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s proposed legislation to raise the tobacco sale age.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced the filing of an amicus, or “friend of the court,” brief in a federal appellate court, continuing his leadership in support of President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration policy. The brief was filed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas v. United States, a legal challenge by Texas and other states to the President’s immigration reforms.