Dear Neighbor, Greetings from Olympia! I wanted to give you a legislative update as last Wednesday marked the “house of origin” cutoff for this session, where a bill must have passed out of the body in which it was introduced to still be considered “alive” this session. The exception to this rule are those bills that provide a source of revenue for our state budgets. Most of the time, you hear about bad bills that the legislature is passing. Today I wanted to give you an update on some worthwhile bills that made it out of the Senate Chamber before cutoff. Three of my bills that passed: SB 5641 – Is aimed at helping juveniles stay out of trouble, yet still contains strong disciplinary requirements. This piece of legislation was requested by the Cheney Youth Court and would give the youth court jurisdiction consistent with the ages of those commonly coming before the court. A youth court will create consequences for bad behavior while keeping kids out of the juvenile justice system. Currently, there is a greater than 80 percent success rate in preventing recidivism in youth courts. These courts help our youth avoid the criminal justice system. Click here to continue reading |