Friday night Justin Townes Earle. Because he was too damned good to forget. #JTE #justintownesearle #americana @bloodshotrecords.bsky.social

Something beautiful for this day: Gerbera daisy, Yakima, Washington (May 2026). #flowers #daisies

Progressive groups criticized the report, saying it fails to document a pattern of discrimination, focuses on causes favored by conservative Christians and amounts to “advocacy dressed up as investigation.” (Peter Smith / AP)

Yakima's YWCA shelters approximately 400 women and children a year, according to Cheri Kilty, chief executive officer. Last year, the organization turned away 950 families because no emergency shelter was available, Kilty said. In 2024, it was 1,000 families. (Tammy Ayer / yakimaherald.com)

The April 29 decision seems to be the last straw for some Democrats and progressives, though they are unlikely to be able to force any of the changes on their wishlist — at least for a long time. (Jonathan Shorman / States Newsroom)

“When telemedicine is restricted, rural communities, people with low incomes, people with disabilities, survivors of intimate partner violence and communities of color suffer the most," said Julia Kaye, an ACLU lawyer. (Associated Press)

The 6-3 decision ignores the premise of the Voting Rights Act: In politics, race matters, and America is not colorblind. It could change the way elections are conducted in each state and in profound ways. A Seattle Times editorial.

Fresh ink from Nick Anderson.

Yes or no?

Something beautiful for this day: Rhododendrons, Yakima, Washington (April 2026). #flowers #bloomscrolling

Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. W/VIDEO (Associated Press)

While Republicans focused on the details of military budgeting and voiced support for the Iran operation, Democrats grilled Hegseth about the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children. (AP)

There is also a notable enthusiasm gap: Nearly three times as many people “strongly” oppose the project as strongly support it, the poll found. (Dan Diamond & Scott Clement / Washington Post)

An Amazon spokesperson said in an email to The Seattle Times that a reboot isn’t actively in the works, with no current “discussions happening either inside or outside the company.” (Angela Lim / Seattle Times)

President Donald Trump, in a series of social media posts Thursday, praised Landry for moving quickly to revise the state’s congressional districts and urged Republicans in Tennessee to do likewise in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. (AP)

On Friday, protesters across Washington will call for Tacoma’s ICE detention center to be shut down, barring ICE agents from this summer’s World Cup events in Seattle and blocking the state from sharing its licensing data with U.S. border authorities. (Catalina Gaitan / Seattle Times)

A Seattle Times editorial.

Fresh ink from Dave Whamond.

Something beautiful for this day: Honeybee on allium, Yakima, Washington (April 2026) — first bees of the season. #bees #flowers

Your guide to weekend events in the Yakima Valley, courtesy of @sararae-yhr.bsky.social, Explore editor at yakimaherald.com.

The number Hegseth gave has no basis in fact. It originated with an unsigned 2018 editorial in Investor’s Business Daily, which cites right-wing news site “Breitbart.com’s Facebook page” as its source. (Greg Jaffe / New York Times)

"Tax-exempt cops, if it happens, would be yet another hit to the dying idea that we’re all in this together. There’d be a rush on the national till from other professions. And bitterness from those who don’t get their own," writes Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that her client was “eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice.” (MIchael R. Sisak & Larry Neumeister / AP)

The 6-3 ruling effectively gutted the Voting Rights Act’s requirement that districts be drawn to give minority voters a chance to elect representatives of their choosing. (Nicholas Riccardi / AP)

The changes include rescinding a 2024 regulation from the Biden administration that sought to end what gun control advocates call the “gun show loophole.” (Devlin Barrett / New York Times)

Commentary: "It’s easy to regret an outcome. It’s much harder to interrogate the instincts that led you (and tens of millions of Americans) to enable it," Mark K. Lewis writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Fresh ink from Mike Luckovich.

Waxing gibbous moon, Yakima, Washington (April 2026). #moon

Something beautiful for this day: Pheasant’s eye daffodil, Yakima, Washington (April 2026). #flowers #daffodils

Carmelita is a serial napper. #cats #calicos

Mariah Carey is on the list. John Fogerty isn't. Neither are Randy Newman, David Hidalgo, Steve Earle and Jackson Browne, to name a few. (New York Times)

Officials from the state Department of Health have tried to get in to inspect 10 times since 2023. But The GEO Group, which runs the for-profit detention center, has kept turning them away, the state says. (Jake Goldstein-Street / Washington State Standard)

If you thought this past winter was warm and dry, wait until El Niño comes to town. (Kai Uyehara / Seattle Times)

The average fuel price statewide was $5.513 Tuesday, while the nationwide average was $4.176, according to AAA, making Washington one of the most expensive places to buy fuel in the nation, behind only California and Hawai’i. (Kai Uyehara / Seattle Times)

The new rule also would allow owners or operators of shelters and other facilities that permit single-sex or sex-specific facilities “to require reasonable assurances and evidence to confirm the sex of an individual seeking service.” (Robbie Sequeira / Stateline)

The filing is chock-full of the kind of touches the president uses in written communication, such as erratic capitalization, exclamation points, non sequiturs, rhetorical questions, praise for the president and accusations that his opponents are insane. (Michelle L. Price / AP)

One check remains — the voters. Whether that is enough is the defining question of our time. Commentary from Lynn Schmidt at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Fresh ink from Mike Luckovich.

Ballroom hooey 1. THAT event isn't at WH anyway 2. They dont give a crap about shootings at schools ...so the answer is a ballroom for Trump? 3. What about, you know, the rest of us, esp kids who face gun violence 4. It is all about him and Americans should be disgusted at the greed and selfishness

Something beautiful for this day: Camas Lily, Yakima, Washington (April 2026). #flowers

Dressed in a tux and standing behind a podium Thursday, Kimmel pretended to deliver a comic routine for the WHCA dinner. His speech had false “cutaways” to the Trumps and others, taken from video clips. (David Bauder / AP)

One prevailing (and unfounded) theory: The shooting was somehow staged, perhaps as a distraction from issues such as the Iran war, or as a push for the completion of Trump's White House ballroom. (Melissa Goldin / AP)

I saw a Yugo today in Yakima. Actually, I saw it twice. It’s the Yakima Yugo.

Since the pandemic, researchers and physicians, including Chopra, have been studying the long-term effects of COVID-19. These effects have disproportionately affected some groups of people, such as Latino farmworkers. (Monica Carrillo Casas / Spokesman-Review)

In Yakima County, a group of about 30 volunteers monitors the Yakima Valley ICE sightings Facebook page and looks for posts with verifiable data, prioritizing videos or photos that came directly from the person who posted it. (Paige Cornwall / Seattle Times)

Prices are up over the last year, and Washington growers have benefited from weather conditions in Mexico. But farmers are facing higher costs across the board, and spring weather has been cooler, reducing harvests. Coverage from Alexander Banks at yakimaherald.com.

"I've beeped my horn for (the pro-law enforcement) Back the Blue. I've beeped my horn for Black Lives Matter," Hoopes said. "I've seen a lot of people honk for Trump and for MAGA." Commentary from @markzbarabak.bsky.social at the Los Angeles Times.

Fresh ink from Dave Whamond.

Something beautiful for this day: Catalpa blossom, Yakima, Washington (June 2023). #flowers

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Club El Mundo Elegante. It gives me great personal pride and pleasure in presenting to you — umm, the Moula Banda Rhythm Aces!