In the News

The legislation seeks to offer workers stand-alone telehealth benefits, similar to dental and vision plans. The Telehealth Benefit Expansion for Workers Act would amend the Public Health Service Act, the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow employers to treat benefits for telehealth services like excepted benefits. The bill… Read more »

U.S. representatives Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene have called on United States Postal Service (USPS) postmaster general Louis DeJoy to address persistent mail delays and failures in Whatcom County. Larsen and DelBene sent a letter January 11 to DeJoy after receiving a number of complaints from constituents, starting in mid-December, regarding significant delays in mail delivery and… Read more »

The complaint line for mail delivery problems is getting a lot of calls these days. Those calls go to the post office, our office at KOMO News, and congressional offices. A handful of viewers called KOMO all in one day, complaining about slow or no mail delivery, so KOMO News went to check it out. One woman who's 88 told KOMO she gets all of her medications in the mail, but Lee Wallott… Read more »

U.S. Representatives Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene sent a letter to the head of the United States Postal Service saying efforts to increase staffing are insufficient. Recently, people in many areas of western Washington have had issues with the United States Postal Service. Those issues include long lines and mail delays in many counties such as Whatcom, King, and Snohomish. Now,… Read more »

You can watch the full interview here. Read more »

On Jan. 26, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash) issued a letter to the U.S Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, strongly urging him to “reconsider” the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to move mail operations out of the Seattle East DDC in Redmond. On Jan. 5, DelBene toured the East DDC facility and met with postal worker union members about their concerns regarding the changing work… Read more »

A study that provided poor mothers with cash stipends for the first year of their children’s lives appears to have changed the babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development, a finding with potential implications for safety net policy. The differences were modest — researchers likened them in statistical magnitude to moving to the 75th position in a line of… Read more »

There wasn’t a deluge of Canadian visitors on the first day of border restrictions being lifted, but Blaine business owners and government officials are happy to start welcoming them back. Downtown Blaine was quiet on Monday afternoon, Nov. 8, hours after the U.S. government eased restrictions on nonessential travelers coming across the border. While Monday wasn’t typically a busy day… Read more »

Pacific Northwest food producers stung by extreme heat will be eligible for disaster relief in a $10 billion package included in legislation now signed into law. The record-setting temperatures in late June caused losses across a broad swath of the state from oyster aquaculture operations in the Puget Sound region to fruit orchards in the Yakima Valley and potato growers in the Columbia… Read more »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned fellow Democrats on Thursday they “must put aside our differences” as the party struggles to coalesce around President Joe Biden’s huge but now-scaled-back package of social services and climate change strategies. Schumer’s letter to colleagues comes as progressive leaders in Congress are steering them away from what the… Read more »