Over the course of the past few weeks, I have been a part of many incredible, unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. These events are so fresh in my mind that I haven’t even been able to fully process them, let alone see or understand their long-term impact. Already, I think if given the chance, I could talk about the events of those days for an entire lifetime: the experiences, the people, the feelings and emotions around them, the life lessons, I could actually go on forever. Since that is impractical and too much for anyone to listen to, I want to focus on a single part of the culminating event, the first-ever State Dinner honoring teachers at the White House. You read that correctly: the state teachers of the year were invited to dine with the First Lady of the United States, and fellow educator herself, Dr. Jill Biden (as I said in the opening statement… unbelievable).
But the story begins long before the dinner itself on May 2. We have to go back to the welcome address a week prior, delivered by 2019 National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson, where he planted a seed of thought into my mind that I wasn’t expecting nor fully able to comprehend in that moment. Among his many words of wisdom, he said, “YOU (the state teachers of the year) are not the reason you are here.” Certainly a strange statement to make to a group of extraordinary professional educators. Nevertheless, he went on to explain that even though we are exactly where we are supposed to be, our journey here wasn’t entirely of our own making. This thought stayed in the front of my mind throughout every experience of the following week.
The truth Rodney helped me to confront is that I would not be where I am today were it not for a host of people along my journey. My family and friends, whose love and unconditional support has sustained me when things have been tough. My own teachers, whose dedication and belief in me during one of the most challenging times of my life allowed me to believe in myself. My colleagues, who have pushed and challenged me to keep moving forward. But most importantly, my students, who for over a decade have given me purpose, strength, and inspiration in more ways than can be named. Each of them helped me along in one way or another.
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The next day brought about the chance to hear from yet another world class educator, 2010 National Teacher of the Year and coordinator for the state teachers of the year, Sarah Brown Wessling. More than any other person I’ve met, Sarah has the ability to know what you need before you know yourself, and as someone who has gone through these same experiences, she told a story of her meeting the president when she was named National Teacher of the Year in 2010. It was the exact story we needed. Without retelling someone else’s story, the moral was that we should be aware of who it is we are carrying into the spaces we occupy, from the ordinary to the incomprehensible, they are with us. Again, the words stuck. They meant something despite my lack of context to understand their meaning.
Fast forward to Thursday evening, when we were on our way to the White House to attend the historic State Dinner. From the outside, we looked ready. Each of us dressed in our finest clothes, adorned with little personal touches that showcased our profession, our state, and our personalities. We looked invincible. But inside, my mind was racing, and as it did, the words of wisdom from earlier in the week appeared again, only this time, they didn’t rattle in my mind, they came out.
Sitting across the aisle from me was 2024 Delaware Teacher of the Year Cory Hafer, which in hindsight was the perfect person. So I asked, “Cory, who are you carrying with you?” In the most truthful and vulnerable way, we both went on to name students, family members, and other folks that we were thinking about in the moment. This last conversation started to bring to focus the thoughts that were dominating my mind all week long. Then in an instant, we went from sitting at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue waiting to depart the bus to the entrance of the East Room of the White House. There are a million memories between the two, but again, this story has one focus.
Once I entered that incredible dining room, I felt myself losing control. My heart fluttered, my mind raced, and I thought of all of the reasons why I shouldn’t be in that room; why I didn’t belong; why I wasn’t deserving of such an honor. Quickly, I looked into my hand at my seating card, I saw the number “15” and took a beeline to find my seat. Once I noticed the table, I saw a golden apple with the words “Kevin Dailey” sitting on the table, but I certainly did not feel like that was my place. Every negative thought, every doubt, every flaw, every failure flashed right in front of my eyes.
I pulled out the chair to take my seat and saw a glimpse of a book. I had never seen this book before, but I instantly knew what it was. It was Rodney’s words, “you are not the reason why you are here.” It was Sarah’s story, “who are you carrying with you?” As I lifted the book, it all made sense. All of the worries, the doubts, the failures that had dominated my senses parted and in their place were handwritten notes from my students. I took a deep breath and knew that no matter what I felt about my own presence in those hallowed halls, the people I carried with me, the people that brought me to that moment, they all deserved to be there. They belonged in that room. And it was my responsibility, my honor, to bring them with me. Those little notes of kindness gave me power, confidence, and a sense of belonging and purpose that I will never forget.
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It’s pretty amazing, the power of kindness. What a nice note, a simple gesture, or a short reminder can do for a person. In my career as a teacher, I have saved every note, every email, every Post-it given by my students. I store them in a binder behind my desk. These notes mean the world to me. But this book of kindness is a constant reminder of the reason I am where I am today and of those that I carry with me. And that is a lesson I hope I never forget.
By Jake Goldstein-Street (Washington State Standard)
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Dec. 25, 2025 4:55 p.m.
A road is covered by floodwaters after heavy rains led to historic flooding in the region Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Burlington, Wash.
Lindsey Wasson / AP
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared a public health emergency Wednesday over this month’s flooding in Washington state.
The action from Kennedy, the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is focused on helping meet the needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. As part of that, his agency is providing access to HHS emPOWER, which gives data on the number of Medicare enrollees reliant on medical equipment dependent on electricity and other health care services that could make them especially vulnerable to a disaster.
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The announcement could be a good sign for the state’s chances of getting a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump to potentially open up tens of millions of dollars to deal with the flooding’s aftermath.
Gov. Bob Ferguson plans to ask for such a declaration in the coming weeks.
The flooding from heavy rain and overflowing rivers forced thousands of evacuations, breached multiple levees and damaged numerous highways. It still didn’t quite reach the levels some forecasts predicted. One person has been reported dead.
Kennedy’s order follows an emergency declaration from Trump that unlocked federal resources to respond to the storm.
John Knox, of the department’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, said in a statement that, “HHS stands ready to assist state and local response efforts in the state of Washington due to the potential health care impacts from severe storms.”
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Health and Human Services has also waived penalties for violating federal health privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, for hospitals.
“With today’s declaration and waiver, HHS is helping ensure that residents in the storm’s path have continuous access to the care they need during and after this storm,” Knox said. “ASPR’s highly trained personnel are prepared to support state and local actions to save lives and protect the delivery of health care services.”
The federal Disaster Distress Helpline is also available for crisis counseling. The multilingual hotline, open 24 hours a day, can be reached via call or text at 1-800-985-5990.
The declaration is retroactive to Dec. 9.
A windstorm forecast to arrive in western Washington on Wednesday could exacerbate problems, as saturated soil from the recent rain could make trees and powerline poles especially susceptible to falling over. But the wind is now not expected to be as intense as predicted earlier this week.
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Meanwhile, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown filed a lawsuit with other states against Kennedy on Tuesday for his threats against gender-affirming care providers.
Brown called Kennedy’s move “as cruel and unnecessary as it is illegal, but consistent with an administration that puts politics above health.” It’s Washington’s 49th lawsuit against the federal government since Trump retook office in January.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity.
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Federal immigration agents shot at a moving vehicle on Wednesday morning during an enforcement and removal action in Glen Burnie, Maryland, striking one person and injuring another, officials said.
A spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County Police Department said neither person had life-threatening injuries, and both were taken to the hospital.
Anne Arundel police responded to a report of a shooting involving federal agents at about 10:50 a.m. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were the only officials involved in the shooting, police said.
Preliminarily, police said the agents approached a white van, but the vehicle attempted to run them over. The agents fired at the van, which accelerated until coming to a stop in a wooded area, police said.
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When asked for comment, Department of Homeland Security officials said both civilians involved in the altercation with ICE are in the U.S. illegally. They did not indicate whether either of the men had been arrested.
“Continued efforts to encourage illegal aliens and violent agitators to actively resist ICE will only lead to more violent incidents,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Anne Arundel police said they will investigate the shooting, while the FBI investigates the alleged assault on the agents and ICE conducts an internal investigation.
When Washington Governor Bob Ferguson proposed the state’s first income tax in modern history, he said the word “affordability” five times.
Ferguson on Tuesday asked the legislature to craft a 9.9% tax on personal income over $1 million, which would revolutionize a state revenue system heavily reliant on sales and property tax. Although his fellow Democrats have for decades failed to push through an income tax, Ferguson said it’s “a different time right now.”
“We are facing an affordability crisis,” Ferguson said. “It is time to change our state’s outdated, upside-down tax system. To serve the needs of Washingtonians today, to make our taxes the more fair, millionaires should contribute toward our shared prosperity.”
Democrats across the US are increasingly exploring taxes as a way to capture the populist moment and address the country’s widening wealth gap. If “affordability” was the issue highlighted by Democrats who outperformed expectations in the off-year elections of 2025, the slogan next year could very well be “tax the rich.”
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It’s an opening Democrats see as the Trump administration this year paired tax cuts for high earners with reductions in Medicaid and supplemental food assistance. Raising taxes on the wealthy could also help solve a fiscal problem for states dedicating more resources to plug the holes from federal cuts.
“We have a federal government that has gone into super-villain mode, seeming to deliberately take from the poor and middle class to give to the rich,” said Darien Shanske, a tax professor at UC Davis School of Law. “This unnecessary emergency is laying down a gauntlet for states: Will they let this suffering come to pass and, if not, how will they pay for the triage? Taxes on the best-off are not just fair but also efficient.”
Read more: Millionaire Tax That Mamdani Loves Fuels a $5.7 Billion Haul
Progressive tax advocates often point to Massachusetts’ 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million, which brought in roughly $5.7 billion in fiscal 2025, far exceeding revenue projections in its third year of collection.
New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani campaigned on raising the city’s income tax on millionaires by 2 percentage points to 5.9%, which critics said would lead to an exodus of wealthy people.
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Colorado voters this year approved a measure to limit deductions for taxpayers earning at least $300,000. The revenue will fund a program providing free meals for all public school students. Colorado officials also advanced a ballot measure to change the state’s 4.41% flat rate to a graduated income tax, potentially raising more than $4 billion. That will likely go before voters in 2026.
Michigan residents could also face a ballot initiative next year to change the state’s flat 4.25% tax rate to add a 5% surcharge on individuals earning more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million.
Romney’s Call
Even 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has joined the call. Last week, the former US senator from Utah penned an essay in the New York Times calling for rich people to pay more, mostly in the form of closing loopholes the wealthy use to minimize tax obligations.
“It would help us avoid the cliff ahead,” Romney said, pointing to government funding shortfalls, “and might tend to quiet some of the anger that will surely grow as unemployed college graduates see tax-advantaged multibillionaires sailing 300-foot yachts.”
Most of the populist proposals coming from the states would raise taxes on income. But the tricky thing about some wealth is that it doesn’t come from a paycheck and thus is harder to tax. Even a levy on capital gains depends on a taxpayer selling assets to realize that increased value.
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For example, former Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer’s net worth increased by $706.5 billion on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Even though his mansion sits across the lake from downtown Seattle, those gains wouldn’t be subject to an income tax.
That’s why some Washington state Democrats are still pushing for the US’s first wealth tax on unrealized gains. Under a proposal passed by the state Senate last year, portfolios of some publicly traded asset classes worth at least $50 million would be taxed at 0.5%.
Ferguson panned the wealth tax proposal last year, saying it would be irresponsible to balance the budget on a measure that would certainly face legal challenges.
One of the most common warnings from tax opponents is that once legislators have a new tax mechanism, they’ll either increase the rate or lower the threshold at which it would apply. Ferguson in his income-tax proposal nodded to that concern, saying the $1 million level should increase with inflation and be included in the statute or perhaps even a constitutional amendment.
Read More: Vegas Lures Millionaires Fleeing Wealth Tax in Washington State
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State taxes are also easier to avoid than federal taxes, because it’s relatively easy to move a primary residency. Washington used to attract taxpayers fed up with California’s high rates, but that has changed since the Evergreen State started taxing capital gains. Next year could be the year of the millionaire’s tax — in Washington state and across the US.
