Washington
Bill banning ICE access to license plate reader data passes Washington Senate
SEATTLE — A bill aimed at regulating automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras has successfully passed the Washington State Senate with a 40-9 vote.
Sponsored by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma), SB 6002 seeks to establish clear guidelines for the use and retention of data collected by ALPR cameras, which are used by law enforcement and other government agencies to scan license plates and gather data.
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Currently, Washington state lacks specific legislation governing ALPR cameras.
“My goal with this bill has always been about community safety and trust,” Trudeau said. She emphasized the state’s constitutional obligation to protect personal privacy while responding to community concerns about surveillance technology.
The bill aims to balance these concerns by ensuring that law enforcement has the necessary tools to solve serious crimes while protecting individual privacy.
Key provisions of the bill include setting a 21-day retention period for ALPR data, prohibiting its use for immigration enforcement or tracking protected activities such as free speech protests, and banning the placement of ALPR cameras near schools, places of worship, courthouses, or food banks.
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The bill also mandates logs of all data access to monitor compliance and prohibits data sharing with other agencies except in judicial proceedings.
The 21-day retention period, extended from an initially shorter duration based on law enforcement feedback, would be the second-shortest in the nation and the shortest among states with ALPR cameras in operation. “This would be the best and strongest license plate reader law of any state in the nation,” Trudeau stated, highlighting the bill’s provisions for transparency and accountability.
Recent reports have raised concerns about the misuse and unauthorized sharing of ALPR data in Washington state.
Research from the University of Washington revealed that at least eight local law enforcement agencies have shared ALPR data with U.S. Border Patrol, and Border Patrol has accessed data from at least 10 additional agencies without formal agreements.
RELATED | UW report finds police unknowingly shared license plate data with Border Patrol
Additionally, there have been instances of ALPR data being used for purposes such as firearms enforcement and tracking individuals for abortion-related investigations.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.
Trinity Rodman signs record deal with Washington Spirit
USWNT forward Trinity Rodman signed a three-year deal with the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. The deal makes Rodman the highest-paid female footballer in the world.
unbranded – Sport
Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.
The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.
Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.
Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.
Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.
Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).
The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.
The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.
Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.
The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.
The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.
The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.
The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.
The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.
Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.
Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.
That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.
And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.
“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”
The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.
But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.
He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”
Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.
At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.
Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.
It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.
So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?
“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”
“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”
“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”
Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.
That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.
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