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News and updates

News and updates

What We’re Reading, March 26-60

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Here’s a selection of articles we read this week.

Earthquakes! – An earthquake early warning system under development for the West Coast gets a major boost in the new federal budget that President Donald Trump signed into law Friday. Read more from Northwest Public Broadcasting.

Golden Tennis Shoes – Senator Patty Murray’s successes have been not just impressive, but near folkloric. President Obama declared the Every Student Succeeds Act, one of her first collaborations with Sen. Alexander “a Christmas miracle.” And what’s more, she makes the process look seamless. Even in wearied Washington, Murray commands a quiet grace. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) tells ELLE that her friend scores her hardest-won concessions behind closed doors; the divisions may be deep, but she almost never discusses them. Read the feature story on Senator Patty Murray on ELLE.

On Tuition Revenue – State colleges and universities are relying more on tuition dollars to fund their operations even as state funding rises and colleges come under pressure to keep tuition low. Last fiscal year, for the first time, tuition revenue outpaced government appropriations for higher education in the majority of states, according to the annual higher education finance report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Read more from Governing.

Out-of-state at Flagship Universities – The in-state/out-of-state question is a huge issue for universities. For hundreds of thousands of college-bound students nationwide, their home-state flagship is either their top choice or one of them. A Washington Post analysis of the latest available federal data found that at 11 flagships in 2016, more than half of the incoming freshman classes were from out of state. For several small states, that was no surprise. But some state schools have made a conscious decision to go national. Read more from WaPo.

Omnibus Signed After Last Minute Veto Threat

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After surprising most of Washington with a last minute tweet this morning threatening to veto the FY2018 omnibus spending bill, President Trump ultimately signed it into law this afternoon.  As the last minute hurdles were being cleared on the Hill earlier this week, White House staff had assured Congressional Republicans that Trump would support the measure.

Earlier today, the President tweeted that he might veto the bill because it did not address the DACA issue and did not fully fund the border wall that he had wanted.  Ultimately, he was persuaded to sign it to avoid a government shutdown.

Read more here and here.

What We’re Reading, March 19-23

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Here’s a selection of articles we read this week.

What does a scientist look like? When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women. That’s the main conclusion of a new study that compiled information about 20,860 pictures drawn by students age 5 to 18 over 5 decades. Read more from Science Magazine.

The Omnibus – Congressional negotiators reached a tentative agreement Wednesday night on a $1.3 trillion federal spending bill, releasing it to the public just 52 hours before a government shutdown deadline. The draft billruns 2,232 pages, and we’re going through it so you don’t have to. Click through to Washington Post for the key highlights.

Word on the Hill – Roll Call is all over Capitol Hill and its surrounding haunts looking for good stories. Some of their best are ones they come across while reporting the big stories. Read ’em at Roll Call.

Randy’s blog is back! –  Randy Hodgins, UW’s vice president for external affairs (and our boss) is back to blogging! Read his first post which happens to discuss his recent trip to DC here.

Senate Clears Spending Package

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A few hours after House did its part, the Senate cleared the FY2018 omnibus spending package by a vote of 65 – 32. President Trump has signaled that he will sign the measure, avoiding a shutdown, which would occur if it were not signed into law before midnight tonight.