Tag Archives: Sen. Judy Warnick

13th District lawmakers ask President Obama to intervene to bring West Coast port labor dispute to an end

With thousands of jobs and billions of dollars on the line for Washington state, lawmakers representing the 13th District say the time for the president to act is now.

The three lawmakers signed a letter to President Obama this week, asking him to intervene in the West Coast port labor dispute. In the letter, Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg and Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, cite the “devastating effect” the slowdown is having on Washington state employers, employees and the state’s economic stability.

The slowdown is currently costing U.S. agriculture millions of dollars, as representatives from the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union have not come to an agreement on a new contract for dockworkers.

“If a resolution is not reached quickly, not only will the national economy suffer, [but] our state’s operating budget could be well short of the tax collections expected from our trade and manufacturing sectors,” wrote the lawmakers.

Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation, and exports $15.1 billion annually in food and agriculture products through Puget Sound ports.

“We need immediate action if we are to salvage what remains of our market share for trade around the globe and to ensure our manufacturers can continue to produce high-demand products.”

To read the lawmakers’ complete letter, click here.

Washington Lawmaker Seeks To Ban E-Cigarette Sales To Minors

By Ruby de Luna

This week a state senate committee will hear a proposal that would make it illegal to sell e-cigarettes and vapes to minors.

Last fall Sen. Judy Warnick got a tip from a police officer from her district in Moses Lake. He noted that students were buying e-cigarettes easily. “They were modifying them so they could use marijuana in those cigarettes,” Warnick said.

Warnick said there wasn’t much the officer could do about it. There are no rules that prohibit selling e-cigarettes to minors. “He had no recourse,” she said, “he could not charge the store owner for selling.”

Selling cigarettes to minors is illegal. Warnick’s bill would put e-cigarettes and vapes in the same category.

She worries that kids starting with these products will wind up with a bigger habit. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2013 more than a quarter million students in middle and high school who had never smoked cigarettes used e-cigarettes.  They’re almost twice as likely to switch to conventional cigarettes, the report said.

In Seattle’s University District Marina Westendorf manages E-Cig and Vape on Northeast 45th Street. She says she has no problem with Warnick’s proposed regulation. There’s a sign at the entrance that says no one under 18 is allowed. And she cards people before she even lets them try samples.

“I wouldn’t sell alcohol to someone under 21,” Westendorf said. “I wouldn’t sell cigarettes to someone under 18. Nicotine is addictive, regardless of what form you get it in.”

Other stores like Westendorf’s do self-regulate. But Warnick said her bill would make that practice consistent — no matter where kids try to buy e-cigarettes.

 

https://kuow.org/post/washington-lawmaker-seeks-ban-e-cigarette-sales-minors