‘Late Show’ cancelation | Heat safety | Public broadcasting

Monday, July 21, 2025

LOCAL

► From KUOW — Here’s where NPR programming is broadcast in WA — and where funding cuts could impact coverage — Congress voted to rescind over $1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), cutting all federal funding for NPR, PBS, and their member stations. In Washington state, nearly half of counties receive NPR news via local radio signals.

► From the Washington State Standard — WA’s new rent cap set just below 10% for 2026 — Washington’s statewide cap on annual residential rent increases will be just shy of 10% next year, down slightly from its current level. The limit, which takes effect Jan. 1, will be set at 9.683%, the state’s Department of Commerce said Friday. Going forward, the Department of Commerce will announce the annual rent limit each July. The timing is based on the release of inflation data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

► From KUOW — As Travis Decker manhunt stalls, Wenatchee veterans call for more mental health services — Just a couple of weeks before his daughters’ death, Travis Decker walked out of the Grant County Veterans Services office — and Rob Bates, a mental health counselor for veterans, saw him. Later, when Decker’s photo was on the news, Bates realized who he’d seen. “So he was trying to engage services,” Bates said. “We just didn’t have the services that he needed. I think most of what I have is anger at the system, because the system failed him. We — we failed him. We failed Whitney, and mostly we failed those children.” Bates said it’s hard for veterans to find mental health care in north-central Washington.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Guardian — WNBA players say they’re not paid what they’re owed. Are they right? — First, while WNBA attendance dropped from an overall average of more than 10,000 in the late 1990s to a little under 7,000 just after the pandemic, Clark and Co wiped out most of those losses in 2024 alone, pushing the league average close to 10,000 again, and the league is flirting with a new record in 2025. Second, the league’s broadcast rights alone have ballooned from zero in 2002 to roughly $60m a year in the current deal, with that number set to go to $200m as part of the combined deal with the NBA. Third, total league revenue jumped from $102m in 2019 to the $180m-$200m range in 2023, Bloomberg reported.

NATIONAL

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Writers Guild Calls for Investigation After ‘Late Show’ Cancellation, Citing Bribery Concerns — The union’s East and West Coast branches asked that New York state Attorney General Letitia James open an inquiry into “potential wrongdoing” at the company in a strongly worded statement on Friday. The WGA East and West pointed to the precedent of the California State Senate, which in May launched an inquiry into Paramount Global’s controversial $16 million settlement with President Trump over the editing of a Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview in 2024.

► From People’s World — xAI’s dirty truth: Elon Musk’s company is poisoning Black communities — For an entire year, xAI illegally operated 35 commercial gas turbines in Memphis without any permits. AI technology requires a great deal of electricity. At the Memphis xAI data center, gas turbines are used to fulfil the energy needs. However, these turbines also generate air pollution. It wasn’t until the NAACP filed its intent to sue that the company took serious steps to acquire any permits at all.

► From the Washington Post — Health insurance through Affordable Care Act faces big premium hikes — Health insurers are proposing double-digit price hikes for plans sold through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, as extra federal subsidies for premiums expire at the end of the year and President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten higher pharmaceutical prices. The median monthly premium increase would be 15 percent, according to a new analysis of insurer filings conducted by the nonpartisan health policy organization KFF.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Occupational Health & Safety — CWA Urges OSHA to Strengthen Heat Safety Standards to Protect All Workers — “Heat protections are a life-saving necessity enabling workers to do their jobs safely,” said Siegel de Hernandez. She urged OSHA to bolster the rule’s provisions for worker and authorized representative involvement, address acclimatization during sudden heat waves, protect non-traditional emergency responders operating in high-heat conditions, ensure coverage for mobile and transient worksites, and include sedentary indoor workers in the final regulation.

► From the Washington Post — Trump officials accused of defying 1 in 3 judges who ruled against him — President Donald Trump and his appointees have been accused of flouting courts in a third of the more than 160 lawsuits against the administration in which a judge has issued a substantive ruling, a Washington Post analysis has found, suggesting widespread noncompliance with America’s legal system.

► From the Government Executive — Trump creates ‘Schedule G’ to add more political appointees to agencies top ranks — President Trump created another new category of federal employee on Thursday evening, issuing an executive order to expand the number of political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation and will serve in policy-making or policy-advocating roles…Don Moynihan, a professor at University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, said the executive order was the president’s latest effort to strip career experts of influence within federal agencies.

► From the Washington Post — EPA eliminates its scientific research arm — The move to eliminate the Office of Research and Development, which will prompt the exodus of hundreds of chemists and scientists assigned to conduct independent research on a range of environmental hazards, is part of a push to cut 23 percent of the agency’s staff. Its work, which often underpinned stricter federal regulations, was criticized by chemical manufacturers and other industries.

► From the Seattle Times — FDA names former pharmaceutical company executive to oversee US drug program — FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced that Dr. George Tidmarsh, a cancer and pediatric specialist, will direct the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, which regulates the safety and effectiveness of all U.S. drugs. Tidmarsh founded and led several pharmaceutical companies, including Horizon Pharmaceuticals, maker of an anti-inflammatory medication for arthritis. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Stanford University.

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