(mellow music) (compelling music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

I'm Ryan Famuliner, the Director of Digital News at Cascade PBS filling in for Paris Jackson.

In today's episode, Washington now has a majority Latino voting district on the east side of the state.

We'll explain the legal fight that made it happen.

We'll also look at human trafficking, which generates billions of dollars globally every year, and we'll talk about the current state of public transit in the Seattle metro area.

Recovery from ridership slump during the pandemic continues, but there are some growing pains.

Today's top story, a new Washington legislative map creates a majority Latino voting district on the east side of the state.

The change comes three years after the contentious political redistricting process began and after numerous drafts of maps and core challenges.

But, the new map makes it just in time for the 2024 election, though even this map is also facing an appeal.

I sat down with Cascade PBS reporter Mai Hoang to learn more.

(pensive music) Welcome, Mai Hoang.

Thanks for joining us on "The Newsfeed."

- Thanks for having me.

- So today, we're talking about the new map for Legislative District 14, which creates a majority Latino voting district in Eastern Washington.

The map was supposed to be redrawn three years ago, and instead is just coming in time for this 2024 election.

And so, Mai, in an unusual move, this new map was created by a judge's ruling last month.

Why is that the way this was handled?

- So in August, the US District Court ruled that the map was in violation of the Federal Voting Rights Act because of the Latino majority district, which used to be in District 15.

When the judge ruled, that meant that a new map process had to start.

So there were two options.

You could reconvene the bipartisan Washington State Redistricting Commission or have the court oversee the process.

The Democrat majority in the legislature decided not to reconvene the commission.

Republicans objected, but because again, Democrats had the majority, it was...

The can was kicked to the court, and the court decided, and yeah, even in the order, issuing the order to adopt the map, Judge Robert Lasnik noted that doing this map process is not typically a court duty.

- So how does this new map differ from the old one and what's been the response so far?

- So the main reason the former map was in violation of the Federal Voting Rights Act was because they found that even though it met the percentage of Latinos in the 15th Legislative District, the communities were split between two different districts.

So the people that filed the lawsuit against the state claimed that that actually diluted their voting power.

So the judge agreed with that.

And so the most significant thing is that it unifies all the Latino communities from Yakima, down the Yakima, Lower Yakima Valley, to Pasco in Franklin County.

So the idea is that you have this one big group all in the same district, and they also changed it from the 15th to the 14th so that State Senate elections fall on a presidential year when Latino voters are more likely to turn out.

- So from a voter's perspective, why is this new map impactful for Latino voters?

- So this is the latest in a string of voting rights cases for Latinos, dating back a decade.

Past cases led to district-based elections in the city of Yakima for the city council and Yakima County for their commissioner races, which meant that Latinos had more of an opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice.

So now, with this latest map through this process that extends to the state level.

- So this new map is facing an appeal, but a couple weeks ago, the US Court of Appeals said it would not block the new map.

So what does that mean for the appeal of this map?

- So along with filing an appeal, they also filed an emergency stay to prevent the state from adopting the map in time for the 2024 election.

So the Appeals Court essentially denied that motion.

So the map will be adopted for the 2024 election.

- So is there still a chance, though, the legislative map could change again?

- Yes, absolutely.

So while the interveners, the group of conserved Latino voters who intervened in the original voting rights case, which filed the appeal of this map, were denied the stay, which would've prevented the adoption of map, the court still said, "You could proceed with the appeals process of the map."

They have until June to file the opening briefs for the map.

And also there's still an opportunity for the Appeals Court to overturn the original ruling from August that led to redrawing the map in the first place.

And I know the interveners were hoping to consolidate those two cases.

So there's a possibility of the map changing and the original voting rights ruling from August also being overturned.

- So one of the goals of this new map is to ensure the Latino voting base has voting power.

But what does that really mean?

- The main way they look at that is to see whether candidates that Latino voters selects have a chance to win.

So when they are going through a map process, they'll have an expert look at a number of state and federal races, which they did for this process as well, to see if the candidate that generally Latinos select wins in that district.

They had a number of different races, president, senate, governor, and they looked at what candidate the Latino voters picked in general and then how did that candidate fare in those races.

And so based on that study, they believe that the Latino voters in the 14th District as it's drawn now would be able to select a candidate that would win.

- It was a pleasure speaking with you today, Mai.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you.

- We appreciate it.

To read more of our in-depth reporting, go to crosscut.com.

(pensive music) More than a decade ago, Washington state passed a law requiring those convicted of buying sex to pay more fees.

A new report finds the majority of state courts aren't levying those fines.

We'll explain the confusion in the courts.

A Washington state law passed in 2013 requires people convicted of buying sex to pay more fees to the courts.

A new InvestigateWest investigation has found that apart from King County, most courts aren't enforcing that law.

Anti-trafficking advocacy groups say these fees, potentially adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year from those buying sex from adults and children, were supposed to go towards services for human trafficking survivors.

Initially, the courts followed that law, but InvestigateWest has learned a decade later, most Washington courts aren't ordering sex buyers to pay any fees at all.

In 2023, only 1/4 of the 64 courts that convicted people for sexual exploitation crimes ordered them to pay fees, according to a State Commerce Department annual report.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office says part of the problem is a lack of awareness among judges and prosecutors that these fees are mandatory and cannot be waived.

In 2018 and 2022, the state legislature passed laws, allowing judges to waive certain fines and fees for people unable to pay, but the waivers don't apply to fees for sexual exploitation crimes.

(pensive music) Seattle metro area transit agencies are trying to make light rail and bus services more consistent post-pandemic.

We'll look at their upcoming plans to add drivers and boost service.

Transit agencies in the Seattle metro area are planning to boost service as recovery from the pandemic ridership decline continues.

But many riders are frustrated, as some lines deal with delays, especially certain problem routes.

In the meantime, some transit users are turning to apps like Google Maps and the locally created app OneBusAway to ensure they don't waste time waiting for delayed buses and light rail.

The number of passengers riding metro each weekday has climbed steadily since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

In February 2024, 291,000 people on average rode Metro's buses each weekday up from 267,000 one year earlier.

That's still well below pre-pandemic levels from February 2020 when the system averaged 510,000 weekday riders.

In spring 2023, King County Metro faced a shortage of 120 full-time drivers and 40 bus maintenance and repair staff.

They've stepped up the recruiting efforts since then and made a dent in that shortage.

And a spokesperson says if that progress continues, they hope to announce service increases in August.

I'm Ryan Famuliner.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit Northwest News.

Go to crosscut.com for more.

(compelling music) (pensive music)