A day after President Obamas announcement about new federal background check rules, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee plans to introduce a new public health initiative to reduce gun violence. More details will be released later today.
A day after President Obama's announcement about new federal background check rules, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee plans to introduce a new public health initiative to reduce gun violence. More details will be released later today. Governor's Office

Gov. Jay Inslee Will Announce an Executive Order Related to Gun Violence Today: Inslee is expected to launch a public health initiative to reduce gun violence in Washington state. That comes a day after President Barack Obama announced he would use an executive order to impose new background check requirements for gun sales, which Inslee applauded.

ICYMI: Here's Obama's speech from yesterday. He was introduced by the father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim. (That same father was also featured in this 2013 post-Newtown Washington Post feature, which has to be one of the most heartbreaking things ever published. If you haven't read it, you really should.)

Meanwhile, Are Gun Sellers and Buyers In Washington State Following Our Background Check Laws? Maybe not.

North Korea Claims It Tested a Hydrogen Bomb: Not everyone is convinced. "Officials and analysts in South Korea quickly cast doubt on the North’s claim, saying that the seismological data from the impact was more in keeping with that of an atomic device," The New York Times reports. "For one thing, they said, the estimated yield, or energy, from the explosion appeared to be too small to be that of a hydrogen bomb. The North might instead have tested a so-called boosted-fission bomb — which involves placing a tiny amount of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, at the core of an atomic bomb, but is more destructive than a traditional nuclear weapon."



Thurston County Deputy Shoots and Kills Suspect:
That was after the deputy pulled the suspect over and the suspect allegedly punched the deputy and tried to steel the patrol car, KING 5 reports.

There Was a Police Chase on I-5 This Morning: It ended when the driver lost control of the car and slammed into a Metro bus. The bus had no passengers on board.


A Continuous Tremor is Shaking Under Puget Sound and It's Apparently NBD: "The tremor can last three weeks and happens about once a year," KIRO reports. "It’s been shaking 30 miles under Puget Sound since Dec. 22.... Dr.[ John] Vidale, [director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network] believes the tremor is related to the 4.3 earthquake that shook under Victoria, British Columbia on Dec. 30. That quake was the largest in the Puget Sound region since the Nisqually quake of 2001."

Human Remains Have Been Found Near Tacoma Community College: Very little additional information is currently available.

Still Thinking About Making a Murderer? Check this out.

Some state-certified marijuana labs testing for microbes such as E.coli and mold appear more friendly to pot merchants than others, reports the Seattle Times.
"Some state-certified marijuana labs testing for microbes such as E.coli and mold appear more friendly to pot merchants than others," reports the Seattle Times. PE3K/Shutterstock

Are Some Pot Labs Giving Growers a Pass? Bob Young at the Seattle Times reports on an analysis from a pot store license applicant showing that while some labs that test legal marijuana for E. coli and mold regularly found problems, others didn't. That indicates some labs may be more friendly to growers than others. “We are aware that some labs have higher rates of approvals than others," a Liquor and Cannabis Board spokesperson told Young. "We are looking into it and don’t want to go into what our intentions are at this point."

East African Community Seeks Candidate to Replace Jim McDermott: Crosscut covers a name you may not have heard in all the talk about who wants to replace Congressman Jim McDermott: Hassan Diis. Diis told Crosscut McDermott "was a great friend to the East African community. And he was involved directly with issues regarding immigrants.”

Some Veterans Support Those Militia Members in Oregon: The Seattle Times spoke with one Bonney Lake National Guard soldier who says she visited the armed protesters over the weekend. "We do believe in government," the woman told the Times. "We don’t believe in corrupt government.”