Austin Jenkins
Olympia CorrespondentSince January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy, as well as the Washington State Legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia."
Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise.
Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. In 2019, he received his Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington Communication Leadership program.
Austin's reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists. Austin was part of a team that won a 2018 national Edward R. Murrow award for breaking news coverage.
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For the second time, Washington lawmakers are suing Gov. Jay Inslee over his use of the veto pen. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Thurston County Superior Court, the Legislature asserts Inslee exceeded his veto power earlier this year when he line-item vetoed parts of the state transportation budget and eliminated a subsection of a low carbon fuels bill.
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Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen has died. His death comes after the Whatcom County Republican was hospitalized last month following a COVID-19 diagnosis while in El Salvador.
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Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Democratic leaders in the Legislature announced Friday a delay in the collection of a payroll tax to pay for a new long-term care insurance program in Washington.
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It's a growing problem in Washington: kids with developmental disabilities and complex behaviors who are stuck in the hospital with no reason for being there. Usually, they end up in the hospital after a crisis or an incident. But once the child is medically cleared to leave, their parents or their group home won't come get them citing inadequate supports to manage the youth's needs. While the state searches for alternative placements, the child waits.
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Mysterious bruises. An unreported burn. Two vulnerable clients left alone overnight. These are just some of the complaints that families are leveling against Aacres WA — a troubled residential care provider that gets tens of millions of dollars a year from the state to care for people with developmental disabilities. Now state officials say they’re investigating.
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In a surprise order Friday morning, the Washington Supreme Court declined to take on the job of drafting new congressional and legislative maps. Instead, the court declared that the state's Redistricting Commission had finished its work on-time last month.
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Washington Governor Jay Inslee says he would support a short-term delay in the implementation of a new payroll tax on workers. That tax is scheduled to take effect in January. It will fund a first-in-the-nation long-term care insurance program called WA Cares. Concerns have been raised about details of how the program will work.
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For months, minority Republicans in the Washington Legislature have called for limits on the governor’s emergency powers. But now even some Democrats are expressing concerns about the open-endedness of the COVID-19 state of emergency and the limited role of state lawmakers.
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Washington has nine independently elected statewide officeholders. All but one of those elected officials has required their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The holdout was the lone Republican.
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Deschutes Parkway on Washington's Capitol Campus was closed by police for the third time this month following a violent crime.