Max Wasserman

Reporter

After years of living in the thick of trouble, longtime inmate finds hope for a second chance

By • Mar 11, 2019
Prenters Broughton argues for early release before the state clemency board in Olympia on Thursday, March 7. The board is one of the only ways for long-time inmates to have their sentences reduced or thrown out.
Max Wasserman / Northwest News Network

Prenters Broughton was always getting into trouble as a kid. So, his older sister came up with a nickname for him.

“He was just a little devil,” Alana Ervin, a Tacoma resident, said of her brother. “So PB, just to shorten it up for peanut butter because he’s always in the thick of things.”

Washington lawmakers seek smoother path to redemption for formerly incarcerated residents

By • Mar 5, 2019
Carolina Landa hugs her son, Zach, in their living room before he leaves for school on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. The two have been living together in the same home in Olympia since 2015.
Shauna Sowersby / The (Tacoma) News Tribune

Carolina Landa’s 12-year-old son has a new obsession: an old Scooby-Doo movie.

It’s part of Zach’s life with autism. He fixates on certain objects — a movie, sometimes food, anything he needs to feel safe — but has difficulty communicating since he’s also nonverbal.

New code of conduct to shift how Legislature deals with sexual harassment

By • Jan 25, 2019
Washington House representatives listen to testimony, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, before they unanimously voted to approve a code of conduct for the Legislature in Olympia, Wash.
Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press

The handling of sexual harassment in the state Legislature will evolve following a new code of conduct that has already passed one chamber.

The unanimous resolution was passed in the House, and it’s the first bill of the 2019 legislative session to change the chamber’s workplace culture in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

State Sen. Joe Nguyen joins an increasingly diverse group of lawmakers in Olympia

By & • Jan 18, 2019

OLYMPIA — Joe Nguyen doesn’t look like your typical lawmaker. He’s the first Vietnamese member in the state Senate. And at 35, he’s one of the youngest.

“People are realizing that I’m a senator and not a staffer,” Nguyen said. But, he added, people do sometimes ask "who do you work for?"