CASCADIA
denotes Left Coast resistance to trumplandia, plus green efforts<div>also tri-state
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</div><div></div><div>sanctuary cities</div><div>
</div><div><h4 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="Oregon">Oregon</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-size: small; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sanctuary_city&action=edit§ion=36" title="Edit section: Oregon" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em; color: rgb(84, 89, 93);">]</span></span></h4><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; color: rgb(32, 33, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State law passed in 1987: "Oregon Revised Statute 181.850, which prohibits law enforcement officers at the state, county or municipal level from enforcing federal immigration laws that target people based on their race or ethnic origin, when those individuals are not suspected of any criminal activities.<sup id="cite_ref-169" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-169" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[169]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-170" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-170" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[170]</a></sup></p><ul style="list-style-image: url("/w/skins/Vector/resources/skins.vector.styles/images/bullet-icon.svg?d4515"); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(32, 33, 34); font-size: 14px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaverton,Oregon" title="Beaverton, Oregon" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Beaverton</a> city council passed a resolution in January 2017 stating, in part, "The City of Beaverton is committed to living its values as a welcoming city for all individuals ...regardless of a person's ... immigration status" and that they would abide by Oregon state law of not enforcing federal immigration laws.<sup id="cite_ref-171" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-171" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[171]</a></sup></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvallis,Oregon" title="Corvallis, Oregon" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Corvallis</a><sup id="cite_ref-172" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-172" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">[172]</a></sup></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,Oregon" title="Portland, Oregon" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Portland</a><sup id="cite_ref-173" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city#cite_note-173" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">[173]</a></sup></span></li></ul></div><div>
</div><div><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/U.S.states_by_sanctuary_cities_policy.png/220px-U.S.states_by_sanctuary_cities_policy.png" /></div><div>
</div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">7/20 ariz?</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 18px; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1;"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfire-2646418985.html" aria-label="California, Washington and British Columbia Unite to Protect Forests From Wildfires" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); outline: 0px; font-family: inherit; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-size: 14px;">California, Washington and British Columbia Unite to Protect Forests From Wildfires</a></h1><div class="post-tags-primary" style="margin-top: 5px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(142, 142, 142); font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a class="post-tags-primary-link" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/forests" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1;">FORESTS</a></div><span style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17.6px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><font color="#8e8e8e"> ew</font></span></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></b></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A new frontier in the soda tax war is emerging along the west coast</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Industry-funded committees have drawn up ballot measures to preempt voters’ local soda tax initiatives in California, Oregon, and Washington state.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Starting with Berkeley, California in 2014, public health campaigners have succeeded in getting eight localities to enact taxes on sodas and other sugary beverages as a way to crack down on sugar consumption and battle obesity. Four of those localities are in California, and Seattle, Washington passed a tax that became effective at the beginning of 2018.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now big soda manufactures are fighting back, putting big money behind statewide initiatives that would stop these local democracy efforts in their tracks.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The name of the game is <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">preemption</i>: banning, with a piece of legislation at the state level, cities and counties from democratically enacting soda taxes</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The technique was wielded as a weapon by Big Tobacco in the ’80s and ’90s to stop communities from regulating their deadly product by creating smoke-free workplaces. Now 12 states ban smoke-free ordinances and experts say preemption itself is the public health threat.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a June 2017 </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28426304" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">article</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in the American Journal of Public Health, Jennifer Pomeranz of New York University’s College of Global Public Health and Mark Pertschuk of Grassroots Change in Oakland, California called preemption </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“a significant and quiet threat to public health in the United States” because it leaves municipalities “increasingly unable to address acute public health issues that will have lasting consequences for the health of communities.”</span></font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SODA TAXES TACKLE PUBLIC HEALTH CHALLENGES</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rising levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other serious public health challenges related to the consumption of sugary beverages have galvanized grassroots public health leaders. One tool they can use to address these challenges is a modest sales tax on sodas and sweetened beverages, with revenues going to support public health and education programs. New data show that consuming sugar in liquid form increases risks of serious health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and obesity in a much more significant way than was previously known.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Soda taxes work.</b> Researchers at Drexel University <a href="http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(18)31600-3/fulltext" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">surveyed consumers</a> before and after the implementation of Philadelphia’s tax and found that daily consumption of soda decreased by 40 percent and energy drinks by 64 percent while consumption of bottled water increased by 58 percent. Researchers at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303362" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">found</a> that sugary beverage consumption fell 21 percent in Berkeley after that city’s tax was implemented, while water consumption increased by 63 percent over comparison cities.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There’s a lot at stake for America’s biggest soda companies. Carbonated soft drinks–such as Coke, Fanta, Sprite, and Fresca–make up two-thirds of Coca-Cola’s production, and U.S. soda sales earned the company <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/03/30/contribution-of-u-s-soda-sales-in-coca-colas-revenue-could-decline-to-less-than-15-by-2020/#376ca8956533" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">more than $10 billion</a> in 2015. And PepsiCo’s soda sales – including Pepsi, 7Up, and Mountain Dew – still account for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-soda-sales-are-still-crucial-for-pepsi-2017-6" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">one-quarter</a> of the company’s <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/1503/pepsico/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$38 billion</a> in North American sales, despite a shift toward healthier products. But soda consumption fell to its <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/04/26/coke-and-pepsi-cola-wars-marketing/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">lowest point</a> in 31 years in the U.S. in 2016, according to <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Fortune</i>, and<b> <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke_s-soft-drink-revenue-is-growing-in-the-u-s--thanks-to-stron" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Coca-Cola concedes</a> that sweetened beverage taxes “are hurting Coke’s business.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As cities and counties across the county introduce taxes on sodas and sweetened beverages to counter the public health risks, they are facing sophisticated opposition campaigns funded by these soda giants operating through their deep-pocketed trade group, the <b>American Beverage Association (ABA)</b>. The ABA has launched big-dollar TV ad campaigns to fight soda taxes, spent heavily on lobbying state legislatures, sued to block soda taxes, and now is launching massive statewide ballot initiatives to roll back local soda taxes.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The soda industry uses the blandly named trade association to shelter its own brand names from controversy and condemnation, taps small business owners to champion their cause, and spins the tax as a “grocery tax” that will impact all consumers, not just those loading up the shopping cart with Coke and Snapple.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BIG SODA TURNS TO THE BALLOT TO BLOCK LOCAL HEALTH LAWS</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now the industry has latched on to statewide preemption ballot measures up and down the west coast as a way to halt local momentum on soda taxes. California and Washington’s preemption initiatives are seeking enough signatures to get on the ballot and must finish that process by July in order to go before voters in November 2018. Oregon’s initiative has already <a href="http://www.wweek.com/news/state/2018/06/19/grocery-tax-ban-on-oregon-ballots-would-block-a-soda-tax-in-multnomah-county/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">qualified</a> for the November 2018 ballot.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, and Red Bull have thrown a combined <a href="https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/committee?filer_id=YESTA%20%20015&election_year=2018" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$3 million</a> at overriding voters’ will in Washington state (proposed initiative 1634), and the ABA has spent <a href="http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1401779&session=2017&view=late1" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">more than $7 million</a> so far in the effort to override Californians’ local votes (Attorney General Tracking #17-0050).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">California’s proposed initiative would stack the deck for the likes of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo by <b>preventing cities and counties from raising <i style="box-sizing: inherit;">any</i> taxes without the approval of <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article209446084.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">two-thirds</a> of either voters or an elected body.</b> <b>That explains why the industry is throwing so much cash at the current California override attempt, making it potentially the <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/384938-soda-industry-cash-may-fuel-2018s-most-expensive-race" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">most expensive</a> political contest in the country in 2018.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The American Beverage Association California PAC is by far the largest contributor to the ballot committee (“<b>Californians for Accountability and Transparency in Government Spending</b>, Sponsored by California Businesses</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”) </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">spearheading the industry’s preemption measure, accounting for <a href="http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1401779&session=2017&view=late1" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">nearly 85 percent</a> ($7 million) of its total reported revenues ($8.3 million) as of June 22, 2018. The <a href="http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1344506&view=received" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">largest contributors</a> to the ABA CA PAC in 2017 and 2018 are Coca-Cola ($3.4million), PepsiCo ($2.6 million), Dr. Pepper Snapple Group ($1.1 million), and Red Bull ($97,312), as of June 22, 2018.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Similarly, all but less than one percent of the <a href="https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/committee?filer_id=YESTA%20%20015&election_year=2018" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$3 million</a> contributed to Washington’s anti-soda tax “Yes! to Affordable Groceries” initiative committee as of June 18, 2018 was contributed by the soda industry: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">47 percent from Coca-Cola, 36 percent from PepsiCo, 15 percent from Dr. Pepper Snapple, and 1 percent from Red Bull. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the committee’s <a href="http://yestoaffordablegroceries.com/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">website</a> prominently features the logos of “supporters” such as Teamsters No. 28, the Washington Food Industry Association, and the Washington Farm Bureau.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In<b> Oregon</b>, the similarly-named “Yes! Keep Our Groceries Tax Free!” initiative committee <a href="https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/cneSearch.do?cneSearchButtonName=search&cneSearchFilerCommitteeId=18809" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">has raised</a> <a href="https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/cneSearch.do?cneSearchButtonName=search&cneSearchFilerCommitteeId=18854" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">over $5.2 million</a>, apparently from retail grocery chains and their regional trade group the Northwest Grocery Association.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Industry efforts in these west-coast states are a “fantastic assault on local democracy, but also on the ability of cities and countries to function,” Pertschuk said. Pertschuk added that California’s initiative in particular “would be so devastating to communities, so far beyond soda taxes, it really would starve communities.”</font></p><hr style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); clear: both; margin: 1em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First published by Salon. a pearson</font></span></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div></div><div>but</div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Washington state</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></span></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Washington lawmakers are considering a bill to increase penalties for people blocking highways and railways, acts that the bill's sponsor has characterized as “economic terrorism.”</font></font></font></font></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></font></font></div></div>