skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

90 Years of WA Women’s Political Clout

play audio
Play

Thursday, February 11, 2010   

SEATTLE - The League of Women Voters is 90 years old on Valentine's Day. One of its senior members in Washington - Peg Williams of Seattle - already turned 90 in November, a few days after the last presidential election. Williams was raised in New York, but moved across the country to Washington as a young mother in the 1970s.

Williams says League membership has helped her keep up with politics over the years, because members set aside their partisan political affiliations to study the issues and take positions on them as a group. In Washington, she notes, that's not as difficult as some might assume.

"The thing I noticed when I came to Washington State was that the legislature is approachable. You can call 'em up or you go to some meeting where you could meet them, or even go down to the legislature. I didn't have that feeling in New York."

This year in Olympia, the League is supporting 13 bills, watching six others and opposing further cuts to the state's supplemental budget.

In national politics, Williams says the most exciting election for her so far was in 1944, when Franklin Roosevelt won his fourth term as president over Republican challenger Thomas Dewey. She was just a toddler when her mother first got the right to vote in 1920. She chuckles as she describes how her father felt about it - he wasn't thrilled, she says.

"He was pretty much of a free thinker, but he thought that if women got to vote, it would only mean that married men would get two votes. That was his take on women voting!"

League members range in age from their 20s to a few centenarians. Williams says today's biggest challenge is getting busy young people - women or men - involved in the organization.

"It's really important, because League of Women Voters requires really putting your mind to things and working at them. And whatever League can do only happens because of the volunteer efforts that go into it."

Information about the League of Women Voters of Washington is available at www.lwvwa.org.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

Social Issues

play sound

Women are treated much differently than men by the criminal justice system, according to a new report detailing how and why mass incarceration is …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021