YAKIMA, Wash. -- A group of Latino Washingtonians are suing Yakima County over its election structure. They say the county's reaction to the pandemic exposes why the system needs to be reformed.

Countywide voting gives the slight-white majority in the area control, with only one Latino ever serving on the commission two decades ago. Latino residents say the system disenfranchises them.

Bengie Aguilar is a plaintiff and former council member of Sunnyside, located in the Yakima valley.

"Can we call it a democracy if we know in advance that none of our preferred candidates will ultimately be elected?" Aguilar said. "Democracy means government of the people, by the people, for the people - all the people."

The Yakima County commission was given six months to work on changing the system or face a lawsuit under the Washington Voting Rights Act. The Board of Yakima County Commissioners did not respond to a request for comment, but has said in the past that they are willing to work with community members to change elections.

Roxana Norouzi is deputy director at OneAmerica, a plaintiff in this case. She said Yakima County commissioners aren't serving Latino residents' needs.

One example is their response to COVID-19, which has surged in the county. Norouzi said farm owners have failed to provide adequate protective gear, socially distanced lodging and hazard pay, but commissioners have not held them accountable.

"We need Latino representation to fix this problem and we need to elect people with lived immigrant experiences to represent our communities and values," Norouzi said.

Critics of the current system want to see the county implement ranked choice voting, or RCV. Aguilar said voters rank candidates, and if their favorite candidate doesn't have enough support to win the seat, their vote counts for their next favorite candidate.

"In other words, with RCV, your voice is heard," Aguilar said. "This makes it possible for us to create new, diverse and equitable leadership in our county."

She argued it would also save the taxpayers money, since primaries would be eliminated and the county would hold only one election.


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Pride Month during June highlights the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, which have long faced discrimination. People in these communities say they continue to face prejudice in Montana, including in finding a place to live.

Pam Bean, executive director of the nonprofit Montana Fair Housing, said LGBTQ people only recently received a major victory in housing at the federal level.

"Given the fact that it's only been a year-and-a-half that under the Fair Housing Act, it's illegal to discriminate against this population based on gender identity and sexual orientation," she said, "there's a lot of education that still needs to take place with housing providers."

A 2020 report from UCLA found LGBTQ people face significant barriers to finding housing. Young adults in this population experience homelessness at a rate more than twice that of the general public. The number is even higher for people younger than 18.

Bean has noticed that people moving from out of state may not understand some of the landlord-tenant laws in Montana or local city ordinances, and this has led to conflict at times. For instance, she spoke to one renter who hung LGBTQ Pride flags outside his residence.

"He and the housing provider ended up with a very adversarial relationship," she said, "because he didn't realize he had to get permission to be hanging things up on the exterior of the unit."

Bean said it's important to understand the laws governing housing. But she also notes that organizations such as hers can provide dispute resolution between landlords and tenants.

"We can share information with both parties and educate them in regards to the issues at hand," she said, "and hopefully reach a resolution where, particularly in this housing market, the household is able to maintain their housing."

Bean said Montana Fair Housing also can help people file administrative complaints with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, she noted this isn't a speedy process, typically taking months or years to resolve.

There are $1 trillion in the philanthropy sector, but only a small amount of the money goes toward closing racial disparities across the nation.

Edgar Villanueva, author of the book "Decolonizing Wealth," said the sector should rethink how it gives. He pointed out less than a tenth of philanthropic giving goes to nonprofit organizations led by Black, Indigenous or people of color working specifically on issues of racial or social equity.

"We are still kind of thinking of philanthropy and giving in an old-fashioned way that is really about charity, and putting a band-aid on issues," Villanueva contended. "Versus funding organizations who are on the front lines of pushing for more transformative change in our communities, and especially around issues of racial justice."

Villanueva is the keynote speaker at a Montana Nonprofit Association summit this Thursday in Helena.

Villanueva acknowledged his ideas about redistributing money come from Indigenous wisdom about restorative justice. His book introduces seven steps to healing: grieving, apologizing, listening, relating, representing, investing and repairing. He noted the money philanthropic foundations have now, was built in large part on the slave trade and Indigenous land.

"To not return some of that wealth back to the descendants of folks who helped to build this wealth is an injustice, in my point of view," Villanueva asserted. "That's what healing looks like. It is about righting a wrong that would help to close a race/wealth gap that exists in our communities as a result of history."

Villanueva's book includes the story of a North Carolina woman who discovered her wealth came from land taken from Native Americans, and her family owned slaves. He recounted she wrote apology letters to their descendants, and decided to focus her philanthropy on supporting the communities her family had harmed.

"And not only has that been great for the folks who have received that support, but she has been transformed into this person who has just been liberated from sort of the guilt and shame of history that's connected to her family," Villanueva explained.

He added the woman now is one of 500 members of a donor community within the Decolonizing Wealth Project known as Liberated Capital. Four Montana nonprofits have received funding from Liberated Capital.

Villanueva emphasized anyone can make more meaningful choices about the causes they donate to.

"There are small decisions that we can make every day that would really help to address the hundreds of years of marginalization that a lot of our communities have faced," Villanueva concluded.

Saturday is National Drug Take Back Day, and there will be more than 135 events across Wisconsin where folks can dispose of both controlled and noncontrolled prescription drugs.

In part, the annual occasion aims to combat the spread of illicit opioid prescriptions, which have long plagued Wisconsin and the nation.

Josh Kaul, Wisconsin's Attorney General, said at a Stand Up for Recovery Ceremony this week, the state is seeing fewer new opioid prescriptions.

"There has been a significant decline in opioid prescriptions over the last several years," Kaul observed. "That has been really encouraging to see. There is undoubtedly increased awareness that prescriptions can lead to substance-use disorder."

According to a news release, residents can bring e-cigarette devices with the batteries removed,
aerosol sprays, inhalers and pet medications, among other things. Illegal drugs, needles and anything containing a bodily fluid will not be accepted.

While overall new prescriptions may be down, data indicates Wisconsin still struggles with the opioid crisis. According to the state's Department of Health Services, there were more than 1,200 opioid-related deaths in Wisconsin in 2020, the latest full year of available data, the highest annual death count since at least 2014.

Kaul pointed out the pandemic has exacerbated underlying mental-health issues for those working through substance-use disorder.

"The pandemic has led, as we all know, to increased isolation, increased mental-health challenges," Kaul noted. "It has caused many people to lose loved ones as a result of the pandemic, and that has taken a major toll on mental health and on substance-use disorder."

While officials encourage people to dispose of unused prescriptions this weekend, there are nearly 500 permanent drug disposal boxes scattered across the state.