Long story short, I live in Tacoma, we recently missed my husband's re-enrollment for health insurance through his job due to a really stupid clerical error, and my work insurance is bad and super expensive. I'm pregnant, due in March, so it is vital we get back on some form of insurance asap.

Everyone I've talked to recommended we get on Apple Healthcare. I submitted an application and we got denied due to being over the income limit, which is apparently only like, $2300 for a two-income household??? Like... excuse me, what the fuck? That's only a few hundred dollars more than my rent, which is actually pretty cheap for my area. I mean I know we could have it a lot worse, but my family definitely struggles to make ends meet and we make quite a bit more than that income limit, and it all goes to rent, groceries, and bills, we don't have any savings or extra spending money. I'm just kind of bewildered and genuinely don't understand how really anyone qualifies for these limits, let alone people at my work who make way more than me and told me they've had Apple Healthcare. Am I missing something? Did I do it wrong? Am I crazy?

The federal workforce has been continually recieving harrassing emails from Elon Musk's DOGE department, attempting to grind us down and demoralize us. Veterans make up a significant portion of the federal workforce. We cant let this bullying continue to our vital civil servants.

Lastly if you get the voicemail on their Washington D.C. office, then call the local offices here in WA state. Your voice matters and it only takes a couple minutes to be heard.

Fight for veterans and fight for federal workers.

Below is a prewritten speech. r/fednews has more details on how we are being treated.

"I want to address the unacceptable emails reportedly sent through OPM, calling federal employees "low-productivity workers." This is not just unprofessional—it’s an insult to the dedicated public servants who keep this country running.

Washington State relies heavily on the federal workforce, and a significant portion of that workforce is made up of veterans—men and women who have already served this nation in uniform and continue to do so in civilian roles. This harassment is a deliberate attempt to demoralize them, to push them out of their jobs. And frankly, it’s unpatriotic.

This has to stop. They will not be intimidated, and they will not be driven away from serving their country.

Thank you."

I know this place closed in 21or22. Does anyone know what happened to the owner?

I am currently seeking to connect with individuals who experienced foster care in Washington State. Having personally aged out of the foster care system, I am collaborating with state legislators to advance legislation safeguarding the rights of foster children. Please direct message me for further information and to explore opportunities to advocate for future foster youth.

Just got off the phone with my case handler at Kaiser, she has talked with her bosses, and nothing has changed about their gender care program since trump's executive orders. She is still working with teenagers and has experienced no issues.

Someone comes through my block regularly, checking the handles of car doors in our driveways, and committing petty theft. Over the summer, my dad had $40 cash and an extra pair of prescription glasses stolen. The other night, I accidentally set my car alarm; I normally just lock my door. The car alarm went off around 3-4am. By the time I went to investigate, I didn’t see anyone. So I set my car alarm the next night. It went off again! I think someone that lives nearby literally checks our cars every single night.

What can I do about this? Set up a camera? Do a stake out and use some sort of defensive weapon, if allowed, like pepper spray, etc.? If I see someone trying to get into my car on my driveway, what am I legally allowed to do? I’m sick of deadbeats compromising our suburban neighborhood.

I’m posting here because I figure people will know the state laws on this.

It’s the last document I need to get our taxes filed. I can see one from a few years ago online was posted early January of that filing year, but nothing yet for this one. Hasn’t shown up by mail. I want to get our taxes finished and forget about it.

Just curious to know if anyone else has received theirs or if they’re able to access them online yet?

I work for WSDOT, and it might surprise people to know that the agency is currently in the process of slowly adopting and transferring all of our transportation project design and construction files into Oracle's Primavera Unifier system (all projects state-wide). Unifier is a cloud-based file storage and sharing system that will eventually host the entire agency's files and digital data, eventually replacing local data servers run by the state's IT department (WaTech).

What this means is all state transportation projects will eventually rely solely on this single Oracle program for design and construction. If the program goes down, internet access is broken, or Oracle decides to shut down Unifier for the state, it would essentially cripple all of our critical taxpayer funded transportation projects state-wide.

To my understanding, like with other WSDOT vendors such as Microsoft, there was no competitive bidding process for Oracle to get this work, the state selected Unifier as it's sole vendor becuase its used heavily in the private construction industry.

Naturally, with Oracle Corp being one of the major backers of Project 2025 (they were contracted to compile a comprehensive database of far-right political appointees to replace federal workers) and with Oracle's Billionaire CEO Larry Ellison being a major major backer of Trump... this really isn't a good idea to give one far-right corporation so much control over our states sensitive and critical design and construction data. If access to Unifier was lost once the transition to it is complete, we would lose all access to all of the files needed to design and build our projects and projects would all grind to a halt. There will be no local backups of those files once it's fully integrated.

So perhaps a good way for us to fight back against Trump and the oligarchy taking shape, is to urge our new Governor and our Legislature to get WSDOT and the state, in general, to divest from Oracle and look for alternatives that do not rely on far-right companies working to undermine our country and democracy.

Just a thought because with the way things are going, I could totally see Trump leaning on Oracle to cut off access to our files and grind our projects to a halt until we give into their demands.

Edit: forgot to mention this will eventually also include all internal agency documents and files that are unrelated to projects. They even want Outlook, Microsoft Office etc. to run thru Unifier, literally everything. 🙄

Also, thanks to u/Sirspeedy77, submit comments to Governor Ferguson here: https://governor.wa.gov/contacting-governor/contacting-governors-office/send-gov-ferguson-e-message

Link to WSDOT Unifier Project page (note it says just construction offices will switch over, but the plan is for all design offices to also make the switch): https://wsdot.wa.gov/business-wsdot/contracts/about-public-works-contracts/payments-reporting/unifier-contract-management-software

We need to rise up and show the country this is unacceptable! We all need to show up for what is right!

Not sure if this is the right sub, but since a Committed Intimate Relationship (CIR) is specific to Washington maybe it might be.

My gf and I have been together for 4 years, lived together for 3. We just moved to Washington and want to buy a house later this year. I want to use my VA loan to purchase a home for us and reap the benefits it’s provides such as the no down payment, reduced interest rates, no PMI, etc. We don’t want to get married yet because we want it to be on a specific date, have a specific type of wedding, and basically have it be more special than simply doing it the courthouse way. This leads me to the CIR.

Would being in a CIR be sufficient enough to use a VA loan? Google search says the VA will recognize an alternative marriage like relationship if the state also recognizes it as marriage. I was also looking into domestic partnership but it has an age limit of 62 years old and we are well below that. Any help would be appreciated!