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5 things to know Wednesday

Assault weapons ban; AI technology plagiarism; Extra protections for firefighters; Redmond pop-up dog park; High car prices

WASHINGTON, USA —

Washington state has now banned selling assault weapons

Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill on Tuesday morning that banned the sale, manufacture and import of assault weapons in Washington state.

Washington is now the 10th state in the United States to ban selling assault weapons. 

The House concurred with a floor amendment to House Bill 1240 that was added in the Senate, voting 56-42 to approve it on April 19. The amendment will allow gun manufacturers to sell inventory already in stock prior to Jan. 1, 2023, and only to out-of-state clientele for 90 days after the bill goes into effect. 

The bill does not ban the possession of assault weapons and allows for ownership by law enforcement and military service members, with an exception in cases of inheritance. Read more

Seattle educators navigate plagiarism with AI technology

In Kira Hopkins' 16 years teaching Language Arts to seniors at West Seattle High School, addressing plagiarism is nothing new.

“We’re down to the wire and I haven’t done anything and I have to produce something and this is one way to get something in there,” Hopkins said.

Now, instead of turning to another person’s writing, they’re using sites like ChatGPT which is a large language model. Essentially, you put in a prompt and a computer formulates a written response, like an essay.

ChatGPT is currently blocked on school equipment for students in the Seattle Public Schools District. Read more

Proposal would provide additional protections for Seattle firefighters, personnel on the job

Seattle City Council members will soon vote on whether to approve a measure that would give Seattle Fire Department (SFD) personnel protections under the city's obstruction ordinance. 

Currently, Seattle law makes it a crime to physically interfere with "public officers" responding to emergencies, but it does not explicitly include all firefighters, EMTs and other personnel. 

"Multiple times a day, SFD's EMTs struggle to gain access, again, to the disenfranchised, those struggling with mental health issues, those struggling with substance abuse issues, and more," SFD Assistant Chief Chris Lombard said in his remarks to council members Tuesday. "Incidents and incident scenes are often very chaotic and when EMTs are most focused on the surroundings, they struggle to focus on the patients and to provide the best of patient care, always having to look over their shoulders." Read more

Redmond opens pop-up dog park, seeks input on permanent location

For the first time, the City of Redmond has a space dedicated for dogs to play off-leash. 

The city just opened a pop-up dog park downtown to address the growing demand for dog parks.

“A good percentage of our households have a pet and predominantly dogs in our city,” said the mayor of Redmond, Angela Birney. “So I've seen a great increase with neighbors walking their dogs out where I live and walking around downtown as well with their dogs."

The new fully-fenced half-acre dog park is located at Luke McRedmond Park. Read more

High car prices haven't slowed down in Seattle, dealers say

The car buyer’s market has reached a volatile point over the last year.

New vehicle prices are up 6% year-over-year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor monthly report, and inventory remains relatively low at many dealerships.

In a positive nationwide trend, the price of used vehicles is down 11% since last year. However, that price dip may not be reflected in Seattle.

An auto sales shop owner said cars that he could buy a year ago for $6,000 now cost him $8,000. That leads to higher prices for prospective car buyers. Read more

RELATED: Western Washington Forecast

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