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The Washington state Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to make harassing election workers a felony, three months after four county election offices received envelopes containing suspicious powder — including three testing positive for fentanyl — and had to be evacuated.

Russia’s main security agency said on Tuesday that it had arrested a dual citizen of Russia and the United States on accusations of committing state treason by raising funds for Ukraine.

The Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B., identified the detainee as a 33-year-old woman who lives in Los Angeles. It said in a statement that she had raised money for a Ukrainian organization that bought weapons and other equipment for Ukraine’s military.

Perviy Otdel, a group of Russian lawyers who specialize in cases involving accusations of treason and other politically charged allegations, said that the woman had been accused of treason for sending just over $50 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based nonprofit organization that sends assistance to the country.

The F.S.B. said that the woman had been arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg in central Russia. RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, published a video that it said showed the woman, wearing a white hat that covered her eyes, being handcuffed and escorted by masked security service officers.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Sidney Powell and other lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump over $150,000 in sanctions they were ordered to pay for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in Michigan.

The justices did not comment in leaving in place the sanctions against seven lawyers who were part of the lawsuit filed on behalf of six Republican voters after Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory over Trump in the state.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a major property-rights challenge to rent control laws in New York City and elsewhere that give tenants a right to stay for many years in an apartment with a below-market cost.

A group of New York landlords had sued, contending the combination of rent regulation and long-term occupancy violated the Constitution’s ban on the taking of private property for public use.

The justices had considered the appeal since late September. Only Justice Clarence Thomas issued a partial dissent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected appeals from three Republican U.S. House members who challenged fines for not wearing face coverings on the House floor in 2021.

The justices did not comment on leaving in place $500 fines issued in May 2021 to U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

A group of five cyclists were riding on a trail in Fall City, Wash., when they were attacked by at least one cougar this past weekend.

The incident occurred on Saturday around 12:30 p.m., according to the King County Sheriff's Office, in a wilderness area along Tokul Creek approximately five miles north of the city of Snoqualmie.

A 60-year-old female was hospitalized for non-life threatening injuries, but is in stable condition, according to a statement from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

A group of five cyclists were riding on a trail in Fall City, Wash., when they were attacked by at least one cougar this past weekend.

The incident occurred on Saturday around 12:30 p.m., according to the King County Sheriff's Office, in a wilderness area along Tokul Creek approximately five miles north of the city of Snoqualmie.

A 60-year-old female was hospitalized for non-life threatening injuries, but is in stable condition, according to a statement from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).

TORONTO (AP) — A flight heading from Toronto to New York City earlier this month had to turn around because of a “burnt electrical smell” in the cockpit.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Endeavor Air Flight 4826 left Toronto’s Pearson International Airport the morning of Feb. 3 and was headed to JFK airport in New York when the flight crew declared an emergency.

The safety board said the crew was investigating the smell on the Bombardier twin-engine jet when the captain’s-side windshield electrical heater control unit began emitting sparks and flames.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is investigating the cause of a crash of an American military surveillance drone off the coast of Yemen Monday morning, two U.S. officials said.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that the drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, fell out of the sky. Iranian-backed Houthi militants said on Monday that they had downed the drone near the port city of Hodeida, in western Yemen.

OLYMPIA — Democratic leaders in the Washington Legislature said Friday they would not act on a citizen initiative that would let Washingtonians opt out of a payroll tax that funds a state long-term care insurance program, meaning the question will very likely go directly to the November ballot.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, also said Friday they would hold hearings on three other citizen initiatives later this month.

Their announcement means that legislators have now laid out publicly what the next steps will be for the slate of six initiatives filed and sponsored by the state Republican Party chair, Jim Walsh, and bankrolled by Redmond businessman Brian Heywood.

With each initiative, the Legislature has several options. They could do nothing, in which case the initiative would go directly to the ballot in November. They could pass an alternative policy to appear alongside the initiative on the ballot. Or they could pass the initiative into law.

Billig and Jinkins said earlier this week that they wouldn’t hold hearings on efforts to repeal the state’s capital gains tax and its carbon market, both recently established by legislation and both big drivers of the state’s revenue growth. Altogether that means they’re not acting on three initiatives, which means those three will almost surely be go before voters, but they could act on the three others.

“The three initiatives we are not taking action on would have a dire effect on the day to day lives of every single Washingtonian,” Billig and Jinkins said in a joint statement Friday. “These initiatives would dramatically decrease quality of life and devastate progress on K-12 education, child care, clean air, clean water, climate action, and aging with dignity — matters that are important to people across the state.”

The three other initiatives that lawmakers do plan to hold public hearings on would lift some restrictions on when police can chase suspects, require parents of public school students to be able to review curriculum and be notified of their student’s medical care, and bar the state and local governments from imposing an income tax.

Two Seattle police officers have been given a day off without pay for their lackadaisical response to a priority report of a shooting at a Sodo nightclub.

Fake IDs have been very helpful in giving defectors in China some peace of mind. But now that even these are disappearing, many defectors are growing increasingly pessimistic about their undocumented status and inability to travel freely.

“Defectors in China are feeling increasingly insecure,” the source said. “The only way for them to live safely is to go to South Korea, but since even that option is now far too difficult, the psychological strain they are suffering is growing.”