The Washington business community’s intense pushback against new taxes, and partial concurrence of Gov. Bob Ferguson, seem to lower chances that a journalism grant program will be approved by the Legislature.

But the lead sponsor, Sen. Marko Liias, said hope is not lost.

Liias told me on Wednesday that there’s still a chance that Senate Bill 5400 will pass and the $20 million yearly grant program, funded by a tax surcharge on tech platforms, is included in the final budget.

“It’s still alive and sort of in the mix along with a bunch of other stuff that’s out there,” the Edmonds Democrat said.

The grant program would be administered by the state Department of Commerce and help sustain the local news industry.

Professional news outlets — digital, print and broadcast — would receive grants of potentially $13,000 to $15,000 per full-time journalist. The program is designed so the state would have no influence over news coverage.

The effect of these grants would be especially significant at smaller news outlets serving rural and suburban areas, where they would cover a larger portion of the newsroom payroll.

A state fiscal note estimated 150 to 250 outlets would be eligible. With 250 recipients and $20 million available, the average outlet would receive $76,740 after administrative costs, it said.

Because SB 5400 would create a surcharge for the grants, it wouldn’t take money from other programs. The fiscal note said it won’t impact state budgets.

Liias said he recently talked about the measure with the Senate budget lead, Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, and heard that “it’s not a priority but it’s not dead.”

How can SB 5400 be advanced, amid the larger debate over filling multibillion-dollar gaps in the state budget, whether and where to slow spending and who will bear the brunt?

Liias suggests that people who want to see the state support local journalism jobs contact their legislators.

“A lot of our emails right now are form letters and form emails,” he said, “so when we get authentic, real people communicating about real things that matter to them, that is important.”

Local news champion: The American Journalism Project posted a moving tribute to John Thornton, a Texas venture capitalist and exemplary champion of local news who died Saturday.

Thornton founded The Texas Tribune, a standout nonprofit outlet, and co-founded the AJP, which has raised more than $225 million and supports 50 nonprofit newsrooms in 36 states, per its April 1 announcement.

Modest Trump bump: About seven in 10 Americans are closely following news about the Trump administration, which is up slightly from the 66% who paid close attention during the first year of the Biden administration, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

It also found that four in 10 Americans are paying more attention to political news since President Donald Trump was elected, with Democrats slightly more likely to say they’re paying more attention.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the survey found 64% of Americans believe the relationship between Trump and the news media is bad, even though they’re hearing less about that relationship than they did at the start of his previous term.

The survey was done before Trump dropped the tariff bombshell. It may be time for a do-over.

Problematic Oregon ruling: A federal appeals court ruling in a case involving Nike “raises serious First Amendment issues for Oregon journalists who intervene in lawsuits to unseal court records,” Therese Bottomly, The Oregonian’s executive editor, wrote in a column.

The ruling, over material inadvertently sent to the newspaper and its involvement in the case, could prevent news organizations from reporting on newsworthy material they receive and create a disincentive for news outlets to join legal battles on behalf of the public, she wrote.

AI news stumbles: Bloomberg’s recent experiments with AI-generated news haven’t always gone smoothly, The New York Times reported, with the business news behemoth having to correct at least three dozen AI-generated article summaries published this year.

Quoted: “Whether fact-checking flourishes or founders in the coming years depends on whether enough of us are willing to fight back against those who claim the truth is whatever they say it is. We have to insist on evidence, on facts, on integrity. If we want a society that respects truth, now is our time to fight for it,” Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, wrote in an essay marking International Fact Checking Day on Wednesday.

AI economics don’t work for publishers: That’s according to Jacob Cohen Donnelly at A Media Operator, who writes that media companies cutting deals with AI platforms may be selling themselves short but it’s understandable given how platforms are stealing content.

“With a steal first, ask forgiveness later policy, media companies are hoping to get anything they can from tech companies. But by accepting that money, you’re effectively forgiving the theft of your content and accepting far less than the content is worth,” he wrote Monday.

Google not feeling lucky, eh?: Canada’s competition bureau slammed Google in a court filing, “accusing the company of seeking to mask its alleged anticompetitive conduct,” the Financial Post reported. The bureau has alleged Google is abusing its dominant position, discouraging competition, inhibiting innovation, inflating advertising costs and reducing publisher revenues, per the report.

House Dems investigate: Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced an investigation into FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s “attacks on the First Amendment and his weaponization of the independent agency,” including his “illegally targeting broadcast networks and media companies perceived to be unfavorably covering the Trump administration.”

This is excerpted from the free, weekly Voices for a Free Press newsletter. Sign up to receive it at the Save the Free Press website, st.news/SavetheFreePress. Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley is the editor of the Free Press Initiative, which aims to inform the public about issues facing newspapers, local news coverage, and a free press. You can learn more about the Free Press Initiative, or sign up for a newsletter, at https://company.seattletimes.com/save-the-free-press/.