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The Washington state Senate fired Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson on Feb. 5 by refusing to confirm her — some three years after she was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee.

It could be awhile before U.S. Highway 12 in Washington state reopens after a deluge of rain triggered washouts and rockfalls that closed a 27-mile section of the highway over White Pass on Dec. 10.

The Washington state Legislature passed a $16.1 billion transportation funding plan earlier this month that would raise the gas tax to fund key infrastructure projects.

A second lane has been opened on Washington’s Route 530, the timber highway buried by a mudslide in March that killed 42 people.