2026 Legislative Interns Announced

The WNPA manages the program with fundraising and program guidance from the WNPA Foundation. Donations can be made to the foundation, a 501(c)3 Federally recognized nonprofit. (Contact [email protected].)

Saul will also be editing for WSU Murrow Fellow Erick Bengel, who covers economic issues in Walla Walla and Columbia counties, including in Waitsburg, Dayton and Burbank. His thesis at Columbia University about a Washington cranberry farmer’s effort to save the West Coast’s fastest-eroding shoreline became the basis of a story published by The Guardian. Bengel will be covering the legislature for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. His content will also be available to WNPA papers. His focus in Olympia will be on legislation affecting Central and Eastern Washington. 

Let us introduce you to 2026 Legislative Interns & their editor!

Annika Hauer

Annika is a third year student at the University of Washington. She is studying journalism and education policy, and her newsroom experience thus far comes from an internship at her home paper, The Renton Reporter, and the University of Washington's robust student paper, The Daily. She plays trombone in the Husky Marching Band, and her favorite thing to do is backpack with her best friends.

Cassie Diamond

Cassie is a senior at the University of Washington double majoring in Journalism and Public Interest Communication and Political Science. She is passionate about telling stories that spread awareness of pressing issues and has a specific interest in political and environmental topics.

Ayeda Masood

Ayeda is a fourth-year student at the University of Washington studying Political Science and Journalism/Public Interest Communication. She writes for The Daily at UW, covering topics ranging from community arts initiatives to campus events, and is excited to continue developing her reporting skills through the Olympia Legislative Internship program. In the future, Ayeda hopes to pursue a career in journalism or public policy.

Editor John Saul

When John B. Saul was 16 years old, he wrote a story on his high school’s basketball team, which appeared in his town’s small weekly newspaper. Seeing his byline on the front page was all it took to convince him that journalism was his career. Since then, he has worked at the Associated Press, one radio station in a short-lived broadcast career and four other newspapers, including 30 years as an editor at The Seattle Times. He received his undergraduate degree in journalism from The Ohio State University and came to Seattle to work on his master’s degree in English at the University of Washington, which he earned in 1981.

He took a buyout from The Times in 2005 and spent seven years teaching reporting, writing and editing at the University of Montana, Seattle University, Everett Community College and in the certificate program at the UW. He headed the Bellevue office for the 2010 United States Census and enlisted as Capt. Barney Kohl as a two-season driver for the Ride the Ducks of Seattle, abandoning that career before the Ducks went under.

In 2012, he returned to The Seattle Times in several temporary posts: editorial writer, Sunday editor, assistant city editor and whatever else The Times wanted him to do. His last day there was Aug. 8, 2022, a day he can’t forget because the next day he came down with COVID and had to cancel a planned 15-day rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (rescheduled and completed in 2023).

Married, one adult child, still likes outdoor activities but could be content with an afternoon of reading. Right now, just starting “Heaven and Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride.