All eyes are on Texas as Republicans work to draw new congressional districts ahead of

26. But the battle for control of Congress runs through Southwest Washington, home to one of the

most competitive districts in the country. And that's where incumbent Marie Glucent-Camp

Perez has a new challenger. He's the Republican leader in the state Senate. Meet John Braun,

a moderate who could deliver the third district in the state Senate. Meet John Braun, a moderate who could

deliver the third district to the GOP this week on sound politics wherever you get your podcasts.

Good afternoon. From the KUOW Newsroom, this is Seattle Now. I'm Paige Browning.

Coming up, Monsanto owes kids and their parents for exposing them to harmful chemicals in certain Washington classrooms.

But first, we've got the roundup on today's top stories. It's Thursday, January 16th.

People held in immigrant detention could start making minimum wage after years of making pocket change.

A federal court decided today that people held at the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma

need to get minimum wage if they do any work.

Gustavo Suggero reports.

Detainees at the Tacoma facility have done jobs like preparing food, scrubbing showers,

cleaning floors. Geo Group, which runs the facility, paid them a dollar a day until a lawsuit

2017 challenged that. Now a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge has ruled Geo Group is required

to pay detained workers the state's

minimum wage and backpay of millions of dollars to former detainees. The ruling points out it's

part of the original contract with the federal government to follow state laws that includes minimum

wage laws. Geo Group is a private for-profit business with stocks that reached an all-time high this

week.

The spokesperson says they still believe that detainees who do work for them are not employees and plan to appeal the ruling.

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