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Eye On Olympia archive for Feb. 2007

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 28, 2007




TUESDAY, FEB. 27, 2007

Stirring the pot...

Everett horticulturalist Steve Sarich suprised everyone Tuesday by showing up at a Senate hearing with a small cardboard box that I think said "raspberries" on the side.Raspberries they were not.Sarich, there for a hearing on a bill (SB 6032) to toughen the legal protections for…

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MONDAY, FEB. 26, 2007

FRIDAY, FEB. 23, 2007


Your right to know no...

Attorney General Rob McKenna has memorably described the slow creep of exemptions to public disclosure laws as a coral-like "accretion" that grows slowly, steadily -- and is very hard to get rid of.Former state Rep. Toby Nixon, an outspoken proponent of open government, has compiled…

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WEDNESDAY, FEB. 21, 2007

TUESDAY, FEB. 20, 2007

Speaking of TVW...

"I will expect a level of decorum appropriate for being delivered into someone's living room."That's Rep. Ross Hunter a few minutes ago, warning the standing-room-only crowd -- both fans and foes -- at a NASCAR speedway hearing that they're on live TV.Here are some samples…

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NASCAR track tries to get traction...

Calling it the most important economic development proposal he’d seen in 31 years in Olympia, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen today urged skeptical lawmakers to back a $368 million NASCAR track on the Olympic Peninsula.With the jobs, taxes and tourist dollars the track could bring, Owens…

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FRIDAY, FEB. 16, 2007


Doing away with "smokers need not apply"...

More than a dozen House lawmakers want to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against smokers based on their use of tobacco off the premises and during non-working hours.Two years ago, Washingtonians overwhelmingly banned workplace smoking. Nothing in state law, however, bans an employer…

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THURSDAY, FEB. 15, 2007

"This is why I came to Olympia."

That's freshman Sen. Chris Marr, after the Senate overwhelmingly passed his bill to add tens of thousands of low- and middle-income kids to state-subsidized health coverage over the next two years.Click here to read the full print story.

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Putting their hearts into it...

Valentines' Day promotions:-Sen. Janea Holmquist, who yesterday introduced a bill "to reinstate the voters' first and true love: the blanket primary." (SB 6048) The bill would reinstate the vote-for-anyone-in-any-party primary the state had for decades until a party lawsuit torpedoed it. To avoid a repeat,…

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TUESDAY, FEB. 13, 2007


MONDAY, FEB. 12, 2007

Meanwhile, on the other side of the issue...

Social conservatives are trying to appeal to an even higher-net-worth power, it turns out.Joe Fuiten, president of the politically-active group Positive Christian Agenda, has sent out an alert to members asking them to immediately take action on Senate Bill 5336:"WE DO NOT HAVE THE VOTES…

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THURSDAY, FEB. 8, 2007

You now own a railroad...

After years of often-rancorous negotiation with a Kansas-based rail operator, the state has agreed to buy a 108-mile stretch of rail line between Cheney and Coulee City.The purchase price is about $5.6 million, according to Mark Blazer, senior vice president for the western region of…

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WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7, 2007

TUESDAY, FEB. 6, 2007

Fueling concern...

As a lot of western Washingtonians discovered last month, when the lights go out, so do the gas pumps. Wind storm damage that left some neighborhoods without power for a week left some drivers desperately searching for powered stations to fuel up their cars."There was…

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MONDAY, FEB. 5, 2007

Keep studying, kids...

"I'm not interested. I'm not interested. I am not interested."---Gov. Chris Gregoire, when asked what she thinks of some lawmakers' proposal to delay not just the graduation requirement that high schoolers pass the math portion of the Washington Assessement of Student Learning, but the reading…

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Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.



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