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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Olympia

Amateur dams and broken hearts…

Going through an inch-thick stack of stuff at my office while I watch the Senate (and wait for the House) on Monday night...Let's see....

--The state Department of Ecology is trying to take stock of nearly 150 small dams and similar structures "built without pre-approved plans" across the state. The dams, spotted in aerial photos, apparently hold at least 3 million gallons of water each and are upstream from 1-2 homes. Last year, the agency inspected nearly 100 "possible high hazard" dams, 11 of which needed immediate repairs.

What kind of dams? They hold back water for frost control at farms, for small ponds for swimming and fishing or lagoons for manure and dairy wastewater.

Where are they: Yakima County has 20, Grant County 15, and Franklin and Skagit counties 8 each. The rest are sprinkled throughout the state.

--Attorney General Rob McKenna's tech arm is going after a Seattle company that McKenna says has been continuing to run "misleading come-ons" to lonely people.

"Tatto Media will pay for its broken hearts and broken promises," McKenna said in a press release. He says that the company violated an agreement last year in which it agreed not to pretend that some local person has a romantic interest in a computer user. McKenna said the company will pay $487,272 in civil penalties under a new settlement filed last week in King County Superior Court.



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