OLYMPIA -- Legislative committees have a potpourri of issues today, including hearings on bills that would do away with the requirement to put art in public buildings if those buildings are prisons or the facility for sexual offendersat McNeil Island.

That's in the Senate Human Services and Corrections hearing at 10 a.m. At about the same time, the House State Government Committee will be talking about changes to the public records laws.

This afternoon, the House General Government Appropriations Committee is taking up Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposal to cut funding for the Eastern Washington Historical Society and the Washington Historical Society, cuts that would essentially put Spokane's Museum of Arts and Culture and the state Museum in Tacoma in mothballs.

Senate Long Term Care has scheduled a 1:30 p.m.  hearing on new rules for the medical use of marijuana that would make it easier for patients to get supplies.  It's probably no coincidence that the Washington Cannabis Society has a press conference at 3 p.m.

It's also Black Thursday, the day when motorcyclists come to Olympia to lobby for legislation. The roar of Harley Davidsons is currently shaking the Capitol campus.

And House Ways and Means, the taxing and spending panel, continues hearings this afternoon.

 

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