OLYMPIA -- This is B-Day in Olympia. The rank and file members of the Legislature, those not involved in budget negotiations, are being briefed on the state's $32 billiion general operating budget at 9 a.m., and the general public gets its first look at 10 a.m.

Read fast, because a vote in the House could come later in the day. No hearings. Not necessary, say legislative leaders, we've seen it all before. This is standard operating procedure, they add.

Why the rush? After all, it took legislative leaders 133 days to settle on the right way to spend $32 billion of our money over the next two years. Well, for one thing, they're running out of time...

It's day Day 29 of the 30-Day Special Session. Ordinarily, we'd do some fun calculations with fractions. But 29 is a prime number, so there's no smaller fraction that it can be reduced to.

Percentage-wise, when they finish today (or probably tonight), 96.6 percent of the special session will be history.

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