OLYMPIA – Openness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder for government officials. This is clear in the discussions – some might call them grumblings – of proposed raises for state employees included in Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed budget after contract negotiations between his staff and the heads of the employees’ unions.
OLYMPIA -- Legislators are honoring the Washington National Guard for its members' service, and the Seattle Seahawks for their season thus far. Many of them are in some form of Seahawks attire, as the dress rules have been loosened for the day.
OLYMPIA – Government agencies failed to react fast enough to smaller fires that grew last July into the largest wildfire in state history, Central Washington residents told legislators. While DNR supervisors defended efforts to battle the Carlton Complex, Okanogan officials accused them of being disorganized and ill-prepared.
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Jay Inslee and Lt. Gov. Brad Owen have made bets with their counterparts on the outcome of the Super Bowl. If you care, click on the story.
OLYMPIA -- A House committee takes up questions about the state's early response to the fires that turned into the Carlton Complex and the full House votes on Joel's Law.
Envision Spokane, a wide-ranging initiative that twice failed at the polls, will be before voters again, after a decision today by a state appellate court. A unanimous decision by the court ruled today ruled against the 2013 decision by a Superior Court judge to remove...
OLYMPIA – Eastern and Western Washington are so different they should be two separate states, says a new bill that would set up a way to split them apart. Sound familiar? Maybe that's because legislators from east of the Cascades have been saying it – and trying to find a way to divvy up the state – for at least 100 years.
OLYMPIA -- Concealing the source of a campaign contribution would be a felony under a bill up for a hearing in a House committee. A group of Eastern Washington legislators suggest splitting the state in two.
Who said political columns can't start internet movements? OK, probably no one said that, but it happened here. It turns out a tongue-in-cheek column by our own Doug Clark has inspired a group of conservative Spokanites to launch an "8th Man" Facebook page. Clark's piece...
Yesterday, we brought you the story that Liberty Lake had lifted its moratorium on recreational marijuana. Here are the locations where pot shops/farms/processors could locate.
A letter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord has begun arriving at marijuana stores around the state, telling owners that service members are banned from their premises.
The laws governing where recreational marijuana businesses can locate in Spokane County were made permanent Tuesday with a unanimous vote by the Board of County Commissioners.
OLYMPIA – Rob Chase wouldn't have been elected Spokane County treasurer under changes the Legislature is considering to the state’s write-in candidate laws. He got about 2 percent of the vote as a write-in against Skip Chilberg; a new proposal would raise the threshold to 5 percent.
From the city: Business and Developer Service Director Jan Quintrall, who has led improvements to customer service and investment in the city, announced today that she will leave the City of Spokane. Mayor David Condon named Scott Simmons interim director to replace Quintrall, whose responsibilities…
Spokane Mayor David Condon appeared on the MSNBC show Sports Matters to discuss the Seahawks, the Super Bowl and Spokane's pride in the team from the other side of the state. Condon appears about four minutes in: Condon was on the show with Mayor Rodney...
OLYMPIA -- University of Washington doesn't object to another medical school in Spokane, as long as Washington State University doesn't get to keep nearly $6 million in state money for the current program, UW officials told legislators this morning.
OLYMPIA -- A bill that would give Washington State University the authority to have its own medical school gets a hearing in the House Higher Education Committee this morning.
OLYMPIA – Raising Washington’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2019 was described Monday as too much for some businesses and not enough for some workers.
OLYMPIA -- Adding return postage for the state's all-mail balloting system could cost about $2.7 million over the next two years. But supporters say it may remove a barrier that keeps the poor from voting.
OLYMPIA -- It's a potpourri of issues at legislative hearings today, including election law changes, a $12 minimum wage and restrictions on powdered alcohol.
Last week’s hearing on changes to the state’s medical and recreational marijuana was enough to make someone who has covered pot hearings for parts of five decades sense a cosmic shift.
OLYMPIA -- A relatively slow Friday in the capital, but a bill with major changes to the drunk or drugged driving laws gets its first hearing in the House Public Safety Committee.
OLYMPIA -- WSU and UW official don't object to each others' plans for medical education in Spokane...as long as it doesn't get in the way of their proposals.
OLYMPIA -- The presidents of Washington State University and the University of Washington will explain each institution's plans for medical school expansion in Spokane this afternoon.
The Spokesman-Review's political team keeps a critical eye on local, state and national politics.
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