WA Lege Day 9: Another protest plus a full menu of hearings

OLYMPIA — Anti-abortion activists will be at the Capitol today to mark the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The annual protest is usually one of the largest of any session.

Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, is likely to get cheers from the crowd for his announcement that he will hold a hearing on a bill to require parental notification for any woman under 18 seeking an abortion. There's a similar bill in the House, sponsored by Rep. Matt Shea, also R-Spokane Valley; that chamber also has a proposal that would make “the right to life begins at the moment the individual comes into being.”

None of those bills are scheduled for a hearing today, but a wide range of other ideas get an airing on a full day of hearings: labeling seafood; standards for science being used by state agencies; sampling wine and beer in stores and allowing some wine stores to stock craft distillery products; public votes for annexations… and that's just a partial list. For a full list of committee hearings, go inside the blog.

Plus Gov. Jay Inslee and State Attorney General Bob Ferguson are scheduled to report on their talk with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on efforts to avoid a war between the state and the feds on Washington's legalization of marijuana.