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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Olympia

Initiatives blooming in the January rains…

Ballot measures are blossoming this year, with more than two dozen potential initiatives to the people filed so far.

Among them, of course, are former Gov. Booth Gardner's death-with-dignity assisted suicide measure and Tim Eyman's anti-traffic-congestion proposal.

Less known so far is the proposal by Steilacoom's Michael J. Amaral to require mandatory CPR and first aid classes for anyone getting a driver's permit. Or two proposals from animal-rights advocate Jennifer Hillman: One deals with confinement of certain farm animals, the other specifically with confinement conditions for egg-laying hens. (All these measures are a little hard to describe right now, since the full texts aren't yet posted on the Secretary of State's ballot measures page.)

But doing more than his part for direct democracy in 2008 is a Tacoma man named David Hensaw.

Henshaw has singlehandedly filed 10 distinct measures this year. (To get them on the ballot, he would have to gather more than 2.2 million signatures. By July.) Among the topics of Henshaw's proposals:

-embryo transfer, the Geneva Convention, gun safety, truth in lobbying, lying to start a war, eliminating car tabs, torture being defined as a crime, selling votes, "work and pay", cutting in line while driving, requiring a 5-year warranty on all new products, and basing fines on income.



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