Gary Locke, the state's former governor and the country's current commerce secretary, is the featured guest tonight on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.Really. Spin Control can't make this stuff up. (And if we were going to make stuff up, would this be it? We…
OLYMPIA -- The Legislature has another light day scheduled, with a 10 a.m. start for the House and a noon start for the Senate, with breaks for caucues coming shortly afterward.The House Finance Committee holds a hearing this morning on a plan to give tax…
OLYMPIA -- A bill to offer tax breaks for the construction and outfitting of data centers in rural counties passed the House Tuesday, a day after it passed the Senate. Amendments to allow the tax breaks to be extended to other areas of the state,…
OLYMPIA -- A growing number of legislators say they will refuse the $90 per day they can receive for food and lodging during all or part of the special session.Twenty-one senators, out of the total of 49, have notified the secretary of the Senate they…
OLYMPIA -- Republican leaders of both house in the Legislature showed clear frustration with the pace -- or lack of it -- thus far in the special session.A few minutes after the state Senate recessed for the day, GOP leaders in the House and Senate…
For a little background music today...
President Obama is predicting that Florida State will beat Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament.Obama released his NCAA picks today. He also expects Michigan State and Texas A & M to make it out of Spokane into the Sweet Sixteen.He says Kansas…
OLYMPIA--The Special Session goes into Day 3 with floor, with more than the usual amount of green shirts, blouses and ties on display, and some very bad attempts at an Irish brogue. Some St. Patrick's Day banter is being mixed in with fairly routine morning…
OLYMPIA -- Secretary of State Sam Reed will have cancer surgery Monday in Seattle, his office announced this morning. He's expected to return to work after a brief recovery period.Reed, 69, was diagnosed recently with the early stages of kidney cancer: "Thanks to early detection…
When Census forms arrive in the mail this week, remember, pride may be at stake.In the middle part of the last decade, fears rose that Spokane would lose its rank as Washington's second largest city. But Spokane ended the Aughts (is that what we're calling…
OLYMPIA -- Legislators continue to say "no, thanks" to the $90 per diem they can receive for the special session.Among those who aren't taking it are:Rep. Kevin Parker, R-SpokaneSen. Tracey Eide, D-Des MoinesSen Paull Shin, D-MukilteoSen. Randy Gordon, D-BellevueAdd them to the names reported earlier…
OLYMPIA -- Debate sometimes gets so heated in the Legislature that the honorables mix their metaphors or jumble their allusions.Today's House debate on the Democrats' "Jobs" bill, which asks for $861 million in bonds to do energy refits in schools around the state, was one…
OLYMPIA – Legislators retraced some of their steps Tuesday from the regular session, re-approving some bills that one chamber supported but the other didn’t before time ran out last weekThe House passed an $861 million bond measure to retrofit public schools and make them more…
OLYMPIA -- The House of Representatives resurrected a bill -- and the arguments for and against -- to sell state bonds to pay for energy updates at school.It was one of the earliest bills to pass the House during the regular session, but stalled in…
OLYMPIA-- Both the Senate and House start up around 10 a.m., with some housekeeping stuff, some caucusing and then plans to "run bills."Which is to say vote on them and likely pass them. Because everything "rebooted" for the special session, each house will have to…
The eventual owners of 279 proposed residences in Kendall Yards will not have to pay property taxes on new construction for 12 years.The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5-0 to accept Greenstone Corp.’s application for multifamily tax exemptions on the portion of Kendall Yards…
OLYMPIA – The Legislature picked up Monday where it left off Thursday trying close estimated $2.8 billion hole in the state’s operating budget. Legislative leaders said they were closer to agreeing how much to cut and spend, and how much to raise in taxes, but…
OLYMPIA -- The list of senators refusing their $90 per diem for the special session right now stands at 15 -- 12 Republicans and 3 Democrats.Alphabetically, they are:Randi Becker, R-EatonvilleDon Benton, R-VancouverMike Carrell, R-LakewoodKaren Fraser, D-OlympiaMike Hewitt, R-Walla WallaJanea Holmquist, R-Moses LakeJim Honeyford, R-SunnysideDerek Kilmer,…
OLYMPIA -- Senators have been called into a caucus, where Democratic members at least will hear of discussions that took place over the weekend and talk about plans to re-introduce several "jobs" bills -- proposals designed to boost the economy.Among the jobs bills is an…
OLYMPIA -- The Legislature trundled into its special session at noon with a "pro forma" agenda. For the opening roll call in the Senate, there were just 10 senators on the floor when the call started, although 16 had shown up by the time the…
OLYMPIA -- The Legislature cranks back up at noon today in an effort to pass a supplemental budget. Most of the honorables were given the weekend off, which meant many of them blew town, but some budget negotiators and leaders hung around.Gov. Chris Gregoire called…
OLYMPIA – When the Legislature clattered to a close on Thursday, so much attention was being paid to the budget left undone over the previous 60 days that there wasn’t much left to consider what was done.Talking on your cell phone while driving might get…
OLYMPIA -- It is traditional at the end of a session to pick winners and losers. But with a special session starting Monday, that list seems premature. It seems better, then, to end with a question bandied about Thursday night, between the time the regular…
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling the Legislature back into session starting noon Monday to solve the state's projected $2.8 billion budget shortfall and telling them to do it in seven days.Democratic leaders say ageement, and budget negotiators from both houses will work over…
(First, because it's not from our newspaper archives, I should start with information about the photo: It shows the Howard Street bridge and Havermale and Canada islands, sometime before 1927. There is vacant land southwest of the bridge where the downtown YMCA would be built…
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