Govenor-elect Inslee addresses a legislative preview session. OLYMPIA – The Legislature should consider a wide range of options in a search to increase gun safety and reduce the threat of violence, Governor-elect Jay Inslee said Thursday. “There is no panacea, no one solution,” Inslee said…
OLYMPIA -- If state universities want to raise tuition, the Legislature will have to approve it, a letter from a state attorney to a state senator says. The presidents of the state's six public universities recently told legislative leaders they could freeze tuition for two…
Former Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard will lead downtown Spokane main business group. The Downtown Spokane Partnership announced today that Richard started this week as the organization’s new president. In September, the partnership’s board fired then-president Mike Tedesco, who earned $95,000 a year in the…
OLYMPIA -- Governor-elect Jay Inslee selected the leader of the state Senate's Budget Committee staff as his new budget director. Inslee told his transition team today that he would appoint David Schumacher as the director of the Office of Financial Management, making him the incoming…
Fairchild Air Force Base is one of several bases on a short list for receiving the nation's newest air refueling tanker. Senate sources confirmed the West Plains base is on a list of possible locations for the first KC-46A refueling jets when they roll off…
It's a small step, perhaps, but the nation's drug czar is reiterating President Obama's comments on having conversations between the federal government and states that have legalized marijuana like Washington has. Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, was responding…
Congress is not popular. That's not news. But when Public Policy Polling decided to test just how unpopular it is, the firm may have found a way to make news at Congress's expense. It surveyed 830 Americans, asking them "Do you have a more favorable…
Sen. Pam Roach was named a committee chairwoman last month by the new "coalition majority" but it would seem she stil has some 'splaining to do for the way she treats staff, The Associated Press is reporting. Here's Rachel La Corte's account just filed this…
The Spokane City Council on Monday selected attorney Brian T. McGinn as the city’s new hearing examiner. He will replace Greg Smith who is retiring and has worked for the city since 1977. He has been the hearing examiner for more than 20 years, said…
OLYMPIA – Washington residents have suggestions for how the state should write new rules to grow legal marijuana. Hundreds of them. Some want the state Liquor Control Board, which is trying to come up with those rules, to keep out the large corporations. Others want…
OLYMPIA – Elections are designed to place a punctuation mark on political disputes. Sometimes it’s a full-stop period; other times, more of comma, pausing to allow one to take a breath before the argument continues. That seems the case with Initiative 502, which as most…
OLYMPIA -- Washington state are about two-thirds of the way down the list when one considers how much of their income they pay for state and local taxes. This according to the folks in charge of collecting the taxes, so they should know, right. The…
John Smith, a Colville-area farmer and businessman, was appointed by Northeastern Washington county commissioners to replace Bob Morton, who retired at the beginning of the year from his post as 7th District state Senator. Click here to read colleague Mike Prager's coverage on the appointment.…
OLYMPIA – Almost every year for more than a decade, Washington’s premier proponent of initiatives, Tim Eyman, has had a ballot measure to promote, and 2013 is no exception. This year’s initiative topic: initiatives. Eyman and other supporters of Initiative 517 filed petitions with more…
Supporters of I-522 wheel signed petitions into the Secretary of State's offfice on Thursday. OLYMPIA -- The state's voters are likely to be asked next ffice.all whether food that contains genetically modified organisms must say so on its label to be sold in Washington. Supporters…
OLYMPIA -- Governor-elect Jay Inslee began filling out his executive office staff today, naming a director of his legislative office, his press office and a "senior advisor." Ted Sturdevant, currently the director of the state Department of Eclology, was named Inslee's executive director for legislative…
This week’s votes to keep income tax rates from rising for most Americans split the House delegations in Washington and Idaho, but unified the two state’s senators behind the last-minute deal. Two Washington Democrats in the House voted against the tax changes, while the state’s…
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