The Seahawks are being invited to the White House next Wednesday for some presidential atta-boys. The White House announced President Obama will honor the team for their Super Bowl victory and "for their efforts to give back to their communities." Perhaps he'll also thank Richard…
In a sign that politics abhors a vacuum almost as much as nature, an open seat in Central Washington’s 4th Congressional District has drawn eight candidates with two days left in the state’s filing week. State Sen. Janéa Holmquist Newbry, R-Moses Lake, on Wednesday afternoon…
OLYMPIA – Washington has gained back the jobs it lost during the Great Recession and sees its employment slowly expanding. Figures released Wednesday by the state Employment Security Department put the state unemployment rate at 6.1 percent, down two-tenths of 1 percent from March and…
Spokane city officials will hold six public meetings this month on their plan to refinance bonds to raise money for street maintenance and the proposed Riverfront Park Master Plan. The proposal involves refinancing three older bond issues, paying them off and raising an extra $25…
Central Washington's 4th Congressional District continues to attract candidates Tuesday with seven would-be representatives filing for the seat being vacated by Doc Hastings. . . To read the rest of this item, or to comment, click to continue inside the blog.
OLYMPIA -- The agency that manages state forest lands will ask whether it's legal to declare a moratorium on timber harvests near landslide areas. The Forest Practices Board, which sets rules for harvesting timber, will also review those rules "with a particular eye to public…
Russian President Vladimir Putin took to the ice over the weekend for a hockey game and scored six goals. Makes you wonder how they kept Putin off Russia's Olympic hockey team, although he was probably too busy planning the annexation of Crimea to practice regularly.…
A noon-time campaign event by state Sen. Michael Baumgartner brought several Republicans into the Spokane County Elections Office on the first day of filing week. State Reps. Jeff Holy of Cheney and Leonard Christian of Spokane Valley joined Baumgartner in filing their paperwork and paying…
Washington residents with political ambitions have until Friday afternoon to make them official by filing for office. Voters will elect 10 members of the U.S. House, half the state Senate, the full state House, four state Supreme Court justices and many county executive posts in…
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton wrote recently to say that at the urging of a legislator she had delved deeper into state election law than when we last spoke, and discovered state law does not require candidates to list the office or position they are…
The Third Legislative District's delegation will hold a gathering something between a town hall and a coffee klatch Monday afternoon. Dubbed a "mobile office" meeting, Sen. Andy Billig and Reps. Timm Ormsby and Marcus Riccelli will be at Indaba Coffee, 1425 W. Broadway to give…
The Tea Party is outraged at President Obama. And it's not about the fact that he was born in Kenya or that Obamacare is assembling death panels to kill our grandparents or he's issuing orders to send all gun owners to FEMA camps. Or any…
OLYMPIA -- Ted Sturdevant, the head of Gov. Jay Inslee's legislative affairs and policy office, will step down at the end of June. In an e-mail to legislators today, Sturdevant said he decided "it's time for a different pace and a different work-life balance." Sturdevant,…
Lots of web sites offer quizzes of government and politics. This one on Buzz Feed comes complete with photos and GIFs that make it more fun than usual. Questions probably are only moderately difficult for regular Spin Control readers.
OLYMPIA -- Areas near the Oso mudslide will get some state money to boost tourism this summer as a way to help their economies. Gov. Jay Inslee approved a $150,000 request from the state Commerce Department to supplement local business and government spending on promoting…
Audience comments during the Spokane City Council’s debate over adding gender identity to local civil rights protections were at times so graphically vile that Councilman Jon Snyder suggested it was evidence of why the ordinance is necessary. Former state Rep. John Ahern, for example, warned…
OLYMPIA -- Ron Sims will be the new chairman of the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which operates the state's online system for finding health insurance. Sims, a member of the Washington Health Alliance board, is a former King County Executive and former deputy secretary of…
To check for locations, enlarge the map or click on the locator pins. OLYMPIA -- When the Liquor Control Board announced the "winners" of its lotteries for recreational marijuana stores, it also mentioned there were other applicants getting the green light to secure a license…
Billy Frank Jr. earlier this year along the Nisqually River. AP photo. Billy Frank Jr. once told a biographer that when he dies, he wanted to be remembered as a fisherman. Leaving it at that for Frank, who died Monday at 83, would be like…
Janet Gilpatrick never held elective office but put her stamp on the politics and governance of Eastern Washington for some 17 years by making sure things got done right for someone who did. That someone was Tom Foley, the Spokane congressman who rose through the…
Last week’s steady stream of candidates announcing they plan to run for some office or another is a sign that filing week is nearly upon us. May 12 through 16 is the time for a candidate to go from talking about running for office to…
To enlarge the map, click on the + sign. To see the name of the proposed store in a particular location, click on the icon. Google+ map by Jim Camden Some of the most popular locations for Eastern Washington’s new pot entrepreneurs are close to…
OLYMPIA -- Marijuana retail stores in the Spokane area could be heavily concentrated on North Division, East Trent and East Sprague, based on the results of the state lottery. The Washington Liquor Control Board this morning released the results of the double-blind lottery for most…