OLYMPIA -- State Sen. Lisa Brown is dropping any plans to run for statewide office in 2012 Democrat Brown, the Senate majority leader from Spokane, has been rumored for two possible statewide posts on next year's ballot, lieutenant governor and state auditor. The auditor's seat…
When you pass the Occupy Spokane protesters or any other demonstrators at any location, you might honk and wave to show support. Or you might honk and wave just one finger to show the opposite. When you’re waiting with the motor running for a friend…
Gov. Chris Gregoire at Thursday's press conference. OLYMPIA -- While most of Gov. Chris Gregoire's press conference Thursday revolved around the cuts that could be made or should be made, she did field a few questions a bit farther afield. At one point she was…
OLYMPIA -- The Washington Federation of State Employees has an answer to Gov. Chris Gregoire's request to reopen their contracts and pay more for health care premiums. It's not quite "hell no" or "drop dead" -- or something more colorful but less printable -- but…
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire is asking state employees' unions to reopen their contracts and agree to higher health insurance costs. In a letter to the unions, Office of Financial Management Director Marty Brown cites the projected imbalance of $1.4 billion between projected state revenues…
As colleague Betsy Russell reports on Eye on Boise, Idaho Republicans will hold a presidential straw poll on Jan. 6 in Boise in hopes of attracting the would-be GOP nominees to address any Idahoan who signs up as a Republican and pays $30 to cast…
For Spokane residents who haven’t dealt with a local toll way since the booths came down on the Maple Street Bridge in 1990, Initiative 1125 might seem like a ballot measure more important to the west side of the state. Not so, say supporters and…
OLYMPIA -- Not far from the un-U.N. Day protest on the Capitol steps is the 99%-Occupy Olympia protest. They have a nice place to set up tents, between Capitol Lake and the Budd Bay Harbor, as the leaves are changing for autumn. But it is…
OLYMPIA -- Folks who would like to get the United States out of the United Nations, and vice versa, have planned a rally today at the state Capitol. Advance info for the rally says to expect representatives from The Freedom Foundation, the Second Amendment Foundation,…
OLYMPIA -- Flags will be flyiing at half-staff at state buildings for state Sen. Scott White, who died over the weekend. The Kittitas County coroner said White, 41, died of a previously undiagnosed enlarged heart. He was found in his hotel room at a resort…
OLYMPIA – As the news media lurches between ignoring and overexposing the Occupy Wall Street/Spokane/Seattle/Everywhere movement, is it too much to ask for the pontificators to show a little consistency in their love or disdain for populist rebellions that spring up in the 21st Century?…
OLYMPIA -- Those with long memories might recall a point last fall when the state received a waiver of the federal deadline for getting ballots to the troops overseas, and FOX News commentators briefly came unglued because they thought the state was trying to take…
OLYMPIA – In an effort to get voters to end the state's liquor monopoly, Costco this week made the largest contribution in history – nearly $9 million – to a state ballot campaign. The discount retail giant based in Issaquah, Wash., nearly doubled down on…
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook The Daily Show is a little late on its segment on the latest GOP presidential candidates debate -- it happened after the show started Tuesday,…
General election ballots for Spokane County began hitting the post office today. County elections is mailing a total of 265,768 ballots to registered voters. They started today and will finish on Thursday. That means if you don't get a ballot by next Friday, Oct. 28,…
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's office just revealed one of the year's most eagerly awaited announcements: What the governor will be for Halloween. Gregoire and her husband Mike traditionally don costumes and greet kids at the governor's mansion for a couple of hours on Halloween…
Most Republican presidential candidates were in Las Vegas Tuesday night for the CNN debate. But what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas when you're running for president, and what's said in a presidential debate gets dissected before you get out of the auditorium at…
OLYMPIA -- Susan Dreyfus, the director of the Department of Social and Health Services, is leaving after the end of the year. Dreyfus will stay through the upcoming special legislative session, which begins Nov. 28 and is expected to take a big chunk of the…
Rosellini signs the bill that created the State Library in 1957. Photo courtesy of the State Archives, via the Secretary of State's office. Albert Rosellini, who served as the state's governor for two terms starting in 1957, died today at age 101. The son of…
OLYMPIA – It’s never really clear whether coincidence or fate juxtaposes certain events, but there was a peculiar one here last week. For those who didn’t notice, Friday was the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan. It’s a milestone that was…
OLYMPIA -- The Washington State Labor Council says it will join with various local versions of the "Occupy Wall Street" protests next week. The council is in line with national labor leaders who are praising the protests from New York City to Seattle and Spokane…
Former Democratic County Chairman and one-time congressional candidate Tom Keefe said today he is reaching outside his normal partisan boundaries to endorse David Condon in the mayor's race. Officially, municipal races in Spokane are non-partisan. But sometimes the county organization or prominent party members endorse…
State Sen. Mike Baumgartner made his "official" announcement today that he's running against Maria Cantwell next year. If that sounds familiar, it's because he was on television Friday evening, and in this newspaper Saturday morning, saying he'd run. That may have seemed pretty official to…
OLYMPIA – Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna won’t withdraw from a multi-state lawsuit against federal health care reform, even though the other states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to do something McKenna says he doesn’t want. Throw out the entire law. Washington Democrats contend…
OLYMPIA -- Washington Republicans and Democrats will hold their precinct caucuses on different days -- actually they'll hold them in different months -- in the first step of the presidential nominating process next year. Republicans have scheduled their precinct caucuses for Saturday March 3, which…
