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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Jim Camden

Jim Camden

Current Position: correspondent

Jim Camden joined The Spokesman-Review in 1981 and retired in 2021. He is currently the political and state government correspondent covering Washington state.

Email
jimc@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 879-7461

All Stories

News >  Spokane

Area delegation gets message: Don’t ask

OLYMPIA – A Spokane-area delegation on its annual pilgrimage to the state capital got a consistently downbeat message this week: Don’t expect money for new programs or projects. “The message is being reinforced: There is no money,” Spokane Mayor Mary Verner said as she waited outside the marble-walled state reception room. It’s a message that comes as no surprise, but may be good for some people to hear repeated, she said.
News >  Spokane

Lawmakers tout states’ rights

OLYMPIA – The time has come for people who believe in states’ rights to move from protest to political action, a Spokane Valley legislator told a crowd on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday. Rep. Matt Shea, a first-term Republican, told a crowd estimated at between 200 and 300 they need to rein in a federal government that’s becoming too powerful and too intrusive.
News >  Marijuana

Pot hearing draws crowd

OLYMPIA – While the Legislature wrestles with a huge budget shortfall that generates hearings on everything from closing state institutions to raising college tuition, the most heavily attended hearing Wednesday involved a non-budget item. Marijuana. Should the state legalize it or turn it into a civil infraction? Or just wait a few months to see if voters pass an initiative to legalize it?
News >  Spokane

Gregoire looks for balance in new budget

Saying that many of the cuts she proposed last month are “unwise and unjust,” Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed a combination of program cuts, tax increases and federal aid to close the state’s projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Gregoire told a joint session of the Legislature they face “an incredibly challenging year” and called for swift and decisive action.
News

Cuts, aid and taxes all part of Gregoire’s budget plan

Saying that many of the cuts she proposed last month are “unwise and unjust,” Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed a combination of program cuts, tax increases and federal aid to close the state’s projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall.
News >  Spokane

Quitting liquor business could cost state millions

Washington state could either gain an extra $277 million over four years if it gets out of the liquor business, or lose $47 million, a state auditor’s review says. Right now, the state controls the wholesale and retail liquor sales with state employees operating the stores and distribution center, and is expected to make $2.36 billion between 2012 and 2016 under that system, Larisa Benton, director of performance audits, told the House Ways and Means Committee Monday.
News >  Spokane

Washington lawmakers meet, recess ahead of state of the state

OLYMPIA – Facing a $2.6 billion budget hole and a choice between cutting programs or raising taxes, the Washington Legislature opened Monday with a brief ceremony and repeated references to the fiscal problems. Then both houses went into recess until today, when they’ll hear Gov. Chris Gregoire lay out a new budget plan. That plan will include a combination of cuts, tax increases, tax cuts and some blanks to be filled in when the federal government decides how much it will spend on economic recovery programs, Gregoire said Monday.
News >  Spokane

Senate majority leader looks ahead to tough session

Lisa Brown’s office, just off the floor of the Washington state Senate chambers, was abuzz last week with legislators, staff and people who needed a few minutes to talk about something that would be coming up during the session that starts today. The Spokane Democrat has served 17 years in the Legislature, 13 of them in the state Senate. This session, Brown’s fifth as Senate majority leader, is short on days and long on problems: Even-numbered years are limited to 60 days, and Washington’s budget is an estimated $2.6 billion out of balance. The Spokesman-Review sat down with Brown last week.
News >  Spokane

Let the annual finger-pointing begin

OLYMPIA – There are two relatively famous quotes that come to mind as the Legislature rumbles toward opening day Monday. One is the standard axiom that no man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the Legislature is in session. That line has probably been uttered in every state capital since it was written down by Gideon Tucker in 1866.
News >  Spokane

No Washington agency safe from budget knife

OLYMPIA – For the casual observer, it may help to regard the Legislature as theater. Some days it’s a comedy, some days it’s a tragedy, but there’s always a big cast of characters. When the curtain went down on the 2009 production, everyone hoped they’d written an end to a historic budget drama titled “The Worst Economic Crisis Since the Great Depression.” Turns out, however, that was just Act I. After about eight months of intermission, Act II starts Monday. Here’s the plot:
News >  Spokane

McKenna to take felon voting to high court

OLYMPIA – Washington state wants the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it has to give felons in prison the right to vote. State Attorney General Rob McKenna said Wednesday he will ask the nation’s highest court to review an appeals court ruling that felons in prison and under community supervision have the right to vote under the federal Voting Rights Act.
News >  Spokane

Police killings spark call to action

OLYMPIA – Judges should be able to deny bail to criminal suspects who are thought to be “inherently dangerous” to the public, Gov. Chris Gregoire and representatives of the state’s law enforcement system said Wednesday. Gregoire said she will ask the Legislature to give voters the right this November to pass a constitutional amendment giving judges more flexibility to deny bail. They should not be limited to suspects accused of murder, who can now be held without bail, or someone facing a third-strike felony that could result in a life sentence upon conviction, she said.
News >  Spokane

Decade’s local politics had highs and lows, thrills and chills

Local politics for the Double Zeroes, or whatever one calls the last decade, started with a promise of a new millenium and a broken campaign promise. It ended with lots of zeroes behind red-hued numbers – the difference between what our governments expect to take in and what they are scheduled to pay out. In between, governments were restructured, ballots recounted, politicians recalled or forced to resign.
News >  Spokane

Claim filed against county in juror’s death

When 84-year-old Kay Mita got a jury summons, he regarded it as a sign the government was acknowledging a six-decade-old injustice. His first day of jury service, however, turned out to be the last day of his life. Now the widow and son of a juror who died of exposure overnight on the courthouse steps two years ago have filed a $5 million claim with Spokane County, a possible prelude to a federal lawsuit against the county and Guardsmark LLC, which provides courthouse security.
News >  Spokane

Martindale gets $2.5 million loan

More low-income housing has been earmarked for Spokane. Washington state will lend the Spokane Housing Authority more than $2.5 million to help turn the old Hillyard High School into apartments for homeless and low-income residents.
News >  Spokane

Spin Control’s Christmas trivia quiz

In honor of the holidays, Spin Control usually lays off politics to brighten our readers’ spirits with the annual Christmas Quiz. It’s a tradition that dates at least to the last time Christmas was on a Sunday and there were no good topics for a political column. It’s also a chance to mix a bit of cheer with political trivia. For those who think Christmas and politics don’t mix, they obviously aren’t getting all the e-mails I get from elected officials. They all wish you the very best these holidays, by the way.
News >  Spokane

Watching West Side politics with an East Sider’s outlook

OLYMPIA – For many years, the last leg of my commute to work included a walk across the Monroe Street Bridge into downtown, reminding me of some things I like best about Spokane. The river below, which rushes so fast in spring that the mist rises above the bridge, and the banks below that are green in the summer and golden in the fall. Riverfront Park is on the left, and Peaceful Valley on the right. The downtown in front has interesting buildings like an art deco City Hall, and a few strange ones, including the one where I work, which is topped by a witch’s hat strung with Christmas lights.
News >  Spokane

Fairchild replacing fitness facility

Fairchild Air Force Base will get an extra $28 million next year from the federal budget to build a new fitness and water training facility for the Survival School. The money, which was pulled from savings in the Defense Department’s fiscal 2009 budget, will be used to replace a converted World War II-era warehouse that was damaged last December when heavy snows collapsed part of its roof.
News >  Spokane

Help wanted at raceway

OLYMPIA – Spokane County is looking for a new racetrack operator who must have something the last operator did not: experience running a track. A request for qualifications to bid on the contract for the Spokane Raceway Park was released Wednesday, and the lease could be awarded by mid-February, county Parks Director Doug Chase said. Any bidder must provide significantly more information on finances than the county requested last year, and expect increased oversight of track operations by the county.
News >  Spokane

Contractors sue county over track’s unpaid bills

Six local contractors sued Spokane County this week over some $1.1 million in unpaid bills at the West Plains racetrack the county owns. The contractors claim the county was negligent in allowing the track’s operator, Austin Motorsports Management, to order hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs without obtaining the required performance bonds that would have guaranteed their payment.
News >  Business

DirecTV sued over contracts

OLYMPIA – Customers of the nation’s largest satellite television service are being lured into long contracts they don’t understand with fees they don’t know they must pay, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna contends in a lawsuit filed Monday. But a spokesman for the company, DirecTV, said the company was “disappointed” the suit was filed, and he predicted it won’t stand up in court.