Jim Camden

Washington voters have plenty of choices today in the state’s first top-two primary. There are 10 choices for governor, although most voters are probably only familiar with two. Incumbent Chris Gregoire and her 2004 opponent Dino Rossi have been moving toward a rematch since shortly after Democrat Gregoire won the final recount and defeated a Republican Party court challenge in 2005. The rest of the gubernatorial ballot is filled with a wide array of candidates: two claiming a Republican Party preference, another listing the Democratic Party, one each from the Reform, Green and Independent parties, and two with no party preference.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ conservative credentials are under attack this summer from three primary challengers trying to out-flank her on the right. The two-term Republican House member has plenty of campaign money – slightly under a half-million left, out of more than $1 million raised through the end of July – and such perks of office as free mailings throughout the district and visits from a high-ranking member of her caucus to discuss transportation. She’s got television commercials in which she pumps gas and talks about high energy costs, while the most her main Democratic opponent Mark Mays can muster at this point are radio ads.

The Washington Air National Guard general whose 39 years of service included overseeing the Spokane-based unit’s shift from jet fighters to aerial tankers has died at 84. Lloyd Lamb, a retired major general who died Aug. 7, was remembered at a funeral service and buried with military honors Wednesday in Spokane.

With only about a week to go before the state primary, Lindsey Tompkins has some decisions to make about her ballot. But Tompkins, a Washington State University-Spokane employee who has been in college for three years and was in the military before that, lives in Spokane and is registered in Oak Harbor, Wash. It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on back there, she said.

Noah and Drew Schmick have never ridden in an airplane, but they’re flying to San Diego soon for a family vacation and their dad thought they might want to see some planes Saturday – just to get a feel for them. So Jeff Schmick took Noah, 10, and Drew, 5, to the first day of Fairchild Air Force Base’s Skyfest, where they saw lots of planes. Big planes like the C-17 Globemaster and old planes like a flight of four Stearman biplanes. But most of all, really fast planes, like the F-15 Eagle, the F-22 Raptor and the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 Hornet.

Michael Paccerelli earned a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered in Iraq in 2004 when an improvised explosive device destroyed his Humvee. But the paperwork got lost twice, and the medal didn’t catch up with him until Friday in Spokane. Although the delay was puzzling, Paccerelli did see one advantage to receiving the medal four years late.

The skies above Fairchild Air Force Base will be full of cool planes Saturday and Sunday, and which plane is the coolest may be hotly debated among the tens of thousands expected to attend the free event. But there’s no debate about which cool plane is the newest. That would be the F-22 Raptor, the Air Force’s next generation fighter, which the military has had in its inventory for less than three years. The aerial demonstration routine, which will be part of the Skyfest air show for the first time, only started in 2007.

A half-century ago, the Blue Angels helped pack a military base on the West Plains and thrilled tens of thousands of spectators with their aerobatics. But when the Navy’s premier flying team returns to the West Plains this weekend, they’ll be parking their signature blue jets a little way down the road, at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Not a day goes by that Dane Broadfoot doesn’t think about his time in World War II and the roughly 600 days of combat he experienced with the 1st Armored Division. Sometimes it’s the devastation he saw in Italy while serving as a combat engineer, building bridges and roads, and clearing minefields.

Getting ready for Rathdrum Days, coordinator Janice Wilcox wondered which would affect turnout for the town’s annual celebration more, gas prices or population growth. Growth has exploded in and around the Kootenai County city in the past few years, and that’s good for the two-day community event.

OLYMPIA – Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi on Thursday distanced himself from the dozens of Eastern Washington billboards that have cropped up to urge voters “Don’t Let Seattle Steal This Election!” “Steal” is underlined.

The Pentagon will try, yet again, to buy the Air Force new tankers to replace its aging KC-135s. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday his office will oversee the rewriting of specifications for the new planes by the beginning of August and award a contract worth an estimated $35 billion – and tens of thousands of aerospace industry jobs – by year's end.