Jim Camden

A Soap Lake man is challenging the voting credentials of hundreds of Washington voters, saying he thinks they're illegal immigrants who registered and cast ballots illegally. But Martin Ringhofer may have a hard time proving the challenges he has filed in Spokane and 10 other Washington counties.

Washington state's ongoing governor's contest has dragged into expensive double overtime, prompting the two major political parties to each raise and spend more than $1 million since Election Day on everything from lawyers and polls to extended salaries for campaign workers. By the time the state Republican Party's lawsuit for a new election goes through a trial and appeals, they could spend another $1 million.

The federal lawsuit over the River Park Square parking garage started more than three years ago as a many-sided legal brawl. Wednesday it was reduced to a head-to-head fight between the city of Spokane and its former bond counsel. A federal judge ruled the city already has collected all the money it is entitled to get from most of its former co-defendants under any claims that they contributed to the problem and should help pay the costs of solving it.

After touring Baghdad this week and talking with ground troops and commanders, Sen. Patty Murray said she has some of the same concerns she had when voting against a United States-led war in Iraq more than two years ago. The Iraqi people are in poverty, she said. Much of the country is in shambles and reconstruction is nearly impossible because of security concerns. The United States has no exit strategy.

Jon Anson was just "trying to do the right thing" when he cast a ballot in November. Now he finds himself falsely accused by the state Republican Party of voting illegally. He didn't, and he has the documentation to prove it.

Washington voters would have to present identification when they show up at the polls if a special elections reform task force has its way. But they wouldn't necessarily have to show any identification to register to vote. Secretary of State Sam Reed, task force chairman, said showing identification before getting a ballot probably wouldn't upset people these days. "In the post-9/11 world, people are so used to showing their ID," he said.

The city of Spokane and the River Park Square development companies have a signed peace treaty in their long-running legal war over the mall's garage. The former partners, which have spent nearly the last five years as legal adversaries, agreed Wednesday to the final details of an out-of-court settlement approved in December by the Spokane City Council.

Some $6 million in parking meter money the city of Spokane has been setting aside for nearly three years can be used for a key piece of the River Park Square garage settlement puzzle. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Robert Austin ruled last week the city can use the money to shore up a federally guaranteed loan. It can't be ordered to give any of the money to the downtown mall's former manager, who has a $6.5 million court judgment against the mall owners, the Cowles development companies.

A federal judge wrestled Wednesday with the sharply dropping values being placed on the River Park Square garage, wondering how a garage that sold for $26 million in 1998 could be worth about one-eighth of that just seven years later. U.S. District Judge Edward Shea also wondered whether the Spokane City Council was repeating a former council's mistakes as it tries to get out of the ill-fated mall deal.

Washington could fix its election system by severely cutting back on the number of people who vote by mail, some Eastern Washington residents told a special task force Tuesday night. No, it could fix the system by having nearly everyone vote by mail, others said.

The federal government may have cause to get involved in the dispute over closing the BNSF Railway Co. fuel depot if local and state officials aren't satisfied, Sen. Patty Murray said Monday. There are federal issues, such as an aquifer that spans two states, questions of interstate commerce and the federal Railroad Act, said Murray, who added her staff is monitoring the controversy over the refueling depot on the Rathdrum Prairie.

Jerry Snyder's family has deep roots in the Palouse and a long history with one of wheat country's most popular government programs, Food for Peace. So the fourth-generation wheat and cattle farmer was disappointed, al- though not terribly surprised and not yet overly worried, when the Bush administration proposed cuts to that program, also known by its government designation of PL 480 Title II.

The city of Spokane will have to pay a fine of more than $21,000 to Camas Magazine for illegally withholding public documents on the River Park Square project requested by the magazine's reporter. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Richard Schroeder said the city was negligent in delaying the release of hundreds of documents about the downtown project requested by reporter Tim Connor in 2000. All of the documents weren't turned over until sometime in the spring of 2003.

The next leg of the ongoing gubernatorial race of 2004 starts this morning in Wenatchee, when state Democrats and county auditors throughout Washington will argue for a judge to dismiss the challenge to Christine Gregoire's election. They're set to argue that a lawsuit filed by state Republicans and some voters who support Dino Rossi should be tossed out for several reasons, such as whether Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges – or a trial judge in any county – has the authority to tell officials in the other 38 counties what to do to.

WASHINGTON – Northwest Republicans called President Bush's fifth State of the Union speech one of his best ever, while Democrats said it raised unanswered questions about everything from Social Security to border security. "It was another outstanding speech," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, a few minutes after Bush wrapped up the 50-minute address. "He tackled all the tough issues of our day."

Attorneys for the former River Park Square mall manager are trying to force a sale of the old J.C. Penney's building to pay off part of a $6.5 million judgment against the Cowles development companies. The downtown Spokane building should have a receiver appointed and be sold, with the money going to RWR Management, that firm's attorneys are arguing in papers filed this week in Spokane County Superior Court.

A close election hands the Republican candidate a victory by a thin margin. The Democrat asks for a recount, and the winner on election night becomes the loser after the ballots are tallied again.

A developer's ideas about what the former J.C. Penney building in downtown Spokane could become aren't necessarily part of the legal dispute between the Cowles real estate companies and their former manager. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor refused Friday to order developer Ron Wells to testify in the ongoing efforts of R.W. Robideaux Management to collect a $6.5 million jury verdict from the Cowles subsidiaries. If Robideaux's attorneys can explain in detail why they think Wells' knowledge is important to the dispute, he might have to testify, the judge said Friday.

State Republican Chairman Chris Vance is hitting the road in the party's effort to keep hope alive for a new governor's election while attorneys start sparring over the rules for a possible trial over a revote. "Dino Rossi is not giving up, and neither are we," Vance told about two dozen Republicans who gathered Thursday before a press conference at Spokane's Davenport Hotel.

Democrats were wildly enthusiastic about Gov. Christine Gregoire's inaugural address, while Republicans sat through much of it in stonily polite silence. Here are some of the reactions from local legislators in the chamber for the speech: