Could we really be breathing coal smoke from Mississippi, as Gov. Jay Inslee suggested?

Free tickets for the first televised candidate forum featuring the candidates vying to represent Eastern Washington in Congress will be given away on Monday.

A gun-control initiative should not go on the November ballot because the petitions that some 378,000 voters signed were not readable, a Thurston County Superior Court judge said.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers lengthened her lead over Democrat Lisa Brown Friday as the ballot count continued in Washington’s 5th Congressional District primary.

Just hours after votes were counted her closest election to date, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers hosted a breakfast Wednesday featuring a powerful Republican from Texas and a score of farm officials worried about the uncertainty rocking Washington agriculture.

The November race for Eastern Washington’s seat in Congress will be the closest campaign in at least two decades. What are the signs that each candidate has the edge heading in to the high-profile race?

In towns along Washington’s Pacific Coast, there are tsunami zones with sirens to warn of an approaching wave and marked routes to take to higher ground. Tuesday’s election results are not proof of a blue tsunami about to wash over the electorate, but the siren is blowing.

Whatever blue wave was seen in other parts of the state, it doesn’t look ready to wipe out long-time Republican state Rep. Joel Kretz, who easily topped three challengers in the primary in the race for a 7th Legislative District house seat. Kretz racked up 63 percent of the vote, while the next two closest candidates, Democrats Mike Bell and Crystal Oliver, drew 16.9 and 15.6 percent of the vote respectively, making the second-place finisher too close to call Tuesday night.

Democrat Dave Wilson won 6th District primary with 42.7 percent of the votes, while Republican Jenny Graham came in second with 30.5 percent.

Answers to frequent excuses for not voting in the primary.

Gov. Jay Inslee took aim at President Donald Trump and sidestepped questions about his own 2020 plans during a wide-ranging town hall hosted by The Spokesman-Review.

For all the talk about a blue wave of voters that might wash over the 2018 elections, it seems appropriate to mention that turnout in this year’s primary is lagging behind where it was in 2014, the last midterm.

Initiative 1639, a gun control measure, has enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, but faces a new lawsuit.

U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes – one of President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters in Congress and a sometime lightning rod for criticism for the House investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election – will help Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers raise campaign money Monday in Spokane.

Since 2003, food production within Washington’s Department of Corrections has shifted towards larger, industrial-scale operations. But while the move has generated cost savings, some inmates and their advocates also see a decline in quality and a loss of skills.

Washington has taxed groceries in the past.

As the state removes agency fees for nonunion workers, Republican legislators call for changes on union dues.