A new statewide sex offender database was launched Thursday. By typing in your address, the database will create a map with dots showing the nearest registered Level II and Level III sex offenders. Clicking on the dots reveals a photo and information on the offender.The…
If you're thinking of getting a pet rhino, do it soon. A bill to ban private ownership of a long list of wild animals is stampeding through the Legislature.Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1151 would ban possession of "potentially dangerous wild animals," including:-lions, tigers and…
"It like we have a choice of draining the swamp and killing the crocodiles, or adding water and feeding the crocodiles. And unfortunately, I think we did the latter." Rep. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, apparently referring to a House proposal to use state money to help…
A hundred and fifty years ago Friday, about two dozen members of the territorial legislature convened for their first session. They met on the second floor of a general store near Olympia's waterfront, and lawmakers arrived on foot, by horseback, and in canoes. Their average…
"We're really just paralyzed in Spokane until we move ahead with that. The classrooms are full." WSU's Larry Ganders, on why the state should pony up $31 million for a new Riverpoint Academic Center at WSU's Riverpoint campus in downtown Spokane. House and Senate budget…
Monday will be money day in Olympia, as the House and Senate both unveil their budget proposals within an hour of each other. Stay tuned...
"If there was ever a case of us shooting ourselves in the foot -- giving the newspapers a tax break -- this is it." Rep. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland, on a bill to grant a sales-tax break for computers used in printing and publishing.
The annual Dairy Day in Olympia, coming on the heels of the always-popular Potato Day, rarely causes much of a stir. After all, what's objectionable about touting your industry by handing out free ice cream bars?Some lawmakers were annoyed this year, however, when the annual…
Patriotism trumps homeowners' association rules, under a bill passed unanimously this week by the state House of Representatives.House Bill 2934 says that homeowners' associations may not ban a resident from flying the U.S. flag. It allows for "reasonable rules" for the placement of the flag…
"When I am an old lady, I will still wear purple."-Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, wearing one of the trademark purple raincoats of the Service Employees' International Union, during a soggy rally Monday in Olympia. Kline was referring to the title of a popular women's book…
When a Vancouver senator pushed through a bill to study adding a new state college in the area, a couple of Spokane lawmakers saw their chance.Brand-new Sen. Brian Murray and Senate Minority Leader Lisa Brown teamed up Friday to try to amend the bill, by…
"Deccio, you still awake?"Sen. Bob McCaslin, to fellow Sen. Alex Deccio, R-Yakima, during a lengthy McCaslin speech.
Two years after the House of Representatives moved into a temporary building, security has reached such a pitch that on Tuesday, there were no less than five plainclothes sergeants-at-arms standing on the floor of the House, scanning the room and whispering into their radio earpieces,…
Every four years or so, the state Department of Revenue auctions off the contents of safe-deposit boxes abandoned at banks. (Under state law, the contents of the boxes are turned over to the state after five years of unpaid rent.)The next such auction will be…
A cramped Senate hearing room was witness to an odd scene Wednesday: old men in makeshift military uniforms, representing a nation that ceased to exist nearly 30 years ago. Girls in flowing Vietnamese ao dai dresses handed lawmakers yellow flags with three red stripes --…
Prompted by a man whose ex-wife was schlepping their five-year-old son around on her motorcycle, Sen. Debbie Regala wants the state to require that kids be six years old -- or able to rest their feet on a bike's passenger foot pegs -- before riding…
If you ever want to know where to eat in south Puget Sound, state Rep. Dennis Flannigan is your guy.Craving Norwegian crepes, slathered in butter? Try the Sons of Norway lodge in Tacoma. Great burgers? A hamburger stand in remote Elbe. Be it German desserts,…
Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.
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