In tomorrow's paper:OLYMPIA _ Emotions ran high Wednesday, as state lawmakers discussed allowing illegal immigrant students – many of them brought to this country as young children – to qualify for millions of dollars in state college grants.“As I look into their eyes and their…
From tomorrow's print paper:OLYMPIA _ When he took over as acting president of Eastern Washington University, John Mason was given a sign for his office.“Thou shalt not whine,” it reads.On Wednesday, Mason mostly stuck to that commandment, even as he described how proposed state budget…
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, writing on her blog, says that the federal stimulus bill "is not a state bailout bill."The money it includes for state "is just not big enough to make up for the deep dive our state revenues have taken" she writes.…
A surprisingly bipartisan group of 15 senators is proposing a tax break for newspapers.Senate Bill 5942, introduced this morning by Sen. Margarita Prentice, would lower newspapers' business and occupation tax rate from .484 percent of gross to .2904 percent from 2010 to 2015. No fiscal…
From an interview last night with Rep. Mark Miloscia, who's proposed tacking on an extra 18.5 percent sales tax onto adult videos, cable shows, etc."Somebody brought this to me and I said `Wow. Well, why not?'" said Miloscia, D-Federal Way.His bill is actually a nearly-verbatim…
A day after Washington State University started to reveal its plans for handling proposed deep budget cuts, it's time for another local school to do the same.Late this afternoon in the Senate's higher education committee, Eastern Washington University will detail how it would be affected.In…
The state Senate is scheduled this morning to pass a bill, HB 1113, sponsored by local Rep. John Driscoll.The bill is a $133 million sale of state bonds to pay for school construction projects that are already underway.The work was already planned, but inflation and…
Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.
