OLYMPIA -- Requiring stalkers to wear electronic monitoring bracelets could have saved the life of a Tacoma teacher, a House panel was told Monday. The parents of Jennifer Paulson pleaded with the House Judiciary Committee to approve HB 1180, a bill that would allow judges…
Sen. Maria Cantwell was named Monday the chairwoman of the senate panel that oversees aviaition.\ Technically, it's known as the aviation operations, safety and security subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which is admittedly two long names with lots of commas. It's main…
OLYMPIA -- All the action is in committee hearings today, where everything from domestic violence to ferries to elections are subjects of bills under review. Senate Government Operations has 10 a.m. hearing on a string of bills, including one to make it easier for troops…
OLYMPIA – The east-west split in Washington is probably never as interesting as in the early weeks of a legislative session, when hope springs eternal in the breasts of legislators with novel if not always practical ideas. This period sometimes births proposals from Eastern Washington…
Editor's note: Longtime Assistant City Attorney Bob Beaumier takes issue with last Sunday's Spin Control column regarding proposed changes to the law on certain public records requests. While I don't agree with some of his conclusions (just as he disagrees with mine) Spin Control is…
OLYMPIA -- Happy Data Privacy Day. Feel free to send an e-mail greeting. But be careful of opening some of those greetings that might be "phishing" for information from you. In honor of the day set aside to make remind computer users to be careful…
OLYMPIA -- The House of Representatives will have to wait at least 24 hours between the time a budget bill is written and a final vote is taken under rules adopted today on a party-line vote. Republicans objected, saying there should be a 72-hour delay,…
OLYMPIA -- Lura Powell of Richland was named chaiwoman of the state Redistricting Commission this morning. Powell, former director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was the unanimous choice of the four members who were each appointed by a legislative leader of one party from…
OLYMPIA -- College students will be telling the Senate's Higher Education Committee what they think of Gov. Chris Gregoire's 2011-13 budget proposal that allows the colleges to raise tuition. Chances are, it will be not favorable. That's based on a gathering of students on the…
OLYMPIA -- Former state Sen. Chris Marr was appointed to the Washington State Liquor Control Board Thursday by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Marr, who served one term in the Senate from Spokane's 6th District but lost his re-election on Nov. 2 to Republican Mike Baumgartner, replaces…
Sen. Patty Murray has been one of the leading voices on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for years. Now she's the actual leader. The Washington Democrat, who has been on the panel since 1995 and has built a huge constituency among veterans who regularly support…
OLYMPIA -- The state Senate will vote on its version of a budget to carry the state through the end of June, a plan that will likely keep several social service programs Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed cutting, Majority Leader Lisa Brown said today. At a…
OLYMPIA -- Splitting the legislative districts in half, so that a different state representative is elected in each half, would increase the contacts with constituents, the sponsor of the plan said. But it would also cut in half each voter's representation in the House, and…
OLYMPIA -- A delegation of about 90 Spokane folks continue their blitz of the state Capitol today, with their big goal scaring up money for a proposed medical school building at the Riverpoint campus. As reported yesterday, the $70.8 million project isn't on Gov. Gregoire's…
OLYMPIA -- Washington drivers who smoke in a car with children would be liable for a traffic ticket under a bill being discussed in the state Senate. The proposal, which had its first hearing Wednesday in the Senate Transportation Committee, wouldn't allow law enforcement officers…
OLYMPIA – A new medical school building in Spokane is not on the list of large construction projects being proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire for the next two years, a group of government and business leaders from Eastern Washington was told Wednesday. Marty Brown, the…
OLYMPIA -- Legislators were sporting bright orange ribbons on their lapels in memory of a state worker killed earlier this month by a falling tree. The orange loops -- a shape made familiar during the first Gulf War and the same one used for the…
OLYMPIA -- State legislators won't spend much time on "the floor" today, but have a full slate of hearings on everything from foreclosures to college efficiencies to smoking in cars with kids. Meanwhile, members of the Greater Spokane Inc. delegation is scheduled to hit town…
Mayor Mary Verner told the Spokane City Council on Tuesday that she will reconvene a committee that will help form policy on paving streets and select opportunities to focus "complete streets" efforts. For the most part, the city's 2004 street bond has been used only…
If you get an e-mail from the IRS asking for your name, address and other information so the agency can check its records, promising you a $50 reward for being so helpful...don't respond. Don't open the attachment. Don't do anything except hit the delete button.…
Being watched almost as closely as what President Obama says tonight are the locations of where the honorable members of Congress will sit. Put another way: Who's your date for the State of the Union? Traditionally, the Democrats sit on one side of the House…
OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire urged legislators to move quickly on proposals to cancel planned increases in unemployment insurance taxes, saying she needs a bill in two weeks. At a press conference this morning, Gregoire repeated a call for legislators to keep rate hikes that…
OLYMPIA -- Members of the House have begun their first real votes of the session, taking up the supplemental budget. First up are amendments: On a unanimous vote, the House stripped out provisions to let the Transportation Commission set ferry rates. Sponsor Ross Hunter said…
OLYMPIA -- The first floor debate on budget cuts this session is scheduled for this morning as the state House of Representatives takes up a portion of the 2011 supplemental budget. This is the budget that gets the state through June 30 -- although not…
OLYMPIA – Ever since the voters decided public records should be, you know, public, public officials have complained about the unfairness of being forced to produce some of those records when a member of the public has the nerve to ask for them. Such requests…
The Spokesman-Review's political team keeps a critical eye on local, state and national politics.
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