Spokane voters will get a chance to weigh in on the mayor’s salary next year, but City Council members say a change to the city charter may complicate other potential ballot measures that will seek money for schools and an expanded transit system. A proposed…
Rick Bocook, a perennial figure at Spokane City Council meetings, has just a few issues he rails on at City Hall. Freedom for street musicians. The tyranny of the city's sit-lie ordinance. Sidewalk chalk drawings. Bocook, AKA Harpman Hatter, was in fine form on this…
Voters have a way of complicating the state’s revenue forecast by changing the laws on things that provide revenue. After they passed a law abolishing the state’s monopoly on wholesale and retail liquor sales, the state coffers saw a big bump in booze taxes. In…
OLYMPIA -- Legislators may be asked to split the state into districts to elect the state Supreme Court justices, an idea that got a sometimes friendly, sometimes skeptical hearing Friday before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Jason Mercier, of the Center for Government Reform,…
OLYMPIA – Someone please give Senate Republican budget writers a new metaphor for hyperbolic parsimony. Looking at the state’s less than cheery prospects of matching income to outgo last week, the chief GOP Senate budgeteer deployed the well-worn image of personal thriftiness, the squeezed toothpaste…
Why do we have to wait so long for our results? some Washington candidates and campaigns whine every Election Night. Why can’t we be like Oregon? Washington counts ballots it receives that are postmarked by election day, regardless of when they arrive. Oregon requires them…
OLYMPIA -- House Republicans re-elected their top leadership today, returning Dan Kristiansen as their leader for the 2015 session.. Kristiansen, of Snohomish, was named to the job earlier this year after Rep. Richard DeBolt stepped down for health reasons. Joel Kretz of Wauconda was re-elected…
OLYMPIA — A Pasco-based government watchdog made a pitch Friday for district elections to the Supreme Court and two Spokane Valley law enforcement officers told legislators about rising arrest numbers for driving under the influence of marijuana. That would be fairly normal fare for a…
Troy Bruner, head of the Spokane's Ethics Committee, said City Council President Ben Stuckart's leak of a confidential email had the ability to hurt the city, but there was no evidence of it doing so. “Certainly there was a potential for harm to be done…
Spokane City Councilman Ben Stuckart was fined $250 for violating the city's ethics code, but committee members said his action did not financially harm the city. Stuckart was referred to the committee for leaking what city officials called a “highly confidential email regarding a pending…
In today's paper, I wrote about the proposed demolition of two historic buildings on Spokane’s storied auto row, part of the conceptual master plan by the Larry H. Miller Group to build a large downtown campus for its auto dealerships. The buildings to be razed…
OLYMPIA -- Washington legislators will have a bit more money in the coming fiscal years than they expected when they adjourned in March, but not enough to cover the projected costs of current programs. Increases in the number of school children, Medicaid recipients, along with…
OLYMPIA -- House Democrats had their numbers shaved in this month's election but voted today to stick with most of last session's leadership. Seattle Rep. Frank Chopp was re-elected speaker, a position he has held by himself since 2002, and shared as co-speaker in 1999,…
The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook If all the fighting over immigration reform has you scratching your head, Jon Stewart won't clear it up so much as show you some of the sillier elements of it.
4. Voters at Fairchild Air Force Base support expanded background checks for gun sales – resoundingly. Initiative 594 won the precinct at Fairchild 72 votes to 38. On the other hand, maybe they don't. Voters there also supported Initiative 591, though not by as much…
In politics, as in military campaigns, victory has many fathers. That may explain the self-congratulatory press release from supporters of I-594. . . To continue reading this item, or to comment, continue inside the blog.
Spokane County voters said yes to both gun initiatives, causing some observers on the West Side of the state to scratch their heads on election night. One could reasonably vote no on I-591 and I-594, they opined, but voting yes twice seemed illogical on measures…
OLYMPIA – The most ephemeral thing in politics might be big majorities. This should be particularly obvious to Democrats as they look to next year’s Legislature. Six years ago, Democrats approached the session with 31 of 49 seats in the Senate and 62 of 98…
The Spokane Transit Authority is passing around an online survey today looking for feedback on its Moving Forward campaign and a potential tax increase to expand its service. In an email, the transit organizations had this to say: Dear community member, STA Moving Forward is…
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers was re-elected the House Republican Conference chairwoman today by GOP members who returned all their top leaders for the upcoming Congress. House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise were also re-elected. The conference chairmanship is…
OLYMPIA – Gun rights activists plan to bring their firearms to the Capitol next month in an effort engage in civil disobedience by violating the new background check law that they despise. But there may be a flaw in the plan. What they say they’re…
Scott Chesney, Spokane’s planning director who was abruptly ousted from his position last week, said today he was taking the “high road” and ending his role at the city. Chesney did not give details on why he was forced to resign, but his silence is…
OLYMPIA – Two of the three members of the state board that oversees Washington’s liquor and marijuana laws will step down early next year. Chairwoman Sharon Foster has informed Gov. Jay Inslee that she will not accept a reappointment to the Liquor Control Board when…
This is a standard laugh-getter: Go out on the street, or in this case a college campus, and ask people questions that grade school kids should be able to answer, then chuckle when they can't. But for these questions, and these students, it's a tossup…
A few people have called or e-mailed to accuse the newspaper of making up quasquicentennial as a word to mean 125 year anniversary in this morning's story about Washington's birthday celebration. To which we would say, truthfully, we're not that smart. It's a real word,…
The Spokesman-Review's political team keeps a critical eye on local, state and national politics.
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