OLYMPIA -- Deuces are wild in Olympia as we enter the 22nd day of the second special session. Gov. Jay Inslee will be leading off a round-robin of press conferences at 11 a.m. (which, if you add those digits, you get another 2) to offer an update on budget negotiations.

But the final sentence of the notice for the Inslee press conference includes a line that dashes any tiny hopes that there's some big news to discuss:

"He will not be making a major announcement about either an agreement or a negotiation breakdown."

House and Senate Democrats are following suit with a press conference immediately following, although their notice doesn't include a "no news expected" disclaimer.

After that, House and Senate Republicans will hold their own press conference.

They all probably just want to see the reporters' smiling faces one more time before the weekend. And maybe they feel bad about all those days they left budget negotiations by the back door and wouldn't answer questions about how progress was going.

 

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