Attorney General Rob McKenna, the presumptive Republican front-runner in the race for Washington state governor, was still not officially in the race as of noon Wednesday on the first week to file for state offices. He is expected to do so any day now, however. Former U.S. Rep, Jay Inslee, his likely Democratic opponent,...
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  A resident of tiny Chattaroy, in Washington’s northeastern corner, is waging a one-man offensive against a school district he believes has employed unethical and possibly illegal methods to pass a hotly contested levy measure. Most recently, Leonard Terzenbach has evidence officials of the Riverside School District registered special needs students and instructed them...
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  “We’re in nothing less than a battle for the future of our nation,” Shelton business owner Pat Tarzwell told a raucous crowd gathered on the steps of the Capitol Building in Olympia on Saturday. “And we have some serious catching up to do. Progressives have a 100-year headstart growing the size of government.”...
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In the final, frenzied moments of a special legislative session that extended seven hours past its deadline of midnight Tuesday, exhausted Washington state lawmakers who’d spent the past eight months trying to close a $1.6 million gap between projected expenditures and revenues, easily passed a capital budget that included $1.1 billion in new construction...
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Bleary-eyed Washington state lawmakers finally reached agreement on a long-delayed supplemental budget at 6:17 a.m. — more than six hours into a second special legislative session. “It doesn’t cut education, it’s balanced and it’s a quarter to 5,” Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina) said of the budget before it passed in that house by a...
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New Washington state government employees will still have the option of retiring early, but they’ll pay more for the privilege and benefit less under a compromise struck between Senate Democrats and a coalition of Republicans and moderate Democrats. The deal eliminates one of the major hurdles standing in the way of passing a supplemental...
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Washington State lawmakers, despite having not yet reached agreement on a supplemental budget needed to fill an anticipated $1.6 billion gap between spending plans and expected revenues, have reportedly agreed in principle on a capital budget that would spend $1.1 billion on a statewide wish list of projects. The plan, pushed by Sen. Derek...
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Washington state lawmakers concluded what Gov. Christine Gregoire termed a “rollercoaster day” on Monday with no budget deal and dwindling hopes of reaching one before the current special session is scheduled to conclude at midnight tonight. “I’m not giving up,” Gregoire said at a hastily arranged late-night press conference. “Even if you were to...
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The Washington State Senate on Saturday afternoon adjourned for the weekend after approving two of the budget reform measures a coalition of Republicans and moderate Democrats are insisting on as a condition of passing a state budget but deadlocking on a third. With the current special session scheduled to end on Tuesday, today’s action...
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Washington state’s House of Representatives on Thursday approved a Democrat-sponsored budget proposal its detractors call unsustainable and even its prime sponsor concedes has little chance of success in the more evenly split Senate. The measure, officially Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2127, was approved on the 24th day of the current special session by a...
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