The Washington Federation of State Employees has filed suit against the State Ethics Commission , alleging its sanctions against of two members who appeared in union-sponsored TV commercials in 2011 will have a “chilling effect” on the free speech rights of all state employees. The union filed the lawsuit May 10 in U.S. District...
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Just because the Thurston County commissioners ultimately made the correct decision doesn’t made it correctly. That’s the message about two dozen property rights advocates delivered on Tuesday with respect to the county’s recently scrapped shooting ordinance. “While I agreed with the commissioners in this decision, process is policy,” said Glen Morgan, property rights director...
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A one-day visit to Washington state has turned out to be a taxing experience – literally — for a California  businessman whose case could either open the door to a whole new revenue stream or, more likely, scare off would-be vendors in droves. According to the state’s Department of Revenue, Pete Vegas owes it...
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A Washington State Appeals Court on Thursday ruled that federal transportation laws created to protect the privacy of public employees trump the state Public Disclosure Act — even if that means shielding a ferry captain who may have been intoxicated on duty. The case arose when Washington State Ferries vessel M/V Wenatchee slammed into...
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The success in North Carolina on Tuesday night of an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriages is seen by advocates of a much narrower measure in Washington as a sign of validation. “It just proves what we’ve been saying all along,” said Joseph Backholm, president of the Family Policy Institute of Washington....
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Opponents of a plan to allow Sound Transit use of the center two lanes on the Interstate 90 Bridge in order to extend light rail from Seattle to Bellevue are planning to take their case back to the state’s highest court. Representatives from the Eastside Transportation Association, including former State Sen. Jim Horn and...
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An alliance of 90 patients, organized by supporters of gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee, has filed suit against Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna alleging his overstepped his responsibilities in joining a multi-state lawsuit against Obamacare. The suit, filed in King County Superior Court, alleges that McKenna has been unethical and hasn’t told the truth to...
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  Washington State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-Spokane), following a spring that saw her party lose a bruising floor fight during which minority Republicans joined with a handful of Democratic defectors to defeat her preferred budget, has decided not to seek re-election this fall. Brown, 55, announced on Thursday that after 20 years...
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Masked anarchists clad in black outfits joined with hundreds of other protesters to smash dozens of store windows, spray-paint buildings and slash car tires in downtown Seattle on Tuesday in what organizers billed as a revolution against capitalism, economic unfairness and social injustice. More than a dozen people were arrested and numerous minor injuries...
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OLYMPIA—The Washington State Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to the state’s executive privilege statute — a presumed “right” that Gov. Christine Gregoire asserted nearly 500 times in a four-year period to stymie dozens of public records requests. “If the governor is allowed to withhold records through executive privilege, it would...
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