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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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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Washington’s largest public-sector employees union last weekend set the bar a little higher in terms of defining who its friends are — then wasted little time throwing its support behind those who toed the mark. Not surprisingly, the list includes only Democrats. And given the more rigid standards being applied by the union leadership,...
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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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  “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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