SR.com Blogs | Eye on Olympia

Idahoan sees opportunity in Washington's smoking ban...

Got a call recently from Robert Bloom, a Rathdrum, Idaho man who is trying to wring business out of the strong smoking ban that Washington voters overwhelmingly approved in 2005. ( Full post )

Pam Roach, on bodyguards and shoeless governors...

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, is chronicling her travels to the Philippines and China on this blog. ( Full post )

Vote for a Lesser Evil...

Washington's Faith and Freedom political action committee, a conservative Christian group, this week released its own long list of endorsements in state judicial races. ( Full post )

It seems like there's an easier way...

More on why endorsements are rarely news: ( Full post )

Elway Poll: good news for Goldmark, great news for Gregoire...

The Seattle P-I's Joel Connelly reports that the latest Elway Poll shows Gov. Chris Gregoire 16 points ahead of Republican challenger Dino Rossi: 52 percent to 36 percent. ( Full post )

New Gregoire ads focus on Eastern Washington...

Gov. Chris Gregoire is running two new TV ads, both tailored to Eastern Washington voters. ( Full post )

That's a lot of gas...

The 5 percent cut in state-government gas use, hiring freeze and the other measures announced today by Gov. Chris Gregoire would save about 300,000 gallons of gas, plus another $90 million this fiscal year from the freeze and other measures. That's according to Gregoire spokesman Pearse Edwards. ( Full post )

Gregoire re: state budget: Freeze hiring and cut gasoline consumption 5 percent...

Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling on state agency heads, colleges and other statewide elected officials to stop filling new staff vacancies and to cut the gasoline used by state vehicles, among other budget-trimming moves. ( Full post )

7th District race: allegations of embezzlement by candidate's husband...

S-R staff writer John Craig reports that: ( Full post )

When a "Law and Order" script collides with "The Office"...

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct today decided to censure -- or officially call on the carpet for a in-person reprimand -- former Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Collen Hartl. ( Full post )

Initiative 1029 has a date in court...

Weeks ago, I wrote that Initiative 1029's getting on the ballot was going to be a nail-biter -- because organizers were stuck in traffic as they rushed to Olympia to beat the deadline for filing hundreds of thousands of signatures. ( Full post )

Plastic-bag tax: an Eastern Washington community considers following Seattle's lead...

Staff writer Carley Dryden has a story today about the Whitman County city of Pullman possibly following in Seattle's footsteps and instituting a 20-cents-each tax on plastic shopping bags. ( Full post )

Slight changes to Spokane tribe's gambling compact become a forum for lawmakers' frustration...

( Full post )

State Supremes: unsubstantiated allegations of teacher sexual misconduct shouldn't be made public...

In a case where the 11 petitioners are all known as John Doe, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 this morning that unsubstantiated allegations of teacher sexual misconduct can be withheld from public disclosure. ( Full post )

A surprisingly nasty R-vs-R race in the primary...

The 6th District primary is quite a scrappy race, and so far, most of the scrapping's been between two well-funded Republicans vying to challenge incumbent state Rep. Don Barlow in November. ( Full post )

More on taxes...

As I wrote in the post below, the private Economic Opportunity Institute is proposing a Washington state "high incomes" tax aimed at people making at least $100,000 a year. ( Full post )

A tax on big paychecks...

Washington's private Economic Opportunity Institute, a liberal-leaning budget thinktank, has done something that virtually no state politicians are willing to: think out loud about how to raise taxes. ( Full post )

Toxic Toys legislation goes national...

Months after Washington passed a "toxic toys" bill aimed at limited lead, phthalates and cadmium levels, Congress is reportedly poised to pass a bill setting national standards for lead and phthalates in toys and other childrens' goods. ( Full post )

Read all about 'em...

The Spokesman-Review's guide to the dozens of candidates running in the primary is up and working. (Like many things about our website, the candidate order is puzzling. The governor's race, for example, is listed 25th on the list. I have no idea why.) ( Full post )

That's the sound of lobbyists saddling up...

For years, lawmakers have been saying that someone should take a look at Washington's hundreds of tax breaks � some dating back to the Great Depression and further � and see if they're really still justified. ( Full post )