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Gov. Jay Inslee signed the supplement budget Thursday, before taking questions from media. Here are some things he said: 1. Bertha crawls again. “We’re looking forward to continued movement,” Inslee said. “People have to understand, there’s going to have to be a lot of work on this machine to keep it operable … there’s a long ways…

OLYMPIA – The debate over raising the statewide minimum wage has largely revolved around dependable partisan arguments: up-by-the-bootstraps Republicans saying it isn’t necessary or that it would kill businesses and Democrats bent on fixing income inequality. Enter Sen. Mark Miloscia, R-Federal Way, a former Democrat, with what he calls a “grand compromise.” Miloscia dropped a bill Tuesday, More

The big Olympia news this week was that Republicans and Democrats in the state Senate came together on the beginnings for an agreement on a statewide transportation package. That and other doings: 1. State Senate transportation plan includes phasing in new gas tax. 2. Meanwhile, GOP senators introduce bill that would ban money for Bertha tunnel cost overruns. 3. Lawmaker called…

Flanked by doctors, lawmakers and education professionals, Gov. Jay Inslee made a brief argument Thursday for regulating electronic cigarettes, also known as vaping devices, before taking his weekly questions from media. Highlights: 1. The Senate will issue a statewide transportation proposal Thursday afternoon — funded by a gas tax (not Inslee’s carbon-polluter proposal). But the governor wasn’t saying much, other…

By this post’s title, you’d think we were in a sordid film. But really we were in the House Republican Caucus room for the GOP’s weekly media availability. Notable highlights: 1. Several bills to change the gun purchase background-check expansion, the recently passed Initiative 594, were heard Monday in committee hearings. But Rep. Shelly Short, R-Addy, said they aren’t likely to…

Busy week in the realm of politics, both in Olympia and elsewhere in the state. To recap: 1. Lawmakers heard bills that would: bring back psychiatric boarding, open the Woodland Park Zoo to public-records and open-meetings laws and ban whale captivity. 2. And abortion foes pushed parental notification and personhood bills. 3. Meanwhile, industrial hemp got state…

For your pleasure, a trio of highlights that came out of Thursday’s state House and Senate Democratic media availability: 1. House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, says he anticipates support for a bill dropped Wednesday that would limit reasons for exempting children from vaccines. “When we look at exemption rates in [school districts] across the state, I think we’re all surprised…

OLYMPIA — The fallout over Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo elephants, and more recently, its decision to shut some protesters and media out of a public meeting, continues. This time, the battle came south, to the halls of the Legislature, where lawmakers Thursday heard testimony on a bill that would make the zoo subject to state…

OLYMPIA – In an email promoting Thursday’s public hearings on a trio of bills that would change the ballot-initiative process, activist Tim Eyman predicted the hearing would include “fireworks.” Fireworks did ensue — but not from Eyman. After criticizing a panel of spokespeople testifying for one of the bills at the Senate Government Operations and Security Committee, Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, shut…

Ever since the state Supreme Court last summer ruled it unconstitutional, state officials have sprinted to end the warehousing of psychiatric patients in hospitals and other facilities. In the past, the practice, known as psychiatric boarding, has lead to patients being strapped to hospital gurneys, sometimes for weeks and without medication. Now, three lawmakers are proposing to bring back…