In the Media
When legislators representing Whatcom County head to Olympia, one problem will occupy their minds: the state budget.
Legislators representing the 40th and 42nd districts will introduce bills reflecting their various interest and specialties, but they'll be forced to make tough budget cuts. The state is facing a $1.5 billion shortfall in its general fund in the current budget, which started July 1, 2011, and goes through June 30, 2013.
The 42nd district includes the north half of Bellingham and stretches north to the U.S.-Canada border. The 40th district includes south Bellingham, Sudden Valley, San Juan County and part of Skagit County.
Western Washington University point guard Corinn Waltrip scored 21 points, hitting the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:13 remaining, as the Vikings defeated Western Oregon University, 66-61, on Saturday in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest at the New P.E. Building on the WOU campus in Monmouth, Ore.
It was the sixth-straight win for WWU, which improved to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in GNAC action. The Vikings also got a game-high 10 rebounds and nine points from center Britt Harris.
Sammamish youth Paige Mackenzie was reminded recently of why she volunteers for the Boys & Girls Club.
On Thanksgiving, she and a group of youth leaders delivered a big dinner to a family in need. One of the family’s sons answered the door and gave a look of shock, exclaiming, “this is so cool!” Mackenzie said.
“I think for me it was a moment of realizing how privileged most of us are up here on the plateau, and thinking that I take even having a Thanksgiving dinner for granted,” she said.
It started as an adolescent with a bike ride to fish for steelhead at Curley Creek.
For 1989 South Kitsap High School graduate Rob Endsley, it has culminated with a career.
Endsley, who will return to his hometown to speak at the Port Orchard Rotary Club’s meeting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, owns Prince of Wales Sportfishing in Craig, Alaska. From May through early September, his company charters 28-foot North River vessels for salmon and halibut fishing.
An emotional Thanksgiving scene with daughters, a speech three months in the writing, and a warning call to Catholic Archbishop J. Peter Sartain — such were happenings during Gov. Chris Gregoire’s “personal journey” to support same-sex marriage.
“I feel better than I have in seven years,” Gregoire said in an interview set for broadcast Friday night on KCTS Connects.
The governor feels the state will enact marriage equality if it appears on the ballot, even though the measure stalls when lawmakers meet in Olympia. “The voters are ahead of the Legislature,” Gregoire said.
State Rep. Chris Reykdal and Sen. David Frockt are proposing a 1 percent state tax on corporate and personal incomes in exchange for killing off the state business and occupation tax and reducing the state sales tax.
The bill language is still being finalized, but Reykdal, a Tumwater Democrat, said he hopes to gather signatures as soon as Monday for his House version of the bill.
“Whether you are a conservative or progressive, no matter what size you want government to be, we don’t have a tax structure to support government through time,” Reykdal said in an interview.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday she plans to bypass the state Attorney General's Office and seek court guidance on the constitutionality of a law limiting tax increases.
Gregoire, who is technically listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, said she is working with outside counsel to petition the courts for a ruling on Initiative 1053, which requires lawmakers to have a two-thirds majority to raise taxes.
Voters widely approved that measure in 2010, essentially removing taxes as an option for balancing the budget.
Guard Kristin Schramm led a balanced attack with 12 points as Western Washington University defeated Saint Martin's University 68-50 on Thursday, Jan. 5, in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest at Marcus Pavilion on the SMU campus in Lacey. It was the fifth straight victory for the Vikings, who improved to 9-3 overall and 3-1 in the GNAC.
As the final buzzer rang at Carver Gym, fans rose to their feet and gave Western Washington University men's basketball coach Brad Jackson a standing ovation as he became just the fifth collegiate basketball coach in the state of Washington to record 500 career wins. It appeared the No. 23 ranked Vikings were going to give Jackson a relaxing win No. 500, but Western had to stave off a comeback attempt to knock off Saint Martin's University 76-71 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup Thursday, Jan. 5, at Carver Gym.
A nationally recognized photographer and oceanographer will give a free presentation about South Pole penguins at noon Friday, Jan. 6. Chris Linder of the International League of Conservation Photographers and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will present "Science on Ice: Adélie Penguins," which examines how polar science research has evolved and how the penguins, and the researchers who study them, survive at Cape Royds and Cape Crozier, the southernmost penguin colonies in the world.