We should know by Friday afternoon whether the campaign to legalize marijuana in Washington has a good chance of making it to the November ballot.

What time Friday? 4:20 p.m., of course.

The secretary of state’s office says that’s when supporters of Initiative 1068 plan to turn in petition signatures, 40 minutes before the deadline.

But it will be a close call whether they have enough names: The appointment is “tentative,” and the campaign says it has about 200,000 signatures, according to the secretary of state’s office. Initiatives need 241,153 valid signatures to get on the ballot, and usually …

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It looks like a rerun movie, but Gov. Chris Gregoire was in Washington, D.C., today with other governors. They want the Democrat-controlled Congress to deliver roughly $25 billion in medical aid to the states which had been all-but-promised earlier in the year.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith rapped out two hits and drove in a run, making him one of the Democrats’ hitting stars in yesterday’s 49th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game. The Democrats won 13-5 on a late nine-run rally after a brief GOP comeback — which is probably no harbinger for the fall elections.

Smith’s spokesman Michael Amato said the 9th district lawmaker from Tacoma had a good day at the plate in the Nationals’ stadium. He sent this photo of a guy who looks like a real hitter and not just some guy who pushes a vote button for a …

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Leaving a Monday night meeting of 27th Legislative District Democrats, supporters of Laurie Jinkins’ state House campaign thought she had won an endorsement.

Turns out it wasn’t so clear-cut. The local party compared the votes to the meeting’s sign-in sheet and turned up some irregularities.

“We had some votes cast by people who were not members, and we had more votes cast than the number of people that signed in,” vice-chair David Schroedel said.

So, was this mischief or honest errors? The party’s trying to sort that out, Schroedel said, along with how many votes were ineligible. It was more than four, and therefore enough to raise questions about the outcome of close votes for endorsements in the House race plus a district court race.

By a margin of just two votes, the local party had given a dual endorsement to Jinkins and Jake Fey for the seat representing most of Tacoma. That would be a boost for Jinkins because the party had endorsed Fey in March, and adding his opponent would dilute the endorsement.

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Backers of a second ballot measure – the Building Industry Association of Washington – have turned in an estimated 340,000 signatures for Initiative 1082. It appears to have enough to allow speedy random sampling and likely qualify it for the Nov. 2 ballot, but its place is not assured until after signature checks, which begin in another week or more.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is getting a jump on state-worker furloughs, shutting down the Olympia-based state agency on Tuesday, July 6. The day is added to the long July 4 holiday weekend.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is getting a jump on state-worker furloughs, shutting down the Olympia-based state agency on Tuesday, July 6. The day is added to the long July 4 holiday weekend.

Update: The Department of Retirement Systems also is shutting down for its first furlough day on July 6.

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Just in time for Independence Day, the City of Tacoma sent out the following press release this morning, clarifying what you can expect if caught with fireworks in the city limits:

Fireworks are prohibited in Tacoma

All fireworks are illegal within the Tacoma city limits. Violators of the fireworks law are subject to a fine and the confiscation of their fireworks.

Most fireworks violations are class 2 civil infractions and can result in a $257 fine; citizens using fireworks are still subject to arrest for other charges (i.e. arson, reckless burning, and assault). Fireworks are only permissible

…

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