Washington state may have needed an exemption from the federal deadline for mailing ballots overseas, but Pierce County doesn’t.

County Auditor Julie Anderson says her office will meet the Sept. 18 deadline for ballots to go out to its 9,050 military and other overseas voters, even now that the Pentagon has given Washington until Oct. 3.

“I’m not saying that it was easy,” Anderson said. “We’ve had a lot of people working overtime. We’ve had a lot of stressed out managers.”

Pierce County’s announcement is interesting because it has so many of the state’s military voters. Secretary of State …

Read more »

It will still need to be paid back, but a $20 million loan that materialized suddenly from the state’s Department of Transportation last week is a windfall of sorts for one of Tacoma’s major public works projects: Restoring the Murray Morgan Bridge.

And the loan’s terms are almost too good to turn down: A zero-percent interest rate, a 10-year term and a balloon repayment structure – meaning the money doesn’t have to be paid back for a decade.

“This is the first I’ve heard of something like this,” city traffic engineer Kurtis Kingsolver said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for the city.”

Combined with $37 million in state and federal funds already dedicated, the new money will effectively put the city over the top in covering the price tag for a restoration project once thought to be a pipedream.
Read more »

Democrat Denny Heck’s campaign launched a new television ad today that shows him sharing the public’s anger over federal bank bailouts and Wall Street run amok. In the year of the angry taxpayer, Heck offers himself up in the ad as a sympathetic figure who doesn’t just complain but will actually do something.

Read full post.

The state Republican Party says Washington should have to meet the same deadlines as other states for sending Nov. 2 election ballots to voters living overseas or serving in the military.

Washington obtained an exemption from new federal requirements last week, which Republicans say will “almost certainly result in disenfranchising the votes of our brave men and women serving in the military.”

But Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed‘s office, which applied for the waiver, says Washington’s unusual elections calendar allows nearly all ballots to return from far-flung locations in time to be counted. In the past two elections, 99 …

Read more »

We reported today on Pierce County’s request of its unions that they forgo a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise in 2011 to help the county balance the budget.

To give readers more information, we’re attaching copies of the letters Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy wrote to 11 employee unions, as well as copies of replies to the county from two unions. You can read them at the bottom of this file.

Below is the gist of the story (but you can read the entire version <a href="You can read the full story here.“>here: :

Pierce County seeks

…

Read more »

The Washington State Republican Party has formally endorsed two measures on the Nov. 2 ballot — Initiative 1082′s privatization of workers compensation insurance and I-1107′s repeal of soda, candy and bottled water taxes. The moves on Saturday further line up the party with its anti-tax, deregulatory agenda.

Read full post.

My story from the weekend takes a look at the attempts to have the state Supreme Court limit the power of Attorney General Rob McKenna.

McKenna is being targeted by Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes for joining a legal challenge to the federal health care bill, and by Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark for balking at Goldmark’s request to appeal an unfavorable court decision. They are two different cases, but both claim McKenna has overstepped his authority — that he’s essentially going rogue.

There is another avenue to make that case: trying to recall McKenna from office. One McKenna critic, …

Read more »

Dino Rossi skipped a convention of tea party activists in the other Washington on Friday evening, but spoke to the crowd by video.

FreedomWorks, which hosted the Take America Back 2010 Convention, has designated Rossi and several other Republican Senate candidates as “Champions of Freedom.” Some of the candidates spoke by video while others attended, joining a lineup that included Rep. Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, who made a surprise appearance while preparing for his weekend “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

FreedomWorks recaps the convention:

Unfortunately not all of FreedomWorks’ Champions of Freedom could make

…

Read more »