Tacoma’s City Council approved an update to its Shoreline Master Program late Tuesday, beating a state deadline and putting the council’s stamp on a massive document five years in the making with an array of late amendments.

Council members said while their final tweaks to the city’s shoreline rules won’t necessarily make everyone happy, several of them said the updated plan provides key compromises that business and industry, residents and recreationalists should be able to live with.

“I think we ended up in a place that really demonstrated our ability to collaborate,” Mayor Marilyn Strickland said.

The proposal – an overhaul that includes updated goals, policies and development regulations for 42 miles of city shorelines, now goes to the state’s Department of Ecology, which will review it to determine if it complies with state law.

In 2003, Washington’s legislature approved new guidelines for local governments to conduct a comprehensive review and update of their respective shorelines programs, many of which hadn’t been changed since the 1970s. The guidelines detail procedural steps and substantive requirements that must be met.

Chief among the council’s final amendments to the plan adopted Tuesday is a new unique district on Tacoma’s downtown waterfront that includes the Tahoma Salt Marsh and Sperry Ocean Dock – an area that had become a battleground during the overhaul process.

Stadium residents and supporters of a proposed public esplanade from the Tacoma Dome to Point Defiance had sparred with Sperry’s supporters and other business interests over whether the industrial Schuster Parkway District that houses the dock and its hulking Marine Administration ships should be down-zoned into a more recreation-friendly mixed use designation now held by the neighboring Ruston Parkway District.

Under the amendment proposed by Councilman David Boe approved Tuesday, a new transition district is created between Schuster Parkway and Ruston Way. It allows industrial uses now permitted along Schuster Parkway, including Sperry, to be conditionally permitted, but new lay-berth facilities – terminals for ships longer than 300 feet — would be prohibited. It also reduces allowed heights along the shoreline from 100 to 35 feet, as a way to accommodate the area’s sloping, mostly residential bluffs above the waterfront.

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Gov. Chris Gregoire is petitioning the federal government today to reclassify marijuana to allow it to be prescribed as a medicine.

She is following up on a promise made this winter when she refused to go along the Legislature’s proposal to legalize and license medical-marijuana dispensaries, saying that would subject state employees to federal prosecution.

Washington does allow medical professionals to write authorizations for marijuana, under a system that isn’t recognized by federal law governing prescription drugs.

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a political independent, joined Washington’s Democratic governor in urging the Drug Enforcement Administration to acknowledge the drug’s medical …

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A series of efforts aimed at helping veterans and military families won unanimous backing today from a task force of state lawmakers.

The ideas endorsed by the Joint Committee on Veterans’ and Military Affairs could be considered by the Legislature in the ongoing emergency budget session but are more likely to wait until January. They include:

• An expedited process for professional licensing of military spouses. Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said his proposal would apply to wives and husbands who are licensed in another state and are transferred to Washington. They would get a temporary license and a quicker

…

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The face of an elderly couple is featured in ads scheduled to appear today in Washington newspapers, asking state lawmakers to consider revenue options, while sparing programs such as adult day health.

A coalition including the Service Employees International Union Healthcare 775 NW, AARP Washington, and the Eldercare Alliance is paying for the print ads that run in The Olympian and Seattle Times, and web ads running in a slew of other papers, according to Adam Glickman, a spokesman and vice president with SEIU.

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A group of lawmakers are starting their day hearing about various potential pieces of legislation affecting the military and veterans.

That includes a proposal to expedite the professional licensing process for military spouses.

House leaders will decide whether to have a floor vote today on the bailout of a Wenatchee arena. But the real obstacle to the loan may be in the Senate.

Demonstrators will continue their push for higher taxes on businesses and the rich with some mid-day theater. Protesters plan to impersonate the “1 percent” of wealthiest Americans, complete with top hats, monocles and tiaras.

Here’s …

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At the end of an agenda-packed meeting that dragged late into Tuesday night, the City Council chose five finalists in the search for Tacoma’s next city manager, including the man who is now temporarily filling the job.

The council selected Interim City Manager Rey Arellano to advance to a three-day interview process of finalists next week and will bring four candidates to join him. The other finalists include:

• T.C. Broadnax, assistant city manager of San Antonio, Tex.

Broadnax, an 18-year public administrator, was generally praised for his budgeting background and community relations skills. He was the only candidate all nine council members voted unanimously to advance to the finalists’ round.

• Andrew Neiditz, city manager of Lakewood.

Neiditz, a local candidate with professional experience dating to 1975, won kudos from supporters for his work on Lakewood’s relations with Joint Base Lewis McChord and for skillfully managing that city during trying times. The council voted 7 to 2 to advance him.

• Frederick Russell, city administrator of Augusta, Ga.

Russell, a 35-year government employee, is a former police chief with a strong law enforcement background who and a reference from Virginia’s governor. Supporting council members say his application showed strong managerial skills on livability issues and relating to diverse communities. The council advanced him 6 to 3.

• Craig Malin, city administrator of Davenport, Iowa.

Malin, with 25 years of experience including a decade in Davenport, demonstrated in his application financial management prowess, economic development know-how and a collaborative spirit, supporters say. The council voted 7 to 2 to advance him.

“I’m excited to be part of the final slate,” Arellano said late Tuesday. “”Clearly, this is a great group of candidates. I make no assumptions and I look forward to the competition.”

All city council members but Joe Lonergan voted to advance Arellano, a deputy manager in Tacoma under former City Manager Eric Anderson for five years. Arellano, who also served as a deputy manager in San Diego for four years, was named Tacoma’s interim manager in July after the council fired Anderson.

Two other candidates for the job – Marianna Marysheva-Martinez, interim town manager of Mammoth Lakes, CA, and Donald Krupp, Thurston County administrator – reached the semi-finalist stage, but didn’t make the final cut.

The council’s selection process for the final round involved openly debating all semi-finalists’ qualifications Tuesday, then voting on whether to advance each candidate by name.

But the selection didn’t come without some late procedural tinkering and behind-the-scenes scrambling, after The News Tribune raised questions about whether a process the council had planned to use would have violated the state’s Open Meetings Act. Read more »

Several hundred more protesters showed up at the state Capitol on Tuesday to protest against spending cuts proposed to close a $2 billion budget gap. Eleven were arrested for disorderly conduct or trespassing on the second day of the Legislature’s special session, and four were tied to a noisy protest that disrupted a presentation on budget cuts.

In April, Gov. Chris Gregoire, her staff and the state agency that manages the Legislative Building let protesters camp overnight for four evenings in the Rotunda during protests against budget cuts. But that is not allowed this time.

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Near the end of Monday’s faceoff at the Capitol, state troopers used their stun guns on demonstrators blocking a law-enforcement bus.

An unknown number of people were stunned — in addition to the previously reported use of stun guns on protesters trying to push their way into the Capitol earlier in the evening.

After that pushing incident, in which several troopers and another state employee were injured, troopers arrested three people on suspicion of felony assault. They put arrested protesters on a bus to be carried to the Thurston County jail, but dozens of protesters blocked the bus.

Sgt. …

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