UPDATE: Student-services workers at The Evergreen State College  voted 45 to 5 today to authorize actions “up to and including a strike” this afternoon. The overwhelming vote does not mean a strike will happen, but it will be an option for the employees as they continue to bargain with the administration over pay and disciplinary issues at the four-year school.

The affected workers include counselors and academic advisers.

ORIGINAL POST: About 55 student-services employees seeking a first-time labor contract at The Evergreen State College were voting today on whether to authorize a strike or other job actions, while their ongoing …

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Asking the Supreme Court to shed light on matters was given new layers of meaning Tuesday. An electrical problem in the Temple of Justice was causing a shorting-out of lights in the high court’s chambers, and the on-off aspect was a bit odd – even causing two justices to mention it, once during arguments.

“I want to apologize for the darkness earlier. Justice is blind but we usually don’t turn off the lights,” Chief Justice Barbara Madsen said after litigants concluded their arguments concluded Tuesday morning in an appeal of a $95 million judgment against the state in a …

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State workers will be recognized at Safeco Field on Saturday, according to Secretary of State Kim Wyman‘s office. Wyman is due to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in the evening game between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s.

The event caps Public Service Recognition Week, which the secretary of state’s office marked with a lunch on the Capitol Campus Wednesday and continues with two similar events today in Eastern Washington: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Department of Transportation Building in Spokane, and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Howard Ammon Park in Richland.

The Washington Federation of State Employees, the largest state worker union, said today it is airing ads for the next three weeks to pressure lawmakers to close tax loopholes.

The advertisements are airing on the radio in nearly every part of the state, according to the union, which said it is running cable television ads in areas that lack commercial radio stations. The federation released this transcript:

There’s a good plan in Olympia to close two percent of Washington’s 640 tax loopholes to fund schools and

…

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The state Employment Security Department has sent out two more  rounds of “at-risk” layoff notices to hundreds of workers, part of the agency’s slim-down after the Great Recession.

All told about 400 jobs are being wiped off the books in the agency that pays out unemployment compensation and also helps unemployed workers get jobs. Because roughly 140 positions had been kept vacant, the number of people eventually handed pink slips is going to be far less that those getting warned they are at risk of layoffs.

“It will be a few weeks before we know exactly how many people are …

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Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law today that lets state employees pay for their work-related parking and transit costs using pretax earnings. Democratic Rep. Sam Hunt of Olympia sponsored the measure, House Bill 1456, and he said it offers some small financial help to state workers.

“This is their pay raise,’’ Hunt half-joked.

Keith Cotton, manager of commute-trip reduction for the state Department of Transportation, said his agency has about 800 workers who use bus passes that cost the worker about $25 a month. For someone paying that rate and taxed at the 25 …

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Updated to add list of the top 10 recipients of payouts.

About 260 state and local government agencies and nonprofits soon will get their share of a $4 million pay out by Ricoh Americas Group to settle liability for overcharges by its subsidiary IKON Office Solutions, the state Department of Enterprise Services announced Thursday.

The biggest recipient of a windfall is King County, which is scheduled to get $736,000 when the payouts are made May 15, DES spokesman Jim Erskine said in a news release. No. 2 is the state mega-agency, Department of Social and Health Services.

“Settlement amounts for …

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Gov. Jay Inslee announced Pat Kohler as the new director of the Department of Licensing today, pulling Kohler from the Liquor Control Board that is in the middle of writing rules for the state’s brand new marijuana industry.

Inslee is nearly done filling out his Cabinet. The governor named Chris Liu to lead the Department of Enterprise Services, the big agency that manages state-government real estate and deals with other back-office functions like purchasing, accounting and human resources. He replaces Joyce Turner, who stepped down as DES director last month.…

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