There are 10 weeks until Election Day, and 10 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (11 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. We are about to take off on vacation, and, well, we wanna get out of here. So this is going to happen lightning-round style. Abortion: Rossi: Anti. Gregoire: Pro. Taxes: Gregoire: For the rich only. Rossi: None at all, ever.......

Courtesy of local politics blogger extraordinaire Goldy at HorsesAss comes a YouTube video of the Washington delegates at the DNC when Michelle Obama takes the stage. We knew we weren't the only person who got teary or swelled up with pride during the speech, and it looks like Governor Gregoire was excited from the get-go...listen to that hooting and hollering!......

Ali versus Frasier, Coke vs. Pepsi, Good vs. Evil, Gregoire vs. Rossi: the opposing sides in the great battles of our time. The latter, Gregoire vs. Rossi, is all geared up for an ugly rematch set to unfold this November. The candidates have announced that a duel err, debate will be taking place on October 1st in Yakima. The sure to be scintilatting, or at least mud-slinging, discussion will be shown statewide on PBS stations.......

There are 11 weeks until Election Day, and 11 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (12 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. Washington residents pay the highest gas tax in all the land. Wait, what?!?! We demand to know who is at fault for this! Rossi: She is, because she signed the 2005 bill that increased the gas tax 9.5 cents for......

There are 12 weeks until Election Day, and 12 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (13 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. Rossi: His detractors claim that he's a Bush model global warming denier. Well Mr. Rossi, if there's no such thing as climate change, how do you explain the crap weather we've been getting the last few years? He's probably......

DRINK WITH CHRIS GREGOIRE: Drinking Liberally gathers each Tuesday to talk politics and drink alcohol. Tonight, they'll be joined by unafraid-to-call-herself-a-Democrat Chris Gregoire, who will no doubt be drinking for the votes of all those in attendance. 8 p.m. // Montlake Ale House // Price of whatever you're drinking SPEAKING OF GETTING SHIT DONE: Elliott Bay Books hosts their Global Issues and Ethics Book Club tonight, where they'll be discussing Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest: How......

There are 13 weeks until Election Day, and 13 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (14 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand. This Week: Small Business. Gregoire: She will continue to help business owners. Gregoire Website: “[Washington is the] Fourth best state for starting a business.” Rossi: He will do more to help small businesses owners. Rossi Website: “Washington has one of......

There are 14 weeks until Election Day, which is great because there are only 14 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (15 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an in-depth, and we predict award-winning, look at where Governor Christine Gregoire and Just Dino Rossi stand. This Week: The Alaskan Way Viaduct. Rossi—That waterfront tunnel no one liked. Gregoire—She will decide by December 2006, the voters will decide, an elevated replacement,......

Governor Christine Gregoire has signed a statewide state of emergency to deal with a number of wildfires in Central and Eastern Washington. Fires are being battled in Chelan, Douglas, Stevens, Adams, Ferry, Okanogon, and Spokane counties. The Spokane Valley fire has already destroyed 13 homes and has consumed over 1200 acres since it started. A fire outside of Wenatchee has already burned more than 12 and a half square miles, and with high wind and......

The Storefront of the Beloved Archie McPhee's courtesy of their very own Flickr Group Seattlest just received a disheartening email from the beloved Seattle toy store and misfit haven, Archie McPhee's. We have to admit, few sentences have struck more fear or sadness in our heart than the following: "If Governor Gregoire allows this bill to become law, Archie McPhee will have to close." The above-mentioned bill was recently passed by the Washington State Legislature,......

Dino Rossi is savvy enough to know the state’s inability to broker a Key Arena remodel is the type of far-fetched, wedge issue just ripe for exploiting come November’s election. Considering the hotly contested runoff between him and Governor Gregoire several years ago, the Sonics impending departure is the perfect issue to highlight as an example of weak-kneed Democrats not taking care of business on Gregoire’s watch. Of course, there is the fact Key......

...is still prostitution ring free.......

photo by Flickr Contributor lachance This weekend the Washington State Senate narrowly passed a bill approving remote cameras to take photos of speeding drivers. A single one of these cameras, so-called "photo cops," can issue as many citations as 25 police officers. Washington State is eager to approve more uses for police cameras, as the installation of four red-light cameras in Seattle have brought in more than a million dollars of revenue in their......

Unlike Kevin Henry, Congressman Brian Baird, of Washington's third district, has endorsed Barack Obama. He joins Congressman Adam Smith, Governor Gregoire, and Pearl Jam as state leaders on Obama's side. Hillary Clinton has the the support of Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, Congresman Jay Inslee, and King County Executive Ron Sims.......

Boom! Governor Gregoire comes right out of the gate at the new legislative session with a new bill laying "the groundwork for concrete limits on greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2012." And, in just four short (or long, depending on how you look at it) years, the bill "would give the state Department of Ecology the authority to regulate those emissions," reports the P-I. The main thing is that "big polluters" in Washington State would......

Governor Christine Gregoire officially proclaimed today "Blue Friday" in honor of the Seahawks and Mike Holmgren -- but mostly in honor of the fans, their noise and the 43 consecutive sold-out home games. Some may criticize the Governor for spending time and money on something so frivolous, but we would argue that there's nothing frivolous about elevating the pride of the citizenry. Go Hawks! Official, signed proclamation after the jump.........

Well Governor Gregoire's on a bit of a rampage, isn't she! First she announces that, replacement or no, the Viaduct is coming down in 2012. Now, an announcement that you'll have to pay a toll to cross 520 as soon as next year. The Times reports that the toll would be around $6 at peak hours. Why tolls? The state needs $2 billion to pay its share of the new 520 bridge, scheduled to open......

You recall the other day we were mad as hell at the Washington State Ferries for running their boats until they rusted through, leaving everyone high and dry while new ones can be built. WSF is still dead to us, but Governor Gregoire could make our "holiday card" list if she keeps it up. First the viaduct course correction, now she's scrounged up $100 million to pay for three new ferries. Budget, schmudget! She's......

The Republicans, learning from the mistakes of the Democrats in King County's Sixth, may decide to run a candidate against Governor Gregoire next fall. The PI reports, in big letters above the fold, that Dino Rossi (the guy who may already be our governor) will probably run for governor. Well, no shit. He's been holding un-official rallies, giving speeches, and raising money (WIIINNNK) for a few months now. Also, everyone in the state's GOP expects......

The scoreboard at Everett Memorial Stadium will be incredibly accurate this season. Why? Because Dino Rossi is buying a minority share in the Aquasox, and he tends to get bitchy when people lose count. Rossi will be making the announcement with fellow new minority owner Jay Buhner, where it’s a safe bet that Rossi will make sure that the two are seated. This will complete Rossi's reverse-Bush résumé-- elected official, lost disputed election for higher......

"We're gonna send you to military school" will no longer be an idle threat only of rich parents, if Governor Gregoire gets her way. She's backing a "boot-camp-style" academy for our state's high school dropouts.The governor is seeking about $6 million to build and operate the academy, which would serve about 300 dropouts each year — two intensive five-month sessions of 150 youths, drawn from around the state. After scouring the state for possible sites,......

With ballots for the fake Viaduct election due next Tuesday others around the country are starting to take notice, and tease us. The Economist (which hasn’t been the same since it stopped running box scores) covered the story and summed up the situation thusly, “Seattle’s tunnel has become a trip to political hell. All aboard.” They also quote U-Dub professor and expert of public policy Bryan Jones on the area’s leadership, “[Mayor Nickels and Governor......

Recently Governor Gregoire's been taking a lot of heat for her ambivalent handling of the Viaduct sitchyation we got here. Today, the Seattle Times rides to her rescue. The blame-reallocating story by David Postman and Andrew Garber begins: Gov. Christine Gregoire got so frustrated trying to broker a compromise between Mayor Greg Nickels and House Speaker Frank Chopp on the Alaskan Way Viaduct that she turned to a Republican wise man for advice. "She......

Sonics owner Clay Bennett, displaying an uncanny sense of timing, delivered an estimate on keeping the Sonics to Governor Gregoire today, 24 hours after she'd decided there wasn't enough money for an Alaskan Way Tunnel. From the letter [pdf]:To make this project work, it is clear that we will need at least $300 million in revenue sources authorized by the state. These would be taxes collected only in King County... The entire project, Bennett says,......

Last March we were trying to keep a stiff upper lip as we informed you that the bill banning PBDEs, a wily fire-retardant chemical, had been stifled for another year. PBDEs are tricky because while they should just sit there and avoid catching fire, it turns out they display a proclivity for striking out on their own, and have been busy making their homes in people, even in breast milk. This is a red......

To which the first question is, What the hell's a Seattle Examiner? It turns out to be part of Qwest billionaire and conservative Christian Philip Anschutz's online media empire: 22 U.S. cities now have Examiners. (Though there look to be Examiner staff on-the-ground in only four: Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Denver, and San Francisco.) Who knew? This is what happens when we don't have Mossback to kick around any more. "Their" Seattle UW tuition story......

The 2007 Washington Legislative session begins today, and Governor Gregoire wants to spend big. Her argument, we have a $1.9 billion surplus, and we should spend that money on education, health care, and other gross poor people things. Of the four billion dollars in increased spending she is looking to add to the state’s two year operating budget, she wants half to be spent on education. None, however, will be spent to track down Sasquatch.......

There's a small item in the P-I today about Governor Gregoire's proposal to halve the price of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Toll for those drivers who carry an automatic toll transponder in their car. People who participate would pay $1.50 round-trip instead of the $3 everyone else pays. Presumably there would also be a fast lane for the traffic that used the transponders that would allow them to drive straight through, although at a somewhat......

Last week, Governor Gregoire displayed punting skillz we hadn't suspected she had when she told Seattle voters she was forming a new band called The Deciders and good news, we were all in it! It got us musing about how what to do about the Viaduct has bogged down into name-calling between fractious camps. (Here we wave merrily at the Slog, David Sucher, and WSDOT.) Arguments on all sides are astoundingly technical and never......

Governor Gregoire stood in front of the sculpture park yesterday and threw packets of hundred dollar bills into the Sound until $220 million disappeared into the sludge, or, she may as well have. Actually, she talked about the myriad environmental concerns that threaten Puget Sound and she pledged $220,000,000 towards the $9 billion the Puget Sound Partnership says it will take over the next 14 years to adequately protect and repair the Sound. The money......