From Our Corner
Thurston judge OKs pause in Eyman lawsuit
Image Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks has granted the state's request to pause further proceedings in initiative activist Tim Eyman's court challenge of the Secretary of State's policy of releasing initiative petitions under terms of the Public Records Act. Hicks agreed with a motion brought by a senior official of the Attorney General's Office, Deputy Solicitor General James Pharris, to put a hold on the Thurston County… Read moreDigital Updates
From the desk of Judy Pitchford Volume 4, #2 November 2009 for Digital Updates Historical Newspapers in Washington – 1 new title. The years 1861-1864 have been added to the Puget Sound Herald in Historical Newspapers in Washington online project, which now covers six years of Steilacoom pioneer news, from 1858 to 1864. Classics in Washington History We have… Read moreDidyaknow?...
Image ... that you can find real gold in our State Capitol? (To be fair though, there's so little of it that I used to tell tour groups there is more gold in my grandma’s teeth than in the capitol!) In the State Reception room hang six red French velvet curtains with a… Read more
Found it in the Archives
What can you find in the State Archives? You may be surprised... Our Archives team was going through former Governor Albert Rosellini's papers and spotted this:
Sunday is… Read more
`Counting on fairness': Governing mag award for Reed
Image Secretary of State Sam Reed has been honored by Governing magazine as one of the country's best public officials. Reed, a three-term statewide official who also spent… Read more
Reed promotes regional presidential primaries for 2012
Image Secretary of State Reed is ramping up efforts to persuade the national political parties to reform the country's "dysfunctional" system of picking our White House nominees. Reed and the National Association of Secretaries of State are hoping the parties will replace the current free-for-all system of increasingly early primaries with a more rational system of rotating regional primaries. Reed, a former NASS president and a senior member of… Read moreSea of red ink: WA treasury plunges $760 million
Image It's true that the state and national economy are finally recovering, but consumers aren't spending and unemployment keeps edging upward. That odd situation, dubbed a "revenue-less recovery," today led the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council to slash another $760 million from the expected tax revenue for the next two-year period. State budget Director Victor Moore says the grim… Read moreWSL Updates for November 19, 2009
Volume 5, November 19, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list
Topics include:
1) FIRST TUESDAYS – EMERGENCY LIBRARY SERVICES
2) GALE PUBLIC LIBRARY GROUP PURCHASE RENEWAL
3) APPLY FOR THE BIG READ
4) FREE INFOPEOPLE WEBINAR: EFFECTIVELY MANAGING YOUR EMAIL
5) FREE INFOPEOPLE WEBINAR: STAFF DAY SUCCESS!
6) WEBJUNCTION WEBINAR – LIBRARY NETWORKING Q&A
… Read moreState government money woes sweep West Coast
Image Governor Gregoire and the Washington Legislature are cringing at the thought of a projected $2 billion budget gap this winter, and that number is expected to rise a bunch more in Thursday's revenue forecast update. This after closing a $9 billion gap in April. Does misery love company? Then take note that our sister states of Oregon and California are facing dire straits. Today's LA Times… Read moreSarah Palin heading to Richland for Turkey Day?
Image Media celeb Sarah Palin, busy promoting her new best-seller campaign recap/memoir, "Going Rogue," reportedly will celebrate Thanksgiving with her family at "Aunt Katie's house" in the Tri-Cities. The Tri-City Herald reports that the former veep candidate and former Alaska governor is expected to break bread with Katie Johnson, Palin's mother's sister. Palin, who went… Read moreO Holiday Tree, O Holiday Tree
Image Remember the holiday First Amendment mess at the state Capitol last year? The quirky, I'll-do-you-one-better battle of the displays that made THIS Washington the laughingstock for once? The story starts pretty simply: for 20 years, the Association of Washington Business puts up a gorgeous gi-normous lighted tree in the Rotunda and raised money for needy families. In 2006, the governor lights a menorah. Then comes a Nativity scene (no live… Read moreUgandan singers dazzle at Capitol
Image Legislative Building staffers and visitors alike received a musical treat Tuesday when The Ugandan Orphans Choir performed during the noon hour in the Capitol Rotunda. The choir's five girls and five boys are touring the Western U.S. to bring awareness of poverty stricken children across the world to America.
Prior to the concert, the choir met Secretary of State Sam Reed and our executive office staff and sang a song for us. Their… Read moreAsk-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for Oct 2009
Image Ask-WA Statistics – October, 2009 Ask-WA picked up significantly in October, beating September and August in every category. Except Qwidget requests, which remained about even, percentage-wise. In numbers:
- Email questions… Read more
Shifting boundaries: Redistricting afoot
Image The politically sensitive issue of how to re-draw Washington's congressional and legislative boundaries will be turned over to an independent citizen commission after the 2010 Census -- but work is already under way. The Secretary of State's redistricting office -- a grand name for two staffers! -- has just launched a terrific new website that spells it all out. This political art… Read moreSurprises in the mail
The following is a letter that was recently received in the mail at McNeil Island Correction Center Library. Sometimes there are good days, and this was one of those things that can make you realize, that maybe, just maybe you are doing some good in the world. To Earl Dungey: Nov 1, 2009 A former inmate, who worked in your library, came into my bookstore and spent $50 on SF and a few other things. He said he was sending the books to… Read more
Oregonians also planning suffrage centennial
Image Word filters north of the Oregon-Washington border that Oregonians, too, are busy organizing a big celebration for their state's centennial of women gaining the right to vote. (Hey, no smarty-mouth comments from chauvinists out there!). As faithful readers of From Our Corner know, Washington already is into the centennial, since our Legislature approved suffrage in 19-aught-nine and the male voters approved it in November of 1910.… Read moreServing up the staff cookbook
Image Want to bring something new to the Thanksgiving table this year? Get your hands on some of our staff’s most beloved recipes and family secrets in a new cookbook recently released by our office. This week, someone baked the Apple Cake recipe from the book and it… Read more
Clippings, November 13, 2009
Library News The Friends of the Upper Skagit Library have purchased a projector and screen. This will enable projection of webinars and other Web programs when something that would be interesting to the community is presented. If such a program is scheduled, we’ll have the information posted on the Web site at www.upperskagit.lib.wa.us. (Concrete Herald, 10.2009) November 4 marks a special date for many people in the Chehalis area – the one-year… Read moreSecretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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