From Our Corner

Budget Battle of 2010: Just how big is the gap?

Image Governor Gregoire and the Legislature had to grapple with a $9 billion budget problem last year, and they're not out of the woods yet. Recovery of the state economy is still elusive, and a new revenue forecast next week could show still more slippage before it… Read more

High court upholds state's teacher pay system

Budget-writers, already buffeted by adverse lawsuits topping $300 million, no doubt breathed a sigh of relief when the state Supreme Court came down with a unanimous decision Thursday that upholds the state's method of paying teachers and school staff. The major decision http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=809437MAJ was written by Justice James Johnson and overturns a lower court decision in a Federal Way case that claimed the state's pay system… Read more

Writer wins write-in bid for Cathlamet mayor

Image One of the fun little stories of last week's… Read more

WSL Updates for November 12, 2009

Volume 5, November 12, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) 2010 ADULT SUMMER READING POSTER AVAILABLE ONLINE

2) BCR ONLINE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

3) THE ART OF GRANT WRITING AND FUNDRAISING

4) FREE SPACE SHUTTLE ARTIFACTS

5) ICONS OF WASHINGTON HISTORY EXHIBIT

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1) 2010 ADULT SUMMER READING POSTER… Read more

Pierce voters nix 'ranked-choice voting'

Image It was widely advertised as the latest cool thing in voting – "ranked-choice voting" or "instant-runoff voting." Just three years ago, Pierce County voters, responding to a proposal from the charter review commission, approved this new system for… Read more

You don’t look a day over 100…

This Wednesday marks a special moment in our state’s history: Washington’s 120th birthday. On November 11, 1889, Washington joined the Union as the 42nd state, just three days following Montana’s admission and nine days after North Dakota and South Dakota officially became states.

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The State Archives has the Western Union telegram (above) to the state’s first governor, Elisha P. Ferry, announcing that President Benjamin Harrison… Read more

R-71: No gay-marriage bill expected in 2010

Image Gay-rights activists say they don't expect to jump from their Referendum 71 victory to pursuing gay-marriage in the Legislature or in the courts right away. Sen. Ed Murray, sponsor of the state's newly ratified domestic partnership law,… Read more

Mail-in, Part II: Gov calls for speedier counts

Image Gov. Chris Gregoire, backed by House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, is urging lawmakers to assist counties in producing a faster count of election returns. That could mean requiring… Read more

Vote-by-mail: Just about all of us ...

Based on preliminary numbers from Washington's 39 county elections offices, it looks like about 99 percent of us voted by mail in the November election. That's about as close as you can get to all vote-by-mail as long as Pierce County continues to allow poll-site voting.

Image Under Washington law, the shift from poll-site voting has been swift. First, voters were allowed to sign up for no-excuse "permanent absentee" status, meaning… Read more

R-71 Part Deux: Will high court take up disclosure ban?

The continuing court battle by foes of Referendum 71 to shield their petitions from public view stepped up a notch Friday with filing of papers formally outlining the reasons why they want the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case and uphold a disclosure ban. Image… Read more

R-71: Effective 12-3-09

Image Media outlets have declared Referendum 71 approved by voters, describing it as the country's first voter-ratified gay-rights measure. As of Friday afternoon, the measure had an approval margin of nearly 71,000, or about 5 percentage points –754,180 to 683,320.… Read more

Media Clips: Libraries - November 06, 2009

These media mentions are compiled by Brian Zylstra, Deputy Communications Director for the Office of the Secretary of State, and passed along to us.

We had a special mention in the Lewiston Morning Tribune editorial for our Hard Times Resource Guide:

CHEERS ... to Washington State Librarian Jan Walsh. Working with her staff and Washington's… Read more

WSL Updates for November 5, 2009

Volume 5, November 5, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) WSL CHANGES INTERNET ADDRESSES

2) ONE HOMELESS MAN’S INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY

3) THREE FREE ONLINE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

4) SWEET TALK – ROMANCE FICTION IN THE LIBRARY

5) IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TECHNICAL AND PUBLIC SERVICES

6) HUMANITIES WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FORUMS

… Read more

Barbara Madsen will lead Supreme Court

Image Barbara Madsen, a highly regarded senior member of the Washington Supreme Court, has been chosen by her peers as Chief Justice, succeeding Gerry Alexander in January. Madsen,… Read more

Clippings, November 6, 2009

Library News The Cathlamet Town Council worked over its 2010 budget. As a result, Mayor Swart said he would approach the Wahkiakum County board of commissioners to seek a contribution of $6,000 to $7,000 for library operations. (The Wahkiakum Co. Eagle [Cathlamet], 10.15.09) http://www.waheagle.com/stories/101509/008.html During a public hearing regarding the 2010 city budget, Seattle City Council members heard from many speakers… Read more

Recount? Let me count the ways ...

Image With Seattle and Tacoma mayoral races uber-close -- and other contests as well -- we're getting the inevitable questions about the R word -- recount.

Here's the crash course:

--The basic rule is that a recount is mandatory if the margin is less than one-half of 1 percent and also less than 2,000 votes. (If you want to look up the citation, it's RCW 29A.64.021. If you want to wait for the movie, that's OK, too.)

--A… Read more

Sending Out an SOS: New Emails and URLs

If you've received an email from anyone at the State Library this week, you may have noticed that our email addresses have changed, and pretty significantly. No, we're not sending out a cry for help, but we are changing all our email addresses and URLs from sos.wa.gov over to sos.wa.gov. SOS, in this case, stands for Secretary Of State.

The sos.wa.gov will work for… Read more

Inmate magazines

Magazines GaloreFor the most part inmate directed magazines come and go, but we recently started getting a new magazine in our library. Hopefully, Insider Magazine will stick around. I am sure funding can be an issue in a lot of cases, but also staff who are willing to take the time to provide the magazine can be as well. I have only seen… Read more

Graying of Washington's electorate

Image Fresh numbers from the Washington Elections Division show… Read more

WSL Updates for November 3, 2009

Volume 5, November 3, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list Special Grant Opportunities Issue Topics include: 1) AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE GRANT OPPORTUNITY 2) SCHOOL LIBRARIES – BOOKS ACROSS AMERICA AWARDS 3) SUSTAINING CULTURAL HERITAGE COLLECTIONS 4) LAURA BUSH 21ST CENTURY LIBRARIAN PROGRAM 5) SUPPORT FOR K-12 LIBRARIES FROM LAURA BUSH FOUNDATION 6) WE THE PEOPLE BOOKSHELF OPPORTUNITY 7) BANK OF THE WEST CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS PROGRAM 8) APPLY NOW TO BECOME A… Read more