A new SurveyUSA/KING5 poll shows Republican challenger John Koster at 50 percent and Demcoratic Rep. Rick Larsen at 46 percent in the 2nd District matchup.

Four percent were undecided. Go to KING5 for more info.

(UPDATES with reaction from Tim Eyman)

With the exception of a measure concerning expanded gay rights, the state may now release all information from initiative and referendums petitions.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks on Friday dissolved an order that had kept the secretary of state's office from giving out information like who signed the measures. In 2009 Hicks blocked the release of the information following a lawsuit by Tim Eyman, who was seeking to keep from the public data for his recent initiatives as well as others.

Tim Eyman

"With the exception of R-71 petitions, which are still subject to an order from the U.S. District Court, all other initiative and referendum petitions may be released as public records," said Dave Ammons, spokesman for secretary of state Sam Reed.

Eyman, who makes his living running initiative campaigns, had said he went to court because releasing the names of people who sign initiative petitions would "chill" public participation in government.

In an e-mail to supporters Friday afternoon, Eyman criticized the judge's decision.

"Absurdly, someone who donates $25 to a ballot measure is provided greater privacy protection than a citizen who signs a petition. There is a threshold that donors must reach before they're forced to disclose their names and addresses (and never their signature). It's $25. So if you give $25 or less, you're entitled to complete anonymity under Washington state law," Eyman wrote.

continue reading

The number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States dropped by nearly two-thirds between 2005 and 2009, according to a just-released report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

An average of 850,000 people a year entered the U.S. illegally during the first five years of the 21st Century, according to Pew. But the number fell to 300,000 between 2007 and 2009.

The plunge in illegals comes at a time when conservative media, notably Fox News, has trumpeted the issue of illegal immigration and an Arizona law that requires police, when suspicious, to ask for proof that an individual is in the country illegally.

The release of Pew's study was first reported in The Washington Post.

It constitutes the first major reversal in growth of illegals in 20 years. The recent drop has made for an 8 percent drop in Pew's estimate of the number of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S.

continue reading

Foes of two initiatives that would get Washington out of the liquor business warn of many ills that could befall the state: Increased numbers of liquor stores, decimated local budgets and the likelihood that minors could more easily buy spirits.

There are also claims that Initiatives 1100 and 1105 would hobble the agency charged with enforcing liquor laws - the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Agency spokesman Brian Smith told the Stranger this week that without the "markup" - the fee the state now adds to booze before it is taxed - the LCB couldn't do its job. "Without it, we can't run enforcement, licensing, alcohol-awareness programs, or the liquor control board."

That's simply not the case.

A tax on wine helps pay for the Liquor Control Board

For the 2009 fiscal year, all of the licensing and enforcement funding ($18.6 million) came from a combination of beer and wine taxes and licensing fees. Neither initiative would do anything to the wine tax.

According to the LCB distribution sheet for that year, total wine tax distributed to other state programs was about $3.7 million. The operating statement said wine tax and penalties was $21.7 million. The other $18 million went to pay for licensing and enforcement and the remaining half million of licensing came out of fees and penalties.

That this is so is also clear from the Office of Financial Management Tax Reference Manual, which states that wine fees must first go to pay for the board and then can be distributed elsewhere.

Smith acknowledges his agency would still exist in a privatized retail system.

"The $23 million wine tax would cover Board expenses under a privatized system," he said in a recent e-mail to seattlepi.com. "That money is currently going to the state and local communities because the Board's expenses are currently covered by markup. For the Board to use that will be a takeaway for state and/or local government. I've heard the Initiatives take credit for their initiative(s) to fund the LCB. It (or they) don't. The funding already exists in statute."

continue reading

Ken Salazar, where are you?

The U.S. Interior Secretary is visiting Alaska today and tomorrow, holding a press conference in Anchorage followed by an Arctic-style town meeting in Barrow. Of course, Interior has massive holdings in Alaska.

But Washington has three national parks, numerous national wildlife refuges - Theodore Roosevelt created several of them - and Grand Coulee Dam qualifies as a big Interior Department holding.

We almost never see Salazar.

continue reading

Repubican Dino Rossi leads Democratic Sen. Patty Murray 50 percent to 47 percent in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.

The survey of 750 likely voters was conducted Aug. 31. The margin of errror was 4 percent. The same poll two weeks ago showed Murray up 50 to 46.

The Murray-Rossi race is getting increasing attention from the national press. Politico listed the match up this week as one of three key contests in the fight for control of the Senate.

Seattle Public Schools and the city's teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new, three-year contract, The Associated Press reports.

The agreement includes a new evaluation system that takes into account improvement in student learning. The Seattle Education Association is scheduled to vote on the proposed new contract on Thursday. The contract would give teachers 1 percent raises in both 2011-12 and 2012-2013. It gives them more collaborative planning time, sets aside more money for mentors to help instructors new to the classroom and adds other leadership positions for teachers, The AP says.

It's safe to say that Vanity Fair is not the type of publication Sarah Palin or her many supporters would likely read regularly. Writer Michael Joseph Gross has a lengthy piece on the Republican superstar.

Among other things, Gross writes:

Early in the 2008 campaign, when John McCain's aides discovered that Alaska-size gaps existed in Palin's general knowledge (among those previously unreported: she had no idea who Margaret Thatcher was), they from time to time would give her some books to read in hopes of improving the candidate's learning curve. On one such occasion, Palin accepted the books, set them aside, and for the next 25 minutes was held rapt by one of her three BlackBerrys.

Eventually, an aide asked, "What are you working on?"

"I'm reading these great e-mails," she said, "from the prayer warriors."

The state Democratic Party held a conference call with reporters Wednesday. Chairman Dwight Pelz went after Republican Seante candidate Dino Rossi over the issue of his ties to lobbyists. I was at a news conference with Mayor Mike McGinn and couldn't sit in on the Democrats' call. Check out coverage from The Seattle Times and PubliCola. Sounds like reporters were pretty skeptical about Pelz's claims that Rossi's dealing with lobbyists are somehow different from Murray's.

A festival participant uses a gas mask to inhale marijuana smoke during Seattle's Hempfest last month. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

Mayor Mike McGinn has a reminder for Seattle residents: It's illegal to smoke pot.

In 2003 city voters passed an initiative making the investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses, when the drug was intended for adult personal use, the lowest law enforcement priority. The Stranger recently reported that the average number of monthly arrests for marijuana had gone up to almost 29 a month in the city, more than triple what it was when voters said they wanted to de-emphasize marijuana enforcement. However Seattlecrime.com questioned those figures.

At a news briefing Wednesday McGinn was asked about the marijuana issue. He said pot arrests are "the lowest priority for the police department, that's the case."

He cited a city study that found in the first four months of last year about 6,500 incident reports were filed with the City Attorney's Office. In only six of those incidents was marijuana the reason for the contact - only .09 percent of incident reports during this time period cite marijuana as the primary reason for a contact.

The mayor said one of the things that had changed is the reporting system for police incidents.

"I don't believe that we're seeing more arrest," he said. "It's simply the reporting may show an uptick. The first thing is, there's a certain number of reports where marijuana was listed in a report. But that doesn't mean that someone was arrested because of it. If an officer stops somebody on a warrant, stops somebody in response to a call about something bad happening, enforcing a drug law in areas of high drug trafficking...they will, if they find marijuana, they are bound to report it. Because we want to have that record. So, the vast majority that marijuana is in a report is because of that, is because it's incident to another arrest and it's reported."

However McGinn added that Seattle's 2003 initiative did not change the legal status of marijuana.

"Everybody needs to understand something else, too, which is, in fact, it's still against the law. Changes in the law have to come from the federal or state level, they can't come from the city level," McGinn said. "We kind of put officers in a funny situation. We're asked to make something a low priority but they are still in a position of following the law...I guess, I would say, just because it's the lowest enforcement priority, to members of the public, it's still against the law. You'd do everybody a favor if you don't light up in front of a police officer."

Mayor Mike McGinn said this week's fatal police shooting was a "tragedy" and that he was "very concerned" about recent high-profile use of force incidents involving city officers.

McGinn at a Wednesday press briefing

"Like any big city, we have a lot of officers, a lot of (police) contacts. We want our officers to be as well trained as possible," McGinn said in a Wednesday briefing with reporters. "And that we also remain the type of city, the type of environment in which people have a greater sense of security and safety and trust in both directions."

McGinn also addressed questions as to why the officer wasn't equipped with a Taser, saying it was Seattle policy that only more experienced officers get the stun guns.

Investigators say officer Ian D. Birk, 27, shot 50-year-old John T. Williams Monday afternoon in downtown Seattle. Police say Williams was armed with a knife when he was shot four times after the officer had ordered him to drop the weapon. Williams' death was the second officer-involved shooting death this month and third officer-involved death this year.

McGinn said police have promised a transparent investigation into the latest incident and that it was inappropriate for him to comment on that process.

"My other reaction is to acknowledge the tragedy here at the heart of this incident. There are two human beings here. A young officer who recently joined the force...I'm sure he joined the force and serves on the force with taking seriously his mission to protect and serve the public," the mayor said.

"The individual that was shot, John Williams...we've learned that he's a ... Native American man. A carver, carved totem poles. He was well known at the Chief Seattle Club in town, which is a non-profit organization that provides services to Native Americans...apparently homeless, had difficulties in his life.

continue reading

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, weighs in on the controversy surrounding plans by Muslims to build a religious center near Ground Zero in Manhattan.

Let's be honest about it, in the First Amendment, religious freedom, religious expression, that really express matters to the Constitution. So, if the Muslims own that property, that private property, and they want to build a mosque there, they should have the right to do so. The only question is are they being insensitive to those who suffered the loss of loved ones? We know there are Muslims killed on 9/11 too and we know it's a great religion.... But as far as their right to build that mosque, they have that right.

I just think what's made this country great is we have religious freedom. That's not the only thing, but it's one of the most important things in the Constitution....

There's a question of whether it's too close to the 9/11 area, but it's a few blocks away, it isn't right there.... And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there, but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights.

From the art deco Seattle Tower to the aquamarine dome of the "Ban Roll-On building," Seattle's skyline boasts a nice collection of gems. What's mostly absent are corporate logos branded into the crowns of high-rises. That could change, with a city proposal to allow big companies to put their names at the top of downtown skyscrapers. Click here to read more.

Brown, right, speaking to reporters with Rossi

The Republican who shocked many in the political world when he won Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat earlier this year was in Bellevue Tuesday headlining a fundraiser for Dino Rossi, who's looking to make a statement of his own in November.

Scott Brown spoke at a sold out event attended by 400 at the Westin Hotel. Rossi is running against Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat seeking her fourth term. Murray has raised about almost $12 million so far and Rossi, who has taken in about $2 million, is looking to close that gap heading into the fall. His campaign didn't immediately say how much money the Brown event raised.

Speaking to reporters before the fundraiser, Brown said he knows what it's like to be the "new guy" in Washington.

"We need other people who are going to look out for people's wallets and pocketbooks and focus on the debt and spending," he said. "I met Dino and I asked if I could help him, he didn't ask me. I think that's important to note...it would be nice to have him there, right beside me."

Brown won a January special election to take the Senate seat that had been held by the late Kennedy for more than 46 years. Brown became a conservative superstar overnight, however the Bay State politician has not always held to the party line. The pro-choice Brown provided a crucial Republican vote to Democrats earlier this year during the push to pass financial reforms; Rossi has said he'll work to repeal those if elected.

Asked about that vote, Brown said he and Rossi "were not going to agree on everything. I certainly hope not. He's from a different part of the country, different needs...I am from Massachusetts. We're the number two financial services industry in the country."

continue reading

The Tea Party movement in Alaska can break out champagne, as its candidate Fairbanks lawyer Joe Miller defeated incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in what was America's nastiest Republican primary.

"It's looking bad for Lisa," the Anchorage Daily News reported after the first full day spent counting an estimated 25,000 absentee and challenged votes.

Murkowski conceded late Monday night and put in a congratulatory call to Miller. She did not, however, endorse him.

Murkowski began Monday narrowing Miller's lead with returns from Anchorage. Later in the day, however, results from the Mat-Su Borough north of Anchorage and Fairbanks restored most of Miller's lead.

continue reading