Gov. Chris Gregoire has approved a tax break for the state’s newspaper industry, The Associated Press reports.

The new law gives newspaper publishers a 40 percent cut in the state’s main business tax. The discounted rate mirrors breaks given in years past to The Boeing Co. and the timber industry.

Newspapers across the country have resorted to layoffs and other cost-cutting moves to deal with a wounded business model and a recession-fueled drop in advertising.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its final edition earlier this year and was converted to an Internet-only publication with a much-reduced staff.

To celebrate Arbor Day, Earth Day and Parks Appreciation Day, the Sumner Forestry Commission is inviting the public to help plant 28 trees Saturday at the Sumner Cemetery.

The sycamores and blue ash are already in their holes but help is needed to fill the holes and stake them. Bring gloves but tools will be provided.

The cemetery is located at 12324 Valley Ave. E.

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Six inches of spring snow shut down Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville Sunday.

The park is expected to reopen Monday, said spokeswoman Sheelah Medved.

The snow that accumulated by Sunday morning prevented the operation of trams at the park, resulting in the closure, Medved said.

• We're looking at the local impact of the Alaskan volcano. For one thing, a number of Alaska Airlines flights have been canceled because of the present of an ash plume in the Anchorage area.

• If you're a Pierce Transit rider, you're going to be noticing some improvements soon. Pierce Transit is installing a $35 million communications system that will give passengers much more information.

• With a budget shortfall of as much as $15 million to deal with, Puyallup School District officials are considering some radical measures to help close the gap.

As mentioned on this blog last month, some of our readers find the Sudoku puzzle that appears daily in SoundLife to be too simple.

We switched puzzle vendors in January from Pappocom to Creators Syndicate, which distributes Janric Classic Sudoku.

Features editor Norma Martin passed the complaint to Creators and recently heard back from them that harder puzzles are on the way. Beginning the week of April 26, the silver and gold puzzles will be made more difficult.

Another complaint we've received is that the size of the Janric Classic Sudoku puzzle is too small. In response to that we've recently had the vendor increase the size. We measure things in picas, which is a printer's unit equal to about one-sixth of an inch. Here's how the current puzzle size stacks up against our previous puzzle from Pappocom and the original version of the Janric puzzle. Our current puzzle is larger than both.