It was quite a show at City Hall this morning with dozens of dignitaries and even a few regular folk crowded into the ninth floor Visibility Center to hear an announcement that Tacoma would be the main office for the new Puget Sound Partnership.

It wasn't exactly news. First, the worst-kept secret in town had been talked about for weeks if not months. Tacoma had lobbied heavily for the agency charged with identifying and resolving water quality problems with the Sound. It is part of the proposed Urban Waters which will hold both a University of Washington Tacoma research center and the city's environmental labs.

Second, it is hard to get that many people to show up at mid-day event without word getting out.

And third, Gov. Chris Gregoire herself mentioned the idea as a strong possibility months ago.

Still, many were shocked that the story was in the morning's newspaper and had been posted on its web page the day before.

"If this is an announcement, what's on the front page this morning?" Gregoire tasked Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma.

We think she was joking. But higher ups in city hall aren't so sure and feared that the leak – actually cascade – of information might get them in dutch with the governor.

No word yet whether the mayor and City Manager Eric Anderson have appointed plumbers to sleuth out the leak.

It was toward the end of Thursday's annoucement that the state's new Puget Sound Partnership would be headquartered at Tacoma's Urban Waters facility on Foss Waterway. Gov. Chris Gregoire asked if there were any questions from the three or four newsies jammed in among the dozens of dignitaries and near-dignitaries.

There were none. Either Gregoire had done an excellent job explaining the decision to put the office in Tacoma or the reporters couldn't see her through the crowd in one of the city's smallest conference rooms.

Finally, perhaps to break the silence or perhaps because he's curious, state Rep. Dennis Flannigan asked: "Are you running?" It was a play on recent interchanges between the governor and reporters about her future campaign plans.

Nearly everyone laughed. Gregoire did not answer.

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a state law that said candidates cannot tell blatant lies about their opponents because that law infringed on free speech, and therefore is unconstitutional.

But it was a close call. The ruling was 5-4.

The upshot is that candidates can still tell lies about their campaign opponents without fear of being punished by the state. And they’re still free to lie about themselves by inflating their resumes or exaggerating educational achievements, military service, medals or other ways they might want to deceive voters.

The Supreme Court case stemmed from the 2002 election between state Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, and Marilou Rickert, a Green Party candidate who was soundly beaten by Sheldon. Rickert was fined $1,000 by the state Public Disclosure Commission because a 1999 law said candidates could not circulate political advertising that contained a false statement of material fact about another candidate for public office.

Rickert had said Sheldon voted to close the Mission Creek youth camp, which at the time was a medium security prison for teenagers. Rickert had described it as a home for developmentally disabled people.

In fact, Sheldon had done the opposite. He voted against the budget bill that cut funding for Mission Creek. The lack of funding led to its closure.

Justice Jim Johnson, who wrote the majority opinion, said the court welcomed the opportunity to reaffirm its previous rulings that “state censorship is not allowed” and that free speech and robust debate cannot thrive if government steps in.

He was joined by justices Susan Owens, Charles Johnson, Gerry Alexander and Richard Sanders.

Preserving the integrity of the election process, as alleged by the PDC’s lawyers, was not a good enough reason for the state to referee speech in political campaigns, Jim Johnson said.

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