The Washington Transportation Commission will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday to hold a work session on whether to raise tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge sooner than what a citizen advisory committee has recommended.

The advisory committee wants to hold steady at $4 for cash and $2.75 for electronic tolls for one more year -- until July 1, 2010.

Department of Transportation staff wanted to go higher. So, this is where we find out whether the citizen committee is just so much window dressing and DOT staff gets to do what they want anyway, or if the committee actually has some clout and is listened to.

(Warning: Shameless self-promotion ahead)

Gov. Chris Gregoire reflected on her recent trip to Iraq to visit Washington National Guard soldiers deployed with the 81st Brigade Combat Team. She talked about the logistics of the trip, meeting Ambassador Ryan Crocker (a Spokane native) and the unit's equipment levels.

Feel free to mosey on over to read about it at our military blog, FOB Tacoma.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, (D-Lincoln High School), is sporting a new beard (with lots a salt and not much pepper) and it's such a change from the usually clean-shaven Owen that it knocks the good senators off their stride.

Just about everyone who stood to speak on the floor of the Senate today remarked on it. And they kept telling Owen how good it looked.

Sen. Jim Hargrove did.

Sen. Mike Hewitt did.

Finally, Sen. Karen Fraser stood up to speak.

"You want to tell me how good I look, too?" Owen asked her.

"I've known you for a long time and you always look good," Fraser said.

Where's Billy Crystal when you need him?

As you'll see below in the full text of House Speaker Frank Chopp's speech, the late Rep. Bill Grant of Walla Walla was one of the few people who could get away with calling the Speaker "Frankie."

Chopp's remarks on the first day of this legislative session repeat a familiar theme: One Washington. And his new refrain, "We can see our future in ...."

One of them acknowledges an effort in Tacoma.

We can see our future in the faces of the 5th graders in Tacoma who are being taught about civic involvement through their efforts to create the Zina Linnik Park, next to their school.

Zina was the Tacoma girl whose Fourth of July abduction and murder led to an overhaul of sex offender laws.

Speaker Chopp’s Acceptance Speech
January 12, 2009

Welcome to the People’s House.

Thank you Eileen, for your nomination.

And thank all of you for the opportunity to serve as your Speaker.

=> Read more!

Officials from the City of Tacoma, the Skokomish Indian Tribe and numerous federal agencies officially ended a decades-long dispute over the Cushman Dam Hydroelectric Project with a signing ceremony this morning in Tacoma.

After years of acrimony, the city's utility and the Skokomish Indian Tribe agreed to a settlement that calls for the tribe to receive a $12.6 million one-time cash payment, 7.25 percent of the value of electric production from the Cushman No. 2 powerhouse, and transfer of land worth $23 million that includes the Camp Cushman on Lake Cushman, the 500-acre Nalley Ranch and Saltwater Park on Hood Canal.

The agreement, approved by the city last month, resolves a $5.8 billion claim from the tribe for damages dating to the construction of a pair of dams in the 1920s that at times either completely or nearly completely diverted the flow of water from the North Fork of the Skokomish River.

Joseph Pavel, chairman of the Skokomish Tribal Council, said his tribe was a small one with limited resources, but they worked hard for decades to bring back fish runs, win back land, and gain relief from flooding.

=> Read more!

House Democrats will be looking to fill the vacancy created by the Jan. 4 death of caucus chairman Rep. Bill Grant of Walla Walla, but not right away.

Grant's funeral was just this weekend. But the legislative session began today, and Democrats need someone to take over their No. 3 leadership post. (House Speaker Frank Chopp is No. 1; Majority Leader Lynn Kessler is No. 2.)

Tacoma's Rep. Jeannie Darneille was caucus vice chairwoman for four years while Grant had the top job, and Puyallup's Rep. Dawn Morrell took over the vice chair job this year when Darneille got her own committee chairmanship.

Rep. Hans Dunshee of Snohomish also is said to be interested in the post. But as chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, he will be in charge of one of the few areas of government that actually gets to spend money instead of cutting spending.

Generally, members with leadership positions don't pull double duty by trying to chair a committee, so they would have to choose.

Here's the earlier post I had on Grant's death.

That's the topic of a bill that was pre-filed, that is, filed before the Legislature came to town.

(The only reason this bill is the first one I'm blogging about this session is that I was going in numberical order. Plus, I work for the media.)

House Bill 1017, sponsored by House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, would create a 13-member committee to "study" the feasibility of creating a commmittee that would resolve disputes over the Open Meetings Act. (Read the previous sentence twice.)

I'm guessing the board, which probably never will be created, would decide whether the public and-or media has a legitimate complaint against a city council or board of commissioners when they talk about something in private that they're not supposed to.

This is the kind of bill that one introduces to act like something substantive is in the works. And it has a very good chance of passing because it doesn't really do much.

Cities, counties and other local governments don't want anyone looking over their shoulders when it comes to what they do behind closed doors.

Here is a link to the full text of the bill.

Nita Rinehart ran for governor after a long career in the state Senate and before she became staff director for the Senate Democrats.

(Emily's List pulled the campaign financial rug out from under her and Gary Locke ended up winning that year's govenor's race.)

I remember her from the 1995 legislative session, when she was chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The Republican Revolution in the fall of 1994 had given control of the House to the GOP and then-Rep. Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchee, sat across the table from Rinehart in the first open budget negotiations.

The 1995-97 budget also was the first to have its spending level limited by Initiative 601.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 9, 2009

Former legislator appointed to fill HECB vacancy

OLYMPIA—Governor Chris Gregoire has appointed former state legislator Nita Rinehart to a term on the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) that expires in June 2012.

Rinehart is well known in state government, having represented parts of Seattle in the Legislature from 1979 until 1996. She served one term in the House of Representatives and her remaining time in the Senate, where she chaired the Ways and Means Committee and a Higher Education Subcommittee.

=> Read more!