Randy Dorn said a news release should be coming from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction later today.

But Dorn told me over by the sundial a couple hours ago that there's no money to process and grade the tests.

The 9th grade WASL (Washington Assessement of Student Learning) is optional, but 36,000 students had signed up for it this school year. The test is taken in the spring.

So, it's not as if he's getting rid of any mandatory testing, he said. A lot of students use it for practice. And Dorn said, if a student passes the test, it counts as if the student passsed the 10th grade WASL.

UPDATE: Here's that news release I promised you:

Ninth grade optional WASL testing cancelled

The number of ninth-grade registrations outpaced available funding

OLYMPIA — In an effort to avoid nearly $500,000 in unfunded testing costs, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has cancelled optional Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) testing for ninth graders effective immediately.

=> Read more!

FROM LES BLUMENTHAL IN OUR D.C. BUREAU

WASHINGTON - So the White House says its version of the stimulus bill, or as Democrats now call it the recovery bill, will create or save 79,000 jobs in Washington state. In a state-by-state breakdown, the administration said 90 percent of those jobs will be in the private sector.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House version of the bill would create or save nearly 100,000 jobs and shave 2 percentage points off the state's current 7.2 percent unemployment rate.

The White House has been cranking up its press machine over the past several days, meeting with reporters from various regions of the nation.

In today's release, the White House also said 2.45 million Washingtonians will be eligible for up to a $1,000 tax cut; 404,000 unemployed in Washington state will get an extra $100 a month in their unemployment benefits and 67,000 families in the state will be eligible for a $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college.

Finally, the White House says its bill would provide sufficient funding to modernize at least 138 schools in Washington state.

That little factoid comes to us from Kevin Phelps, the new deputy Pierce County executive, from this morning's presentation to members of RAMP (Regional Access Mobility Partnership).

Phelps was helping County Executive Pat McCarthy fire up the troops (local government and business leaders) to get them to urge the Pierce County delegation in the Legislature to get their colleagues to restore the proposed cuts that Gov. Chris Gregoire has in her 2009-11 transportation budget.

The guv delays to death several big projects, to the tune of almost $500 million. Here's a list of some of the projects that got put off by the governor. (Note: The Highway 167 project hit is about $20 million smaller than my story said.)

Phelps said he got the info on gas tax from the state Department of Transportation Web site. That figure, $642 million, is the difference between what we collect in gas taxes and how much we get back in the form of projects built in Pierce County. That's how much we shipped out over the past 20 years, making us a huge donor to other counties.

Phelps said based on projects, Pierce would export and additional $620 million over the next 10 years.

Here's the PowerPoint presentation that McCarthy and Phelps gave to the locals.

Transportation funding (or lack thereof) is a regular topic at the weekly meetings of legislators from Pierce County.

Sens. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, and Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham, (a former sheriff), have sponsored a bill that would let authorities collect DNA from people convicted of a crime, even if the crime to which they plead guilty isn't on the list.

That is, if they were first charged with felony that would require them to submit a DNA sample, but they plead to a lesser crime than has no DNA submission requirment, they still have to be swabbed.

Regala thinks because it's narrower than HB 1382, the one that would allow cops to get DNA from arrestees (instead of conviction), it has a better chance of passing.

Joe,
Saw your story this a.m. about the DNA bill in the House.
You might be interested to know about SB 5026 which Sen. Brandlund and I collaborated on. It takes a more measured step forward on this issue.
Essentially – if a person is charged with an offense for which current law would require collection of DNA and then agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge which would not require collection of DNA – the collection of their DNA would be a required part of the plea agreement. There has to be probable cause for the original charge.
There likely will not be a large number of cases where this applies but it does allow collection of DNA from folks who might pose a risk for future crimes. They are thus in the system and can be identified which wouldn’t happen if they plea to the lesser crime.
Both the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault programs(Lonnie Johns Brown) and the Prosecutors(Tom McBride) testified in favor of the bill.
Debbie Regala

Ken Madsen retired in December after eight years as Pierce County assessor-treasurer and more than two decades of public service. I caught up with him last week to chat.

Turns out retirement can be a job in itself. Madsen said he’s trying to take six months off to do a “brain flush.” But he’s been busy dealing with retirement and insurance issues and his phone “rings incessantly.”

“I heard when you retire you can have some fun,” Madsen joked.

Madsen grew up in Spokane and spent much of his adult life in public service. He served three years in the Army and was a Green Beret in Southeast Asia. Later he went to college and took a job with the Dun & Bradstreet financial information firm in Seattle.

In 1984 Madsen was elected to the state House of Representatives and later served in the senate. In 1992 he won the first of two terms on the Pierce County Council. And he finished his career as assessor-treasurer.

Looking back, Madsen said he most enjoyed serving as assessor-treasurer because it was an administrative – rather than a legislative – job.

“With the assessor’s office, you could make a decision and go do it,” he said. “With legislation, you’ve got to stroke egos and everything to make it pass.”

Madsen cited his efforts to improve technology in the assessor-treasurer’s office. Digitizing documents, for example, allowed multiple employees to work with documents simultaneously and boosted productivity.

Madsen’s own productivity has declined somewhat in retirement. Aside from working through retirement issues, he’s taking in a lot of plays. And at 69 he’s still thinking about what comes next.

“I haven’t had much time to think that through,” Madsen said. “But I am retired.”

In yesterday's special election for King County elections director, incumbent (by virtue of appointment) Sherril Huff won 44 percent of the vote.

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, was in third place in the early tally. Fellow Republican David Irons was in second place. I'll have to look for an updated count. In the meantime, here's a link to Horses Ass blog.

And here's a link to King County early election returns.

Our Washington, D.C. correspondent Les Blumenthal caught up to U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, today to ask him about his plans for the future. (And see my earlier post about state Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, running for the 9th Congressional District seat.)

UPDATE: Brad Shannon at The Olympian reports state Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila, would be interested in the 9th District seat, but he would not run against Adam Smith. “If it’s an open seat, then I’m very interested in running,’’ Hudgins told Shannon.

UPDATE NO. 2: it's really, really official now. I got an e-mail from Adam Smith's political director.

Joe,
Below is the official statement in response to the rumor you inquired about earlier.

I am not taking a position with the Obama Administration and will run for reelection in 2010. I love my job and living in Tacoma and will continue to serve in Congress. I have strong ties to the District and have no intention of relocating to Washington D.C. My family lives in Tacoma, my two children - Kendall and Jack - go to Tacoma public schools, my wife is the PTA president and we love the neighborhood where we live.

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FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. Chris Gregoire is asking citizens to show how they would cut about $6 billion in state spending and balance the budget.

There’s an interactive budget calculator on her Web site that lets users add and subtract from major spending areas.

=> Read more!

Last Friday’s 4.5 magnitude earthquake was not-so-gentle reminder of just how much Gov. Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and (soon to be former) King County Executive Ron Sims are gambling in their deliberations and recommendation for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

It was the imminent threat of earthquake that boosted the $4.24 billion viaduct project on Seattle’s downtown waterfront and, to a lesser extent, the $4.5 billion Highway 520 bridge project, to the top of the state’s priority list for money. Those two projects were the main reason the Legislature approved raising the gas tax by 9.5 cents a gallon in 2005.

State highway engineers say there is a 10 percent chance that over the next 10 years, there will be an earthquake severe enough to make parts of the viaduct collapse.

Ron Paananen, DOT deputy urban corridors director and the guy who oversees the viaduct replacement project, said earlier this week that translates into a 1 percent chance each year that the viaduct may crumble. Conversely, that means there’s a 99 percent chance that it won’t.

Gregoire, Nickels and Sims were playing the odds over the past two years while they were negotiating a deal. They still are.

The governor issued an ultimatum a couple years ago, saying the viaduct was coming down no later than 2012, so all interested parties had better come to an agreement.

Now, the trio are recommending to the Legislature that the viaduct stay in place -- it carries 110,000 vehicles a day -- until 2015, while a deep-bore tunnel is dug about 300 feet from seawall.

That means the trio are still playing the odds.

=> Read more!