From D.C. Correspondent Les Blumenthal:

It's called clout and evidently Washington state still has some on Capitol Hill.

You'd think with Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Norm Dicks, Washington state would have a lot. But Roll Call says Washington ranks 14th when it comes to clout in the current Congress with a score of 425.

The rankings are based on such things as size of delegation, number of full committee chairmen and ranking members, number of members on most influential committees, leadership posts, number of members in the majority party and per capita federal spending.

Not surprisingly, California ranks No. 1 with the speaker of the House and a slug of committee chairman. California is followed by New York, Texas, Michigan and Florida. At the bottom are Idaho, Delaware, New Hampshire, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Oregon was tied with Maine at 39th.

Washington state's clout has grown over the years. In the previous Congress, it was ranked 15th and before that 30th and 29th.

Read the Roll Call story here.

Adjust your television viewing plans accordingly.

The Tacoma City Council has canceled tomorrow's study session and business meeting because a majority of council members are in Washington D.C. attending the National League of Cities annual Congressional City Conference.

Six of the nine council members made the trip, which also included a series of meetings on Friday with members of Washington's congressional delegation to talk about federal stimulus money.

Mayor Bill Baarsma and council members Spiro Manthou and Marilyn Strickland did not travel.

It's the second time this year that a majority of Tacoma's council has traveled to the other Washington. In January, six of the nine council members went to D.C., and the agenda that time also included talk about how Tacoma would spend federal stimulus money.

Because a majority of the council made the trip, the group's meetings in D.C. are open to the public under Washington's Open Public Meeting Act.

I didn't ask the bosses for travel money to attend, however. And I suspect Allen Douglass also is taking the week off, though I don't know that for certain.

I finally got a copy of the infamous e-mail.

It doesn't seem that over the top, at least not so bad as the reaction implied.

Here is a link to my earlier coverage of the governor and legislative leaders killing the Worker Privacy Act bill.

And both of them are playing in Portland on Thursday.

The UW is against Mississippi State and Gonzaga plays Akron.

Here's nifty March Madness bracket.