The City of Federal Way has released a more complete copy of an investigative report into whether Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan operated a hostile workplace.

We went all the way to the state Supreme Court recently to win release of the report. We feel voters are entitled to see it, especially as Morgan pursues reelection this year. To see a copy of the original, redacted version released by the city, click here. To see our story about the report, click here.

The more complete report goes into much greater detail about comments that Morgan allegedly made to court staff about his former colleague, Judge Colleen Hartl.

It's easy to see why Federal Way took its time before releasing the extra material. The things Morgan allegedly said about Hartl are unflattering and salacious. We have decided not to write a story about them or post them to our Web site.

The new information might be of interest to voters as they consider Morgan's reelection. But we had to weigh that public interest against the potential of doing further damage to the reputation of Hartl by publishing unsubstantiated claims. Hartl is no longer a public figure and isn't running for elected office.

Even so, we are happy to have spent the time and money to secure the full report as a public document. You can make a request in person at City Hall, 33325 Eighth Ave South, or you can e-mail city clerk Carol McNeilly at carol.mcneilly@cityoffederalway.com.

An electronic copy is free; a printed copy will cost 15 cents per page.

Adam Wilson of The Olympian and Rich Roesler of the (Spokane) Spokesman Review announced this week they are taking other jobs.

Adam is going to write speeches for the governor; Rich is going to handle communications for the insurance commissioner. I suspect both are getting hefty pay raises.

I can't fault them in the least. The newspaper industry is going through some pretty bad throes and both Adam and Rich have taken pay and benefit cuts that they don't deserve. And they have young families.

I'm not going to rattle off all the others who have left the statehouse beat in just the past year, but that list is longer than the list of those of us who are left.

The most worrisome aspect of the ongoing erosion of the state capitol press corps is that YOU are losing your future watchdogs. Both of these guys are in the early to middle years of their careers. They're the "best and brightest."

Their respective newspapers say they will be replaced. But there is a lot of institutional knowledge that each of their replacements will have to gain. And that will take time.

By my count, we are down to 7 reporters, not enough to cover all the bases -- not in baseball, not in state government.

Here is Rich's goodbye. And here is Adam's.

And just to punctuate the issue, here's another job opening in state government: Gov. Chris Gregoire needs a press secretary. It pays $75,000 to $80,000 a year.

ORGANIZATION: Washington State Office of the Governor
POSITION: Press Secretary
SALARY RANGE: $75,000 per year
CLOSING DATE: July 12

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On May 8 the national ethics committee of the Society of Professional Journalists took issue with a new technique to judge media ethics – an online poll.

The poll was conducted by the Washington News Council, a self-appointed media watchdog group that receives complaints about TV, newspaper and radio news reports and sometimes hold hearings to decide whether the media acted properly.

The News Council used an online poll to determine whether KIRO TV acted ethically in reporting on Washington voting irregularities.

The Washington Secretary of State had complained to the News Council, a self-appointed watchdog group, about KIRO's pieces on voter registration irregularities. KIRO declined to take part.

"A hearing can be worthwhile if all parties voluntarily participate and work toward a common understanding," the SPJ said in a news release. "The committee strongly objects to having a public online vote, or virtual hearing, on journalism ethics.

“The news council is wrong to emulate the ‘American Idol’ model of voting for a ‘winner,’” said Andy Schotz, chairman of SPJ’s Ethics Committee. “Gimmickry is a major step backward if the council wants to appear professional and credible.

Here is the News Council's detailed response to the SPJ statement.

KHQ-TV in Spokane has a story called "Paying for a Poet" which questions the state spending $20,000 on a poet laureate in the face of a $9 billion budget hole.

If you watch the embedded video, you can see that the report is done in rhyme and illustrated by a calligrapher. (Maybe I'm showing my bias, but as someone who enjoys contemporary poetry, that seems like the equivalent of illustrating a story about a police scandal with file footage of the Keystone Cops, that is, it's a caricature.)

Here's how it starts:

SPOKANE, Wash. - If you could add one more position in your state and have taxpayers pay for it, what would it be? A police officer? A teacher? What about a Poet? Yes, a Poet.

They even manage to zap the governor by getting her to admit on camera that she wasn't aware the position paid anything.

And while journalists should be skeptical of government spending and test every sacred cow, there's a few things in the story that jumped out at me.

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The Society of Professional Journalists national ethics committee is calling foul on the Washington News Council for conducting an online poll on a complaint against KIRO TV.

The Washington Secretary of State had complained to the News Council, a self-appointed watchdog group, about KIRO's pieces on voter registration irregularities. KIRO declined to participate in a hearing. So the News Council posted an online poll, which turned out lopsided against KIRO.

"A hearing can be worthwhile if all parties voluntarily participate and work toward a common understanding," the SPJ said in a news release. "The committee strongly objects to having a public online vote, or virtual hearing, on journalism ethics.

“The news council is wrong to emulate the ‘American Idol’ model of voting for a ‘winner,’” said Andy Schotz, chairman of SPJ’s Ethics Committee. “Gimmickry is a major step backward if the council wants to appear professional and credible.”

Click here to see the results of the News Council's "virtual hearing." The full press release is below.

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I wanted to let Political Buzz readers know that we're losing one of our best reporter/bloggers, Tacoma city hall reporter Jason Hagey.

After nine years at The News Tribune, Jason's going to work as communications project manager for the Association of Washington Business (aka the state Chamber of Commerce) in Olympia.

Jason came to us in 2000 as a general assignment reporter, then moved to the Federal Way beat. He's distinguished himself in six years on the City of Tacoma beat, where he's covered and uncovered some great stories. He's a tough, fair and thorough journalist and a real class act.

We're moving fast on a permanent replacement in one of our most important beats. For the time being another experienced hand, Ian Demsky, is minding the store.

I've been steering clear of this measure, for the obvious reason: I work for a newspaper. So let me try to be as neutral as I can about this one.

Allied Daily Newspapers had asked the Legislature to lower the state business and occupation tax rate by 43 percent, putting newspapers in the same tax rate category as The Boeing Co. and Microsoft.

Both the House and Senate versions of the budget assumed the break would take effect July 1 and would cost the state about $2 million in lost revenue. (That amount might be smaller with the P.I. gone.) But when the final budget compromise budget came out, the tax break for newspapers wasn't there.

In fact, there weren't very many tax breaks at all in this year's final budget.

The Senate is the chamber that wanted to drop the tax break, according to Rowland Thompson, the newspaper industry lobbyist.

Here's the story I wrote when the tax break bill passed the House on a 91-5 vote.

Sound Politics says it $225,000 out of King County.

Add that to the state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, and King County officials have cost their taxpayers more than $1 million by not abiding by the state public records law.

Here's The Associated Press story we posted on our main Web page.

The Washington Attorney General's Office has issued an opinion that has prompted the Palouse mayor and City Council to change their policy on public comments at council meetings. And it should serve as a warning to other public officials who don't like it when gadflies criticize the actions or behavior of city workers.

Here's the story that ran today in The Boomerang, the newspaper in Palouse.

But basically, council meetings used to begin with a statement that "the council will not entertain any comments regarding personnel issues of city staff."

Assistant Attorney General Tim Ford essentially told the council to "Stop that!"

What Ford actually said was that "restriction was unreasonable, an attempt to silence opinions and a pretext for censorship.

"The city may not restrict speech it merely dislikes," Ford said.

Here that Mayor Bill Baarsma? How 'bout you, Council chairman Roger Bush?

I just got a copy of the AG opinion.

As a journalist and a local resident, an experience I had today trying to obtain some of the most basic public records from the town of Ruston has left me, well, flabbergasted.

I called the Town Hall this morning and explained that I wanted to come down and look at the town council agendas from March because they hadn't been posted on their Web site yet. I was told that was fine.

Then I said I also wanted to a copy of the 2009 town budget, which was approved by the council in January. There was a long pause -- maybe five or 10 seconds. "You'll have to fill out a public records request," I was told. I agreed and said I'd be down shortly.

When I arrived, I was asked to fill out a public records request to even look at the March council agendas. I filled out the form and was told I would be contacted when my request was ready -- the woman who was helping me was informed by another woman in the office that they legally had five days to respond to my request.

Under the law, that may be true. But as a journalist I've never before encountered such a delay for such a basic request.

Where does that leave a citizen who wants to know what's going to be happening at the next council meeting?

Has anyone else out there run into similar issues with Ruston?

Update: I've received a couple e-mails responding to my post directing me to a couple of the Ruston blogs where details from council meetings are posted. My response has been that in fact, I wanted to look at the meeting agendas (and if need be the minutes) in an effort to verify some of what appears on the blogs, where anyone can write anything and present it as official.

And to clarify, it struck me (both as a local resident and a journalist trying to do my job) that to ask citizens to automatically wait five days to even look at the previous month's agendas from council meetings -- documents which the woman who was initially helping me seemed to be printing out and holding in her hand while I was at the counter -- was completely unnecessary.

Update 2: My copy of the 2009 budget was ready first thing Monday morning. By that time, I'd already confirmed the item I was looking for from the March agenda.

There's been some buzz about this among journalists, so I thought I'd throw it open to everyone -- Is the public responsible enough to receive/understand information about how many birds hit airplanes? Do you want to know how many bird strikes there were on planes at Sea-Tac, for example?

Apparently, the FAA doesn't think the public can handle the truth.

In this Associated Press story, the FAA is arguing it wants to keep the data secret:

The government agency argued that some carriers and airports would stop reporting the incidents for fear the public would misinterpret the data and hold it against them. The reporting is voluntary because the FAA has rejected a decade-old recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board to make it mandatory.

There's more:

"The agency is concerned that there is a serious potential that information related to bird strikes will not be submitted because of fear that the disclosure of raw data could unfairly cast unfounded aspersions on the submitter," the FAA said in the Federal Register.

So you tell us:

She was, after all, the first woman on the Washington Supreme Court. And now she is the subject of an oral history.

(Boy! Former reporter John Hughes is really cranking out stories! Slow down, John. You're a historian now, not a reporter on a daily deadline.)

Here is a link to the legacy project:
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/legacyproject//

Legacy Project honors first woman Supreme Court justice

OLYMPIA – Before Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court 28 years ago, Carolyn Dimmick was already getting used to breaking the glass ceiling in the judiciary in this Washington.

As the state and nation commemorate Women’s History Month, Dimmick, the first woman justice on the state Supreme Court, is being honored with a new oral history and profile. Her riveting story is the fourth in a newly launched series called The Legacy Project. These free online publications tell the life lessons and personal histories of some of Washington’s most interesting daughters and sons – and more installments are on the way.

The Legacy Project is part of the Washington State Heritage Center planned for the Capitol Campus in Olympia and online for the children and families of Washington and beyond.

The earlier trio honored by the series were rocker Krist Novoselic, pioneering newswoman Adele Ferguson and the state’s first African-American Supreme Court justice, Charles Z. Smith. All are on the Legacy Project site, along with photos and other materials, at no charge to the users. The Novoselic story has gotten thousands of “hits” after being written up in Rolling Stone magazine, The Associated Press and other media outlets.

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