Last week, Eastern Washington University quietly sold its downtown Spokane center to a Portland-based real estate company for $3.4 million, a sale authorized in this year’s legislatively enacted budget.  Higher education old-timers will remember this facility as the controversial “Frederickson building” purchased back in the early 1980′s by former EWU president George Frederickson. The former Spokane… Read More

Today marks the beginning of a year long 50th anniversary celebration for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).  At a ceremony in the rotunda of the Natural Resources Building in Olympia, State Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland will be joined by former commissioners Jennifer Belcher and Brian Boyle (currently with the UW College of Forest Resources)… Read More

State Senator Rodney Tom, the newly elected Democratic senator in the 48th legislative district (Bellevue, Redmond) announced today his intention to enter the 8th congressional district House race.  The eastside seat (which has never been won by a Democrat) is currently held by Rep. Dave Reichert who is serving his second term after a long… Read More

Associated Press political writer Dave Ammons noted recently that it appears all systems are go for Tim Eyman’s latest anti-tax initiative to capture a spot on the November 2007 general election ballot. Last Friday, Eyman cleared two big hurdles to getting I-960 before the voters this fall.  First, a King County Superior Court judge rejected an… Read More

Sorry to have been so unattentive to the blog this week.  Much going on that kept me away from the computer.  Spent all day Wednesday working with UW and OFM staff on issues related to the new UW Snohomish-Island-Skagit campus.  A familiar local firm, NBBJ, has been retained to help manage the site evaluation process, and… Read More

One of the things that caught my eye in the recent state population figures released by the Governor’s budget office was that Tacoma is really gaining on Spokane for status as the state’s second largest city.  Both cities have populations just over the 200,000 mark, separated by less than 2,000 residents. According to the Tacoma… Read More

Just for fun, let’s continue our 2007 session wrap-up tour of PAC 10 schools (we covered Oregon just the other day) with a closer look at Arizona and how UA and ASU fared in the recently enacted Arizona 2007-08 budget. Spending on public universities in Arizona will increase by $115 million or just shy of 12%… Read More

Washington was not the only northwest state to provide strong budgetary support for its higher education system during the 2007 legislative session.  Oregon lawmakers recently wrapped up work on their 2007-09 biennial budget and the Oregon Department of Higher Education (Oregon University System) received a two-year increase of more than 18 percent.  This is the largest… Read More

The 2007 population estimates prepared each year by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) were released yesterday and it shows Washington state’s population has surged to about 6.5 million as of April 1 this year.  The represents an additional 112,400 residents or 1.8 percent over the previous year. According to OFM analysts, about two thirds… Read More

Governor Christine Gregoire has announced the appointment of Jody Erickson and Michael Hughes of The Keystone Center as mediators for the State Route 520 bridge replacement project.  The appointment of a mediator was called for in Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6099 which was signed into law in May 2007. The Keystone Center is a Colorado based firm. … Read More