The announcement came Wednesday afternoon, ends weeks of speculation, debate and negotiation. Boeing and the Machinists union were reportedly deadlocked over a deal in which the labor group would promise not to strike should the second line be in Everett.

Workers at the South Carolina plant recently voted to remove the union from the North Charleston plant.

State lawmakers just completed an incentive package to bring the line to South Carolina.

h/t: seattlepi.com

We, as a Democratic state senator and former Republican state representative, support state Senate Bill 5615. This bill would reclassify adult possession of marijuana from a crime carrying a mandatory day in jail to a civil infraction imposing a $100 penalty payable by mail. The bill was voted out of committee with a bipartisan "do pass" recommendation and will be considered by legislators in 2010.

The bill makes a lot of sense, especially in this time of severely strapped budgets. Our state Office of Financial Management reported annual savings of $16 million and $1 million in new revenue if SB 5615 passes. Of that $1 million, $590,000 would be earmarked for the Washington State Criminal Justice Treatment Account to increase support of our underfunded drug-treatment and drug-prevention services. [...]

We now have decades of proof that treating marijuana use as a crime is a failed strategy. It continues to damage the credibility of our public health officials and compromise our public safety. At a fundamental level, it has eroded our respect for the law and what it means to be charged with a criminal offense: 40 percent of Americans have tried marijuana at some point in their lives. It cannot be that 40 percent of Americans truly are criminals.

We hope that the citizens of this state will work with us to help pass SB 5615, the right step for Washington to take toward a more effective, less costly and fairer approach to marijuana use.

Citizens need to work with them, they say, but the one citizen they need most is the biggest obstacle. Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-43), who represents the most progressive district in Washington, blocked the decrim bill from getting through the legislature last year—even though it may have had enough votes to pass. Bipartisanship is great. Decriminalizing marijuana is great. And it would be fantastic if Kohl-Welles and others could muscle this through the legislature in 2010. But if they can't get buy-in from Chopp before the session starts next January, we need to run an initiative.

Carlyle, an youthful 43-year-old with gray hair and a somewhat hyperactive manner, told me this year's legislative session had "an unbelievable intensity to it" thanks to the $8 billion state budget deficit. "We took the federal stimulus money and backfilled the budget, but that’s onetime money," Carlyle says. "There is just a cold, hard reality that we don’t have enough money to pay for everything. In two years, if the economy doesn’t pick up it’s going to be a big problem."

Nonetheless, Carlyle said, he was proud of several accomplishments, including a new $20 fee on real estate transactions that will raise $26 million a year for programs that combat homelessness; a $1 million appropriation for energy efficiency at McClure Middle School on top of Queen Anne, where he lives ("Hey, I'm not above a little good, old-fashioned pork"); increasing the number of children who are eligible for foster care; and passing the controversial education reform bill, supported by House Republicans and opposed by the Washington Education Association, that defines the "core 24" credits Washington State public high-school students must get to graduate as the foundation of "basic education," the state's "paramount priority" under Washington's constitution.

"The state constitution says education is the paramount responsibility of the state. But there’s no definition of basic education, so the legislature can do this shuck and jive move about how education gets funded," Carlyle said. "This bill formally defines basic education." When I noted that the Washington Education Association considered the new standards an "unfunded mandate," Carlyle said, "That's not a good argument." Although he agrees that Washington State schools are underfunded, "probably by about $2 to $3 billion" a year, Carlyle argues that the state won't be able to convince voters to increase education funding until it has concrete standards. "The public is not going to take a $2 to $3 billion increase in taxes without some sense of outcomes." Asked when the state might be able to come in and backfill that shortfall in education funding, Carlyle said, it could be several years. "Over the next four to five years, as economic growth happens, we need to begin to migrate toward a reemphasis on education," he said.

Carlyle also defended another controversial vote, this one opposing an expansion of the state's unemployment insurance program (which ultimately failed). He said he opposed expending unemployment benefits because the proposal didn't include an exemption for small businesses, which provide 90 percent of jobs in his district. "I ran the numbers, I called around, and I looked at the impact on small businesses and I found it was very substantial--thousands of dollars a year," Carlyle said. "To slap down a small business as if they’re laying off someone because they’re just in a bad mood, when they’re, in fact, going under—for $8 a week more [for laid-off workers]—is just not acceptable."

When Carlyle and I talked, it was just one day after Gov. Christine Gregoire held a ceremony to sign legislation approving the deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Carlyle, it turns out, turned out to support the deep-bore tunnel despite an amendment putting Seattle property owners on the hook for any cost overruns. Carlyle said that according to legal experts he's talked to, " it’s a very open legal question if [the amendment is] enforceable." He added: "The actual amendment is very poorly written. You could argue, for example, that the people of Gig Harbor should have to pay for overruns because they would benefit by increased international traffic to the Port. ... We will not be hung out to dry," he predicted.

I then asked Carlyle a question I thought was way down the rabbit hole—what did he think of the city's decision to delay a planned bike lane on Nickerson Ave. NW, purportedly because of concerns about the traffic impact of the viaduct replacement? To my surprise, Carlyle said he had been the architect of that decision. "I asked the city to put a hold on the bike lane on Nickerson," Carlyle said. "To do that bike path now, before they did an analysis of the impact on traffic from Nickerson to Alaskan Way—at the same time as they’re asking the public and trucks to use Nickerson as an arterial—makes no sense." In a letter to Carlyle and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36), Mayor Greg Nickels committed to provide for "the efficient movement of traffic" along Nickerson—effectively scuttling the bike lane unless the city can ensure it won't slow down car and truck traffic along that arterial.

Carlyle also defended his vote to increase tuition at state universities, on the grounds that failing to increase tuition would have resulted in "massive cuts to higher education." Carlyle said he favors a "high tuition, high aid approach" to funding higher education—higher tuition for students who can afford it, but more grants for students who can't, along the lines of Obama's Pell Grant increases.

Asked about his disappointments during the session, Carlyle mentioned three: a failure to fix Metro's suburb-centric funding formula (which provides just 20 percent of new bus service to Seattle), the death of the environmental community's agenda (which, in Carlyle's word, got "crushed") and the general resistance to change in Olympia. "The addiction of Olympia to bureaucracy and the resistance to any kind of systems change is mind-boggling," Carlyle says. "What we need in Washington State is a Nixon-goes-to-China approach to government. ... We don’t have a sense of courageous honesty. That’s where I get frustrated."

Although several sources of funding for cash-strapped King County now appear dead in Olympia (a utility tax on unincorporated parts of King County, for example, isn't happening), County Council chair Dow Constantine is hoping to get a chunk of funding from the federal stimulus, which will pay for infrastructure projects. Yesterday, Constantine introduced legislation that would designate a county employee to coordinate efforts at applying for stimulus grants and direct the county to work with other local jurisdictions in seeking stimulus dollars. "I'm a little nervous that we're not doing as much as we could" to ensure that King County is getting its share, Constantine says. Constantine—who thinks the stimulus could pay for as many as 23,000 in King County, of 75,000 statewide—says his "internal deadline is very quick--we want this done in three weeks." County council member Larry Phillips, who's also running for county executive, says he's cosponsoring the legislation but wants to push more for direct county expenditures on infrastructure projects. like light rail to the University District. "Obviously, I'm on the legislation, so I think it's a good idea," Phillips says. "My point is that following [the stimulus money] is one thing but my real emphasis is... putting people to work building things we can use for a long time."

Still alive in Olympia, for now: Several potential sources of funding for transit service, including a local-option vehicle-license fee and a property tax. "One can reasonably argue that property tax is not the best way to pay for transit, but one can also argue that we're in a crisis," Constantine says. Without the new funding, Metro faces a shortfall next year of around $100 million, which translates to 20 percent service cuts.

Under state law, a person is guilty of malicious harassment for hurting or threatening someone for their race, color, religion, ancestry, disability, or sexual orientation. This bill sponsored by state Senator Joe McDermott (D-34)—standing to the left of the governor in the photo—adds "gender expression or identity" to the list. PS—Rob McKenna, you are finally safe.

“We are absolutely delighted,” says Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, a group backing the bill. “This is the fourth consecutive year of strong legislative votes in support of LGBT civil rights and equality.” The legislature previously passed two domestic-partnership laws, which created the domestic-partnership registry and provided a handful of rights to couples, and it passed a civil-rights bill providing protection for lesbian, gay and transgender persons in 2006.

But the current bill may not become law for several months, if at all.

“We are in the process of organizing a referendum… to repeal the domestic-partnership law,” says Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, a conservative religious coalition of two nonprofits and a PAC. He says the group is meeting this afternoon and plans to file paperwork any day. (More on the group's strategy is here.)

Simply filing the paperwork for a referendum would block the bill from becoming law for at least 90 days after the last day of the legislative session (scheduled for April 26 this year), says Shane Hamlin, assistant director of the Secretary of State Office’s election division. The anti-domestic-partnership campaign would have until July 25 to gather 120,577 signatures to qualify for the general election. If the measure qualifies, the bill remains in limbo until the November vote.

Randall says his group may also try to repeal the two previous domestic-partnership laws. That would require filing a separate initiative which needs 241,153 signatures submitted by July 3 to make this year's ballot, the Secretary of State Office says.

“To repeal what the legislature does in this year’s session, they must file a referendum,” says Hamlin. “To repeal something that the legislature did last session, they must run an initiative.”

"If the Faith and Freedom Network really cared about the families they would try to strengthen them by working to help provide basic services to all families," says Friedes, "not by trying to take away basic rights from gay and lesbian families."

Polling released by the University of Washington last October shows 66 percent of voters support either full marriage equality or all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples. "I think [a referendum] is ours to lose. Complacently results in loss," says Friedes.

Before the House voted to pass the measure, Republican representatives introduced several amendments. One of those amendments would have kept any discussion of domestic partnership out of public schools to protect children from hearing about same-sex couples. Also, Representative Glenn Anderson (R-5) warned the bill could mean Washington "will no longer preference, provided incentives, or encourage marriage." Every amendment failed.

News intern Alexander Brown contributed reporting to this post.

But Republicans are attempting two desperate strategies to gum up its progress. “I think they’ve got a couple dozen amendments,” says state Senator Ed Murray (D-43), the prime sponsor of the senate version of the bill. A minority party typically tries to slow down bills by introducing and debating amendments. Murray expects conservatives to introduce amendments “related to children.”

“I think that entering this with a majority of legislators being co-sponsors is a strong indication that we can defeat any negative amendment,” says Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, a nonprofit that has been supporting the bill. “I think the amendments indicate the radical right’s determination to make a bill that is non-controversial with the majority of the legislature and electorate into a controversial bill.”

But conservatives have another trick up their sleeves.

The Faith and Freedom Network, a conservative religious group that maintains two nonprofits and a PAC, is meeting today, planning to file a ballot measure to go before state voters that would repeal Washington’s domestic partnership laws. The group sent a fundraising email to members on Monday seeking donations toward a referendum or an initiative.

Gary Randall, president of FFN, moments ago confirmed: “We are in the process of organizing a referendum.” He says the group has not decided if the measure would seek to repeal only this year’s legislation or would also attempt to reverse the two previously passed domestic-partnership laws. Regardless, he says, “If I didn’t believe it would pass, I wouldn’t put the work into it.”

The state legislature passed domestic partnership laws in 2007 and 2008, granting some rights to same-sex couples. Conservatives never challenged those laws by referendum. However, the bill up for a vote today is by far the most sweeping, by establishing parity of rights for domestic partners as married couples. “It elevates domestic partnerships to the level of marriage," says Randall. "It redefines a number of statements about marriage."

“We are taking a statewide poll this week,” Randall says. “We’ll make the poll public when we get it, unless it’s so ugly that I don’t want to tell anybody.”

The polling results—and the result on a ballot measure—could differ based on how FFN frames the issue. Previous opinion research conducted by the University of Washington showed the majority of state voters support domestic-partnership rights for same-sex couples; however, a majority also oppose full-scale marriage rights for same-sex couples. In recent deceptive television ads against the domestic partnership bill, opponents only described the measure as "marriage"—never acknowledging the bill didn’t use apply to “marriage.” Randall would not divulge the language used in the poll now underway. But it’s almost certain that if the religious conservatives do challenge the domestic-partnership law with a ballot measure, they will continue to disingenuously represent the measure as a defense of marriage.

[Update: The bill passed; info here.]

•Allow counties to impose a utility tax of up to 6 percent in their unincorporated areas (currently, only residents of incorporated cities pay utility taxes), with natural gas exempted and electricity taxes limited to 1 percent;

•Give King County greater flexibility in spending the proceeds from its mental-health/chemical dependency and public safety levies (which can currently only fund new programs, not help sustain existing ones, such as drug court);

•Authorize a 7.5 cent/$1000 property tax levy to pay for transit.

•Mandate that cities in King County move forward with annexation of areas with 4,000 residents or more (like White Center) by 2014; and

•Mandate a state performance audit on King County by 2011.

King County is facing a budget shortfall between $40 and $50 million next year. Meanwhile, Metro foresees a shortfall of around $100 million. King County Council chair (and KC Exec candidate) Dow Constantine estimates that a 7.5 cent property tax could raise up to $25 million for Metro; combined with $25 million from the federal stimulus, that would get Metro just halfway to its goal. "We have to take a hard look a the choice between further raising property taxes and cutting transit service," Constantine says. Economically, "it's not a very good time to be raising people’s property taxes," he adds.

The only problem: The state legislature may be considering an amendment to "keep light rail on track," but they sure haven't passed one yet.

A few minutes after blasting out his boasting press release, Phillips sent out another one, requesting that editors "kill the [previous] release" and apologizing for "the erroneous transmission."

Closer to home, the Seattle Human Services Coalition circulating a petition on Facebook demanding preemptively that the Seattle City Council maintain funding for all existing human services during the upcoming round of budget cuts. That may be optimistic; the city is currently facing a 2009 budget shortfall of at least $35 million.

Sound Transit has already doubled its contribution to light rail across I-90, to $90 million, and the state has already agreed to kick in the remaining $27 million. Key state transportation leaders, including House transportation chair Judy Clibborn (D-41) and Senate transportation chair Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10) have been staunch opponents of light-rail expansion.

County exec candidates Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine blasted out dueling press releases yesterday demanding that state legislators support the voter-approved system. “The ... transportation budget is out of touch with the priorities of regional voters who five months ago overwhelmingly supported building light rail between Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond," said Phillips, who also noted that the house budget also precludes two-way HOV lanes on I-90, which are part of the light-rail proposal.

The state House GOP has a Twitter, but it would appear they haven't mastered the linking aspect of things yet. They put up a partial website link that you have to copy paste into a new window, but it doesn't take you to the House GOP site. No, it takes you to the Human Rights Campaign homepage. The first three letters in their non-link link are hrc, so I'm guessing there's some re-route at work. In any case, I find it hilarious that the House republicans are directing folks to the HRC.

Try it. It's true! (As of 5:30 p.m. today.) Oh, house Republicans. So sad. I mean, even Birch knows how to link on Twitter.

First up, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance:

Affordable housing advocates say the Senate’s budget, which cuts health care, assistance for people too sick or disabled to work, and programs that help former foster youth avoid homelessness, is the wrong approach to balancing the budget in the middle of the most severe recession in modern times.

“We have the power to choose what kind of state we want Washington to be,” said Rachael Myers, Executive Director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. “Everyone should have the opportunity to live in a safe, decent, affordable home. We can make smart investments in housing and other systems that will help people weather this storm or we can make short-sighted cuts. The Senate’s cuts undermine our State’s economic recovery and the wellbeing of families who are struggling. We hope to see our legislators make better choices when the House releases its budget tomorrow.”

The Washington Education Association:

The proposed state budget released today by Senate Ways and Means Chair Margarita Prentice cuts more than $2 billion from K-12 and higher education and could cause as many as 5,000 educators to lose their jobs.

It cuts more than $500 million from higher education, a cut that higher ed won’t recover from in decades. Legislators have said the budget will reduce college enrollment by 10,000 students statewide.

The home health care workers:

While the budget crisis is bad news for all public employees, Senate Democrats chose to inflict the deepest pain on the lowest paid workers — home care workers who care for vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities.

“If budgets reflect values, what does it say about Democrats when they choose to treat the lowest paid employees the worst,” asks SEIU Healthcare 775NW Vice-President Adam Glickman. “The budget cuts wages for home care workers who make $15,000 a year, and will force 6000 caregivers to drop their health coverage. What kind of Democratic value is that?”

The Washington State Hospital Association:

The Senate budget proposal, released today, makes severe cuts to the health care safety net. If enacted, it would cause 45,000 people to become uninsured virtually overnight — on top of the tens of thousands who have already lost their health insurance because of job loss.

“Now is the absolute wrong time to cut services as more people lose their jobs and health insurance,” said Diane Sosne, RN and president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “Eliminating our health care safety net doesn’t mean people don’t need health care — it means they’ll have to get it someplace else at a higher cost, or not at all.”

NARAL Pro-Choice Washington:

Among other steep cuts, the proposed budget slashes $1 million in funding for birth control and other family planning services for low-income women and teens.

“We are disappointed in the Senate budget,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. “This budget represents a sharp decline in all the services provided by the state, including a 10% cut in family planning care.”

“If these family planning funds are not restored, the consequences will be felt not only by the women of our state, but by taxpayers as well,” added Cooper. “Quite simply, birth control saves money.”

[Added] The Washington Environmental Council:

The proposed state budget would:

Leave our water and coastal areas more susceptible to devastating pollution like oil spills. Weakening of the state oil spills program for the Puget Sound and costal beaches— a $1.9 million reduction will mean 135 fewer vessels boarded and inspected and fewer oil response drills in our waterways. The Oil Spill Oversight Council will also be eliminated.

Reduce public participation in toxic cleanups, which has been a cornerstone of Washington’s way of life. The entire $2 million program is eliminated for public participation grants making it impossible for the public to have a meaningful role in decision making for toxic cleanup in their back yards.

Harm efforts to protect our water quality by elimination of the Water Quality Account which provides the money for local water quality projects around the state like sewage treatment plants. 18 staff would be lost in the Department of Ecology’s water quality program.

Decrease our capacity to clean up Puget Sound. 7 out of 35 Puget Sound clean up staff would be cut in Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Lose experts where they’re critically needed. 75% of scientists for the Forest and Fish rules would be cut, which severely hampers the state’s ability to respond on salmon recovery issues. 73% of staffing around Watershed science would be eliminated, which hampers the state’s ability to respond on salmon recovery issues, as well as around sprawl

Increase risk of fires and infestation in our forests. Due to the elimination of the Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Health Program there would be increased risk of forest fires and infestation of invasive bugs and diseases. Fire protection is reduced by almost $5 million increasing risk of property damage and loss to our timber industry.

Decrease our ability to plan for Washington’s future with a 1/3 cut of Growth Management Act assistance to local governments. Growth Management Act hearing boards have been cut from 3 to 1.

The Statewide Poverty Action Network:

The budget proposed by the Senate:

·Cuts 42% of the Basic Health Plan, which provides health care coverage to individuals earning less than 200% of the federal poverty level, or approximately $21,000 per year. This means 40,000 fewer people with health coverage at a time when unemployment rates are at a high and laid off workers have lost coverage provided by employers.

·Reduces vital General Assistance (GA-U) cash grants by 80%. The GA-U program provides small cash grants to adults who are disabled and unable to work. Without these cash grants and the medical coverage that accompanies them, disabled GA-U recipients will not have the means to survive. GA-U medical coverage was also cut by 24%.

·Cuts 75% from Adult Day Health services, which provides skilled nursing and rehabilitative therapy for seniors and adults with medical or disabling conditions. This program also assists with activities of daily living, such as bathing, grooming and toileting.

·Results in major layoffs, with 8,000-9,000 state employees losing their jobs, in addition to the thousands who will be let go because of the reduction in state program funding.

Taken together, there's only one way to look at this budget: It's a bloodbath, one in which the poorest and most vulnerable are being asked to sacrifice the most.

Even as senators were cutting cost-saving programs like CTR, they found $2.3 million to expand bus service in Island, Skagit, and Whatcom Counties—which senate transportation committee chair Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10) just happens to represent. While buses are unquestionably a better expenditure than general-capacity freeway expansion (for which senators also found plenty of money), it's hard to see how bus service in Mount Vernon and Stanwood is a higher priority than programs that keep thousands of cars off downtown Seattle streets.

Legislators say the cuts are necessary because less gas-tax money is coming in. In other words: They're cutting transit service because people are driving less. That backwards logic is typical of state legislators on the transportation committees in both houses, who've shown they'll seize on any excuse to defund Sound Transit and funnel more state dollars into highway-building projects.

"There's a lot of hostility toward Sound Transit in Olympia," says Bill LaBorde, lobbyist for the Transportation Choices Coalition. That's an understatement: This year is the first in recent memory that legislators haven't pushed legislation that would have the effect of abolishing Sound Transit entirely, probably because of its success at the ballot box in November.

The proposed budget also cuts back on commute-trip reduction programs, funding for bike and pedestrian programs, and funding for HOV lanes in Pierce County. Despite dwindling revenues, legislators did find plenty of money for megaprojects and general-purpose expansion projects like expanding I-405.

Congratulations, and welcome to the future, Josh.

UPDATE: I realize now that Dan and I posted about this at (almost) the exact same time. But I'm leaving mine up because I like the photo of Josh.

Legislation pending in the state senate could help solve the problem, by letting counties use recently created taxes (like special taxes that pay for mental health programs and drug court) to pay for existing services, not just new ones. "I'm not going to lose drug court, because you end up putting crazy people on the streets where they end up running up and down wielding samurai swords," Hunter says.

The legislation might also end up allowing counties to charge unincorporated areas of the county the same utility tax that's paid by people living in cities—a disparity that currently give unincorporated areas a disincentive to be annexed into adjacent cities. And he would encourage cities to annex the unincorporated parts of King County (like White Center) within three years, by having the state cover the increase in their taxes for 10 years and by denying those areas access to some growth management and transportation grants if they fail to become part of a nearby city. "Some of these cities just aren’t willing to pull the trigger [on annexations], so we're making it financially feasible for them to do so," Hunter says.

"All these unincorporated areas that are inside the urban growth boundary get urban levels of service and pay rural taxes," Hunter continues. "Even worse than the fact that they don’t pay the cost of the services is that it’s incredibly inefficient for the county to provide those services. We've got to look at that and say everything inside the urban growth boundary has to be part of a city."

Hunter says that if the legislation passes—and he thinks that, given that "the [county's] structural problem is so clear," it has a chance—it will include an expiration date of three or four years from now. In that time, he says, state auditor Brian Sonntag will do a performance audit on the counties, which will have to "justify to the legislature that they've actually fixed some of their problems." Besides the structural problems Hunter identifies—the fact that county property taxes can only grow at one percent a year, the annexation problem, and the fact that new taxes can't be spent on existing programs—he says King County has a "management and a spending problem" that must be addressed. "They've got a lot of overhead, they've got the best benefits package in the state, and they're giving everybody a raise," Hunter says. "No one at the state is getting a raise."

I also asked Hunter whether he plans to run for county executive now that his closest friend in the legislature, Republican-turned-Democratic state Sen. Fred Jarrett (D-41), has entered the race. Hunter said he hasn't made up his mind. "I'm finance chair during the worst budget downturn we've had since the '80s. I can't be off doing some other campaign until much closer to the end of the session."

About 1,000 people, many arriving by the yellow busload from corners of the state, are rallying on the steps of the state Capitol Building to protest gay rights. At issue is a domestic partnership bill, which would provide all the state-granted benefits of marriage to registered same-sex couples. Backers of the “Stand Up for Marriage Rally,” the Washington Values Alliance, call the legislation “a mockery … of society's most vital institution.”

“I think the rally is probably more of an attempt by certain organizations to find a reason for being, to fill their own coffers and keep their own organization going,” says Senator Ed Murray, sponsor of the domestic partnership bill in the senate. The DP bill passed the senate last week by 30 to 18 votes; now it is in the house where the bill has more cosponsors than votes needed to pass—i.e., the bill is going to win regardless of the shrill cries on the Capitol steps. Murray adds, “They are down in polls and down in the legislature. It is not a happy time for them.”

The crowd is almost exclusively white—including many Eastern Europeans—according sources monitoring the rally from a distance. One glaring exception is African American Pastor Ken Hutcherson, head of the Antioch Bible Church. Joined by conservative state legislators including Senator Pam Roach (R-31) and Representative Matt Shea (R-4), Hutchersons’s and other speakers' rhetoric has rested largely on arguments that same-sex marriage breaks down the notion that women must be subservient to men.

While disempowered, the crowd today outnumbers the crowd on the Capitol steps last week for Marriage Equality Day, says Josh Friedes, a spokesman for Equal Rights Washington, a group that supports the bill and organized last week’s event. Nonetheless, he dismisses the larger turnout. “The gay-rights movement is like an iceberg, because you can only see its tip. But the radical right is like an inverse iceberg where these days you can see most of its power,” he says. Anything short of turning out several thousand people, like anti-gay groups did several years ago for a rally at Safeco Field, “they have failed,” Friedes says.

In an email to potential rally-goers titled "It ain't over until its over," Larry Stickney, head of the Washington Values Alliance, told his flock: "Pastors, priests, church leaders and ministers of the faith should encourage and lead entire congregations to attend this rally. Busses [sic] should be chartered from every corner of our state." He adds, “We need YOU and others like you to stand with us as we continue to tell our legislators and the Governor to vote NO on the ill-conceived plan to legalize homosexual marriage.” WVA never concedes the bill is about domestic partnership legislation, not marriage.

“What they are trying to say is if you vote for this bill we will try to get you in November and look how strong we are,” says Friedes. “I don’t think they have that kind of strength to affect candidate election outcomes.” But, he notes, anti-gay-marriage sentiment may be strong enough to pass an initiative or referendum banning gay marriage.

• Two bills we loved—one to decriminalize pot and another to save the lives of overdosing people—are dead as Bradley Noelle.

• Another bill that would require light-bulb manufacturers to create a recycling system for fluorescent bulbs—out like a light.

• A transit-oriented development bill—which would require more housing density around most light-rail stations, and require making those areas more friendly to cyclists—won't be leaving the station.

• A proposal to restrict annual interest rates on payday loans—bounced.

• A proposal to keep police away from the black-box data in cars—such as where you went, when you went there, and how long you stayed at that teenager's house—has crashed.

• A bill that would prohibit folks doing business with the lands commissioner's office from donating to lands-commissioner candidates—also dead.

But two of them are still alive:

• A bill that would restore a felon's right to vote even if he or she still has some debt to the state passed the senate. It's now chillin' like a villain in House Government Operations & Elections Committee.

• A bill to require cars to stay three feet away from cyclists when passing was passed by the house; now it's riding High in the Senate Transportation Committee.

For more on the TOCB, see Erica's story, which ran earlier this week.

More later.

The guy pointing at the sign is Representative Marko Liias (D-21). “Whether you look at the transportation stimulus bill, which will create 3,500 jobs throughout the state, or our bill to boost unemployment benefits and retraining opportunities, we have worked across the aisle,” he says.

"All the legislators targeted by nasty advertisements stood strong and supported the bill," says Connie Watts, executive director of Equal Rights Washington, an organization that supported the bill. She adds that three Republican senators voted for the measure.

Indeed, right-wing opposition was no match for the bill's broad base of existing support. The senate voted in favor by 30 to 18 (one excused). The house version of the bill—which has 57 co-sponsors—appears ready to pass easily.

The legislature created the domestic partnership registry, which initially provided only a handful of rights to same-sex partners, in 2007, and lawmakers added more rights for registered couples in 2008.

This year's bill hasn't quite passed yet, but an early pat on the back to prime sponsor senator Ed Murray and the tireless advocates at Equal Rights Washington.

The Army announced this morning that charges have been filed against a soldier in connection with the death last month of a 16-year-old girl who died in a Fort Lewis barracks.

Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt, 19, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Leah King. He was also charged with wrongful use and distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to use controlled substances. [...]

According to Army, King died after taking Alprazolam, an anti-depression drug marketed as Xanax, and Oxymorphone. Investigators believe the pills were crushed and inhaled in powder form, the Army said.

King, 16, was found dead at 3:30 a.m. Feb. 15 inside a barracks at Fort Lewis, where she had gone to see her soldier boyfried. Her 16-year-old friend was found unconscious and spent four days at Madigan Army Medical Center before being released to her mother.

To be clear, the bills in the legislature wouldn't have prevented this death; Army bases aren't subject to state law. But fatal drug overdoses have skyrocketed in Washington in recent years (killing 403 people in 1999 and climbing to 707 people in 2006), and the bills would reduce scenarios like this one—situations where a call to 911 could have saved someone's life, but, for whatever reason, nobody made that call. Even if someone is afraid of getting busted for drugs, the responsibility is always on the person who sees an overdose to report it—regardless of the risk of penalties. Nobody should just watch a person stop breathing and walk away. But the fact is, people do. People afraid of going to jail ditch an overdosing friend or take the chance that the person will recover. Sometimes they get caught anyway. But it would be better if—instead of taking the risk, instead of being afraid of going to jail for years for drug-law violations—people knew that they were immune from prosecution so they would do the right thing: call 911. It means we send a slightly mixed signal that drugs aren't always illegal—a bitter pill for some folks to swallow—but if it means saving lives, it's worth it.