From Our Corner

Happy Fourth!

The Office of Secretary of State wishes you a wonderful holiday weekend celebrating our country. (Also remember that government offices like ours will be closed Friday, July 3, in observance of the holiday. The state also reminds folks that fireworks and wildlands don’t mix, and that fireworks are a no-go on state protected and… Read more

Honoring the history of women

March is Women’s History Month throughout the U.S. The Library of Congress and other national entities are paying tribute to the generations of women who have made a difference in nation’s history. Here http://womenshistorymonth.gov/ is a link to a Web site about this month-long celebration. There have been many women who lived remarkable lives here in Washington. One is Bertha Knight Landes (1868-1943), who became the first woman to lead a major American city when she was elected mayor… Read more

Washington OKs broader domestic partner benefits

Find Your One Thing: Day 2

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Ready to post -- The story behind our state tree

Image Even though the Douglas fir is more common in Washington forests, the western hemlock has been Washington’s state tree since 1947. (The Douglas fir is Oregon’s state tree.) So how did the western hemlock take its place among Washington’s state symbols? In 1946, an Oregon newspaper teased Washington for not having a state tree. The Oregonian in Portland picked out the western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) for us, but Washington newspapers… Read more

Ready to post - So maybe "Twilight 3" will be filmed in Washington

One of the possible reasons why the teen vampire thriller “Twilight” (both the book series and the movie) has been such a hit around Washington is that the book version takes place in Forks, and the movie was shot in Kalama. According to a Seattle P-I story today, the “Twilight” sequel will supposedly be filmed in British Columbia because producers can get a better deal up there. Apparently, our state Legislature doesn’t want that to happen again. The Senate today voted 44-2 to pass House… Read more

Reliving Expo ’74 at Digital Archives

Image -- Photo courtesy of Digital Archives For those who don’t remember it, 1974 was the year when Watergate reached its crescendo and the speed limit was lowered from 70 to 55. It also was the year when the world literally came to Spokane. For sixth months in 1974, the World’s Fair was held along the Spokane River in the Lilac City, attracting more than 5 million people. After Expo ’74 ended, Spokane was left with beautiful Riverside Park, an… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington

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After all of the rain we've had this week, it's hard to remember how sunny it was in Olympia last week. Here is a shot of Capitol Lake, Puget Sound and the Olympics taken from the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial on the Capitol Campus. … Read more

Ready to post -- R-71: check this out

As Referendum 71's validation process continues along, the people working at "ground zero" on this closely scrutinized and controversial ballot measure are the signature checkers themselves. Nearly 30 of them are spending long shifts daily at computers in the basement of the Elections Division building, verifying the names, signatures and addresses of those people who signed the petition sheets submitted by R-71 sponsors. (We now have two shifts of workers to speed up the process.) It's up… Read more

From Your Corner of Washington

Image Vancouver Land Bridge, part of a trail along the Columbia River in Vancouver. -Submitted by Secretary Reed, who says:

While visiting Clark County recently, I took a tour of this new pedestrian bridge. It is a key part of the Confluence Project, which features artwork at seven sites in the Columbia River Basin, with each site interpreting the… Read more

Tips for R-71 trackers--don't think we'll use this...

We know that many of you are tracking the signature check for Referendum 71 on the Elections Division R-71 webpage http://wei.sos.wa.gov/osos/en/initiativesReferenda/Pages/R-71SignatureStats.aspx . You should know that the reporting of the "error rate" has been changed today to reflect the fact that some of the previously rejected signatures are later reversed by a master-checker. Some signatures… Read more

Castle Rock Library hanging on by a thread

Honoring volunteers in Yakima

Secretary of State Sam Reed joined in recognizing and thanking volunteers for the Historical Records project, State Library and State Archives (including its Central Washington branch) for their service. Sam noted that over the past year, more than 10,000 volunteer hours have been tracked – on projects like birth and death returns, marriage, military, nurse applications, school census, naturalization records, and other categories. The event was held Friday at the Yakima Valley Museum.

Helping struggling libraries to stay open

Archives: Thinking outside the box. Literally.

Image The hot topic among archivists across the country this past week: So, how do we stop storing records in boxes in a research room and, instead, make them available to the whole world? Wait, I know, I know: Take off the lid! Take them out of the box!… Read more

Holiday Giving Tip No. 8

Today’s Holiday Giving Tip: Spot the big red flags!! There are some big, fat red flags you can watch for that will tell you if a charitable solicitor is not in compliance with the law. These are things like:

• Saying things that are deceptive and misleading (red flag!)
• Telling you the contribution is tax deductable when it is not
• Using the names “police,” “sheriff”, or “firefighter” without authorization from those groups
• Calling you before 8 a.m. or… Read more

From Your Corner: Grand Coulee Dam

Image Located on the Columbia River about 90 miles west of Spokane, it’s the largest concrete structure and largest electric-producing facility in the U .S. Photos alone don’t do the Grand Coulee Dam justice. You have to see it in person to appreciate its enormous size and marvel at the challenge of building such a structure that has meant so much to the Columbia Basin. This photo, courtesy of the State Archives, shows the dam during its… Read more

Holiday Giving Tip No. 7

Today’s Holiday Giving Tip: Know where to file your complaints. While we here at the Secretary of State’s Office help provide consumers with lots of information about charities, we aren’t the place to go if you want to report a charity scam or bad practices. But we can tell you where to go! If you feel a charity or commercial fundraiser is operating in a deceptive or illegal manner, contact the Consumer and Business Fair Practice Division of the State Attorney General's Office at 1-800-551-… Read more

The road to women's suffrage: 1884

Women’s Suffrage – Rosencrantz vs. Washington Territory, 1884 In 1884, Mollie Rosencrantz was convicted of “running a house of ill fame” in Spokane. She appealed to the Territorial Supreme Court on the grounds that she was convicted by a jury with women on it, and that women did not have the right to sit on juries – and of course, they might be biased in a case such as hers. In light of the law passed in 1883 granting women the right to vote, the Supreme Court ruled that women… Read more

Lawmakers gird for more cuts, face court's K-12 ruling

Washington legislative leaders and Gov. Chris Gregoire, girding for a bruising election-year legislative session that convenes at high noon Monday, got renewed spending pressure from the state Supreme Court on Thursday. Just minutes before the four top caucus leaders and the governor unveiled their priorities and predictions to the annual AP pre-session forum, the high court handed down a long-awaited decision… Read more