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Voting bills for youth, same-day registration get hearing 01/12

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Brad Shannon
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R-74 fight about one word, many complex details

Jennifer Ducummon supports Referendum 74. Bob Higley opposes it. But the two have at least one thing in common: Neither thinks the legal recognition of same-sex marriage is as purely symbolic as it seems.
Thurston PUD: A closer look

The Thurston Public Utility District has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks, the focal point for a public power debate that has emerged between the PUD and its supporters, and the utility Puget Sound Energy and its supporters.
Sales tax now in voters’ hands

Olympia voters will decide in November whether to raise their sales taxes onetenth of 1 percent to help fill an expected $2.4 million budget shortfall next year.
Olympia council will put sales-tax increase on November ballot

Olympia voters will decide in November whether to raise their sales taxes one-tenth of 1 percent to help fill an expected $2.4 million budget shortfall next year.
Funds spike for groups backing gay marriage

OLYMPIA — Supporters of same-sex marriage in Washington state said Monday that they raised more than $952,000 last month for the campaign to uphold the state’s new law, which is currently on hold pending the outcome of a November ballot measure.
R-74 goes to ballot; charter schools going to court

Backers of Initiative 1240 say they are not giving up their extremely late launch of a charter-schools measure for the November ballot. They face a signature deadline of July 6 but before going to the streets they first are asking a judge to tinker with the wording of the ballot title on Friday.

That delay leaves precious little time for the Yes on 1240/Washington Coalition for Public Charter Schools to gather the 241,153 valid signatures required. But the group has already collected $325,000 – topped by $200,000 from Bill Gates and $100,000 from Katherine Binder of EMCO Holdings.