Questions not new for U.S. Rep. Dicks, earmarks

posted 05:24 PM 02/08
Permanent Link.

The Washington Post published a story earlier today examining Congressman Norm Dicks’ role in steering money to the Puget Sound Partnership while his son David was director of the Washington state agency.

Rob Hotakainen of our Washington, D.C., bureau added a blog post s aying Dicks is “one of 16 members of Congress who had taken actions to aid entities connected to their immediate families.”

This is not the first time Dicks’ influence over earmarks has been called into question. A Congressional Quarterly report in 2009 said he ranked high among the more than 100 House members who secured earmarks for clients of a much-scrutinized lobbying firm, The PMA Group.

Dicks was not accused of wrongdoing, and but the CQ story said PMA was at the heart of a lobbying scandal that touched on then-U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.:

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PMA’s offices have been raided, and the firm closed its political action committee last week amid reports that the FBI is investigating possibly illegal campaign contributions to Murtha and other lawmakers.

Dicks, now in his 18th term, had asked for some $11.3 million of contracts on his own and secured $800,000 more with others. Dicks also received $91,600 in campaign donations from the PMA Group and employees since 2001, the article contended.

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House approves gay-marriage bill; governor's signature awaits

posted 07:14 PM 02/08

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posted 04:12 PM 02/08

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Redistricting challenged in state Supreme Court

posted 01:08 PM 02/08

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U.S. Sen. Cantwell helps kill latest Arctic drilling plan

posted 08:47 AM 02/08

WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, a longtime opponent of oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildife
Refuge, has helped defeat the latest Republican plan to open up the refuge for new energy exploration.

Cantwell, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, raised objections Tuesday when Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch offered a plan that would have allowed drilling rigs into the refuge and protected waters off the coast of Florida and southern California.

Doctors criticize latest ER coverage rule

posted 04:08 PM 02/07

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House vote to enshrine gay marriage is at 1 p.m. tomorrow

posted 03:40 PM 02/07

The bill to make Washington the seventh state to legally recognize same-sex marriages goes to a vote in the state House of Representatives starting at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Senate Bill 6239 already passed the Senate last week on a 28-to-21 vote. Gov. Chris Gregoire requested the measure and is expected to sign it soon.

UPDATE: SEIU 775 sues again over limits on homecare hours

posted 03:11 PM 02/07

Service Employees International Union 775 Healthcare has sued the state over what it contends is a reduction in homecare services hours available to certain clients with shared or live-in caregivers. The suit says the changes also mean that some care workers, who provide help with cleaning, cooking and shopping, no longer work enough to qualify for state subsidized health-care benefits.

Inslee offers jobs plan; GOP bashes it

posted 06:18 PM 02/06

Gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee laid out a detailed jobs plan today with campaign events in Spokane and Seattle today. Inslee’s plan promotes so-called green energy jobs and his plan has tax breaks for start-up businesses, but it caught flak from state Republicans critical of past efforts to promote clean energy jobs.

Senate transpo fee plan shrinks to $52M

posted 05:46 PM 02/06

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s transportation task force called for $21 billion in spending over 10 years. Gregoire decided not to go for a gas-tax increase this year, but still called in her State of the State address for raising $3.6 billion mostly through fees — or is that taxes? — on oil.