Recently, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released an enormous spreadsheet of billing data for more than 3,000 hospitals "that show significant variation across the country and within communities in what hospitals charge for common inpatient services." A sliver of that 2011 data are...

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Washington lawmakers are preparing for a special session after failing to finish their work in the allotted 105 days of the regular session. Going into overtime is becoming a habit for the Legislature. Only 10 times since 1980 have lawmakers managed to get done on time. Some years they've needed multiple extra periods.

The Legislature meets...

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Last week, the Boeing Co. board gave the OK to begin offering to customers an updated version of the Everett-built 777, called the 777X. The company is pitching two 777X models, both believed to have composite wings with folding wingtips and new,...

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While our public servants in Olympia talk past each other, it's good to remember whose money they are arguing about and where it comes from.

Washington is somewhat of an outlier when it comes to tax revenue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it is one of only seven states with no individual income tax, and it's one of only four with no corporate income tax. One result is that sales taxes accounted for...

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In 2012, Washington was the nation's fourth-biggest exporter, trailing only Texas, California and New York. More than half of the state's exports fell into the federally defined category of transportation -- let's call it airplanes. Without those airplanes, the state would be ranked about 11th. What about software? Microsoft sells most of its products through the tax-friendlier state of Nevada. Over the past 15 years, the value of the state's exports has more than doubled, for an...

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East of the Cascades, in the arid, less-populous half of Washington, residents can be heard griping that metropolitan Puget Sound gets all the state money for big transportation projects. In Western Washington, taxpayers might conclude that the reverse is true, that the millions of residents west of the mountains surely must be subsidizing rural corners of the state. Well, they're both right and both wrong. The fact is, dollar for dollar, there are counties on both sides of the...

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Below we review 18 prominent gun measures in Congress over the past 10 years and cite how present members of the Washington delegation voted. Three newly elected members of the House of Representatives -- Democratic Reps. Suzan DelBene (1st District), Derek Kilmer (6th District) and Denny Heck (10th District) -- were not in office when these issues were decided.

As gun-safety forces in Congress push for new curbs on gun rights, and with the first round of votes soon to...

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It looks like Monroe will make good on its promise to drop traffic-enforcement cameras later this year.

The City Council is expected to vote next week to authorize the mayor to send a letter to the contractor, Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems, notifying the company that the city does not intend to renew the contract.

The council agenda documents say, "… the City instead intends to allow the Agreement...

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In the recession, people played less and spent less. Golf courses, like so many other businesses, took a hit. That included courses owned by local governments. Lynnwood has been struggling for months to decide the future of its course. As of this writing, officials still haven't sorted it out. Where are the publicly owned golf courses, and how's business?

Five golf courses in Snohomish County are owned by local governments, four by cities and one...

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Members of our politically intractable Congress might not qualify for 1 percent status based on their Senate or House paychecks alone. But they do earn more than most people. Has this always been the case? We merged data from the Congressional Research Service and an

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The Iraq War lasted eight years, eight months, three weeks and four days. During that time, nearly 4,500 Americans and 100,000 Iraqis were killed. At least 286 service men and women from Washington, or based in the state, were killed during the conflict. Below is an alphabetical list of their names and the dates of their deaths.

Army 1st Lt. Michael R. Adams, 24, of Seattle, on March 16, 2004

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The city of Everett operates Snohomish County's sole public animal shelter. The Everett Animal Shelter also serves the county and other cities. Its mission is to get adoptable animals into good homes and educate folks about spaying, neutering and micro-chipping pets. What animals come in, and what happens to them?

The great majority of animals housed at the shelter are dogs and cats, followed by...

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About a year ago, the Washington State Patrol launched a new anti-speeding initiative in Snohomish County. They analyzed data to find when and where the most speed-related wrecks occurred. They wanted to find ways to prevent serious and fatal crashes. Then they worked with local police, including the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office and the city of Everett, to target speeding hot spots. Here's what happened.

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Here's the latest: We learned Tuesday that the Washington State Auditor has been asked to investigate Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe and others in his office.Pardon us for suspecting that the busy hands of Kevin Hulten, a legislative aide to County Executive Aaron Reardon, are somehow involved.What's happening fits a pattern we've come to recognize.

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Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon turned political heads for winning elections, keeping budgets balanced and talking jobs, jobs, jobs. He also made a series of missteps during his decade in county government, along a path that led to last week's announcement he will resign May 31.

1. January 2004 --...

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They live in motels and shelters or bunk with friends or relatives. And some live on the streets. About 27,390 students were identified in Washington as being homeless during the 2011-12 school year. That's a startling jump of 46 percent since 2007-08. Thousands of those students live in Snohomish County. The Everett School District had the highest number of students identified as homeless, with 824. We first...

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Just how difficult is it to get an interview with an elected official who doesn't want anything to do with the subject reporters want to ask about?

Here's a chronological account of The Herald's efforts to speak with Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon prior to publication, and since, of articles linking Reardon staffers to a campaign...

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When 20 children died in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut in December, many people rushed to the Internet to argue about guns. As so often happens, emotions took over. It's almost an American tradition, debating gun laws. People on both sides toss out stats.

Let's fact-check one of the big ones: Is it true that more people die from traffic accidents than gun violence?

Not here. As the tables below and the accompanying graphics show, more people in...

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Last year we published a series of statistical snapshots of Snohomish County cities and towns based on the 2010 U.S. Census. Today we offer a broader look at the countywide population. In 2010, there were 713,335 residents.

The accompanying graphics tell the story. And below is a historical look.

Decades of...

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The state budget being tackled by the Legislature is a monster -- a complicated two-year plan that must balance sometimes-difficult-to-predict revenue streams with predictably difficult spending decisions. Most of the discretionary spending -- and the news from Olympia -- lies in a general fund of about $33 billion. But the whole shebang, the check-register total for everything, from state payroll to highway construction, is more than twice that.

While state budget cuts...

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It has been awhile since we took a look at traffic-enforcement cameras in Snohomish County.

The devices still are cranking out tickets and controversy, but not much else has changed.

Media in Seattle this week were all agog over the discovery that the tickets can add up to serious cash for municipal budgets. Who knew?

Meanwhile,...

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The year just passed is described by forecasters at the National Weather Service as "wet, cool bookends with a warm, dry period in the middle." It was one of the wettest years on record in Western Washington, with wild temperature swings to boot. Here's a look at some of the data compiled at the forecast office in Seattle. It was soggy overall, and yet the summer was bone dry -- the driest on record at Sea-Tac Airport.

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The 2013 session of Washington's Legislature is set to begin Jan. 14 and end April 28. Here are local lawmakers and how to reach them by email or phone during those 105 days. Messages can also be left for them at the Legislative Hotline, 800-562-6000. The hotline enables callers to track the progress of bills and learn when hearings or legislative action are planned. For more information, check out the Legislature website at www.leg.wa.gov.

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It's well known that naturally blessed Washington has three national parks: Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades. We reviewed those Sept. 30. The state also has many other federally preserved sites of interest -- historical, recreational and monumental. Here's an overview of some of those lesser-known,...

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Last week, I wrote about a Snohomish County child sex case that ended in a mistrial after a juror disobeyed the judge's orders and did his own online research.

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Think of grandma, leaving the mall with arms full of gifts. Or the same presents wrapped, with bows, under a tinsel-draped tree. Or the cardboard box for that fancy new TV, sitting outside in the recycle bin. Where you see Christmas clichés, criminals see the chance to make a buck.

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Snohomish County has budgeted $213.6 million in general fund spending for 2013. That's the part of the budget over which the county has the most discretion. As has been the case for years, more than 72 percent of the money will pay for law and order and public safety.

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There are an estimated 29,000 registered blood donors in Snohomish County. Each year, about 26,400 units are collected at the Puget Sound Blood Center's Everett donation center, one of two collection sites in Snohomish County for the non-profit agency. The other is in Lynnwood, where about 21,015 units are collected annually.The Puget Sound Blood Center has 11 collection sites in Western Washington, spread between Vancouver and Bellingham.

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Below are interactive maps updating how Snohomish County voted in the Nov. 6 general election on separate measures to legalize same-sex marriage and recreational marijuana use.The county Auditors office this week released the results after tallying more than 334,000 votes cast here.The precinct canvass, updated with the new numbers over the past few days, can be found here.

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