OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire will dress up as the spider Charlotte from “Charlotte’s Web” for Halloween.
Her husband Mike will be Wilbur, the pig that Charlotte befriends in the story.
The Gregoire family dog Trooper will be costumed as Templeton the rat.
The governor will be handing out chocolate bars at the governor’s mansion in an Olympia tradition.
Inside five of those bars will be hidden tickets that admit their finders to a preview of the mansion’s holiday decorations on Dec. 1. The governor began that new tradition last year when she dressed up as magical candy maker Willy Wonka.
U.S. Christmas tree to come from Washington
The official U.S. Capitol Christmas tree will come from the Olympic National Forest, the Forest Service said.
After the cutting, the tree will be taken on a tour on its way to Washington, D.C., with stops planned for Aberdeen, Vancouver, Wash., Walla Walla, Spokane and Seattle.
The Capitol tree is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26. It will be displayed on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, decorated with 10,000 lights and 3,000 ornaments handmade by Washington state school children.
Students have until Nov. 1 to turn in their ornaments. One student, a parent or guardian, and the student’s teacher, will be selected in a drawing to be present at the Dec. 6 tree-lighting ceremony.
Title companies spend, flaunt law, says report
A report from Washington’s insurance commissioner says title companies in the state are wining and dining real estate agents, lenders and builders at the expense of home buyers.
Under state law, companies can spend no more than $25 a year on “prizes, goods, wares or merchandise” to encourage anyone to steer business their way.
But the report, released Monday, said many title insurance companies regularly spend thousands more on food, drinks, tickets to sporting events and trips for golf, skiing and shopping.
In one case, a company paid more than $23,000 to subsidize advertising for a single real estate agent.
“They weren’t just making small technical errors,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler told a Seattle newspaper. “They were spending thousands of dollars in violation of state law.”
Seattle: Farm wins stray voltage lawsuit
A Skagit Valley farm family has won a $1.1 million jury verdict against Puget Sound Energy after arguing that stray voltage infiltrating their barn had hurt milk production.
“The amount of damage that was done to our herd was enormous,” said David Baumgardner, 48.
He criticized Puget Sound Energy for not telling farmers about the potential problem, and not checking earlier to see if it was affecting customers.
On Friday, a Skagit County Superior Court jury agreed with Baumgardner and his wife, Lucinda, awarding them the $1.1 million.
Martha Monfried, a Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman, disputed that the company was to blame, and said an appeal is likely.
Other dairy farmers across the country have won verdicts against electric utilities over cases of “stray voltage,” including a $17.5 million judgment for an Idaho farmer against Idaho Power. After an appeal, the two sides in that case settled.
Stray voltage is electricity that leaks out of an electrical system through overloaded power lines or faulty or aging circuits.
It can pass through an animal if it touches objects carrying electricity, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
Despite El Nino, winter flooding likely
Even though forecasters say El Nino will mean a warmer and drier winter in most of the Northwest, people in Western Washington can still expect flooding, said Brent Bower, hydrologic program manager at the National Weather Service office here.
The El Nino climate condition won’t prevent all the storms that usually send rivers over flood stage, he said.
“There will be flooding in Western Washington, even though it’s El Nino,” Bower said Tuesday at a weather workshop for reporters and emergency managers.
El Nino means it is likely there will be fewer of the larger floods, but the potential is still there, especially in late fall and early spring.
“November is a big month, in general,” he said.
Another effect of an El Nino winter would be a smaller snowpack in the mountains, so reservoir managers and others should start thinking early about conserving water for next summer, Bower said.
Associated Press
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