WASHINGTON – First Lady Laura Bush will visit Washington state Wednesday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick.
Mrs. Bush will be the featured speaker at a fundraising breakfast in Bellevue and a luncheon in Kennewick, the White House said Tuesday. She later will travel to Montana to campaign for Republican Sen. Conrad Burns.
Mrs. Bush is scheduled to speak at 9:30 a.m. today at the Westin Hotel in Bellevue, and at 12:15 p.m. at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. McGavick is challenging Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell this fall.
No ‘millionaires’ boost for Sen. Cantwell
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell will have to abide by campaign finance limits even though rival Mike McGavick donated $2 million to his campaign, the Federal Election Commission ruled Tuesday.
In a unanimous decision, the FEC said the so-called millionaires’ amendment, which lifts donation limits for anyone facing a candidate who self-finances a campaign, applies only to McGavick’s Republican primary opponents, not Cantwell.
The decision means Cantwell will have to stick to the limits, at least until the state’s Sept. 19 primary.
But the FEC said money donated by either Cantwell or McGavick to their respective primary campaigns could help trigger the millionaires’ amendment, if the money is used in the general election campaign.
Seattle: Monorail due for $4.5 million overhaul
The chief of the city’s monorail line, shut down since Aug. 20 after it stalled twice in mid-route, says it needs a $4.5 million overhaul.
Tests are continuing and officials don’t know when the mile-long elevated line between the Seattle Center and the downtown retail core will be reopened, Tom Albro, executive director of Seattle Monorail Services, said Monday.
Some power supply gear, wiring and control systems for the brakes and doors need to be replaced to prevent more failures in the city-owned monorail, popular with residents and tourists since it was built for the world’s fair in 1962, Albro said.
Fifth DUI charge draws maximum sentence
A Bellevue woman has been sentenced to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine for her latest – her fifth – drunken-driving conviction, but Judge Janet Garrow said her main concern is that the defendant recover from alcoholism.
The sentence was the harshest possible for West under Washington state’s DUI law. West was given credit for 72 days already served.
A new law goes into effect next year under which a person with five or more DUI convictions in 10 years could be charged with a felony for the fifth count.
Winthrop: Tripod fire grows by 3,000 acres
The huge Tripod wildfire burning in north-central Washington grew by nearly 3,000 acres in 24 hours, but more favorable weather conditions were helping firefighters on Tuesday.
The fire now covers about 147,095 acres, or about 230 square miles, Nelson said.
The Columbia Complex of fires have blackened more than 67,381 acres, or about 105 square miles near Dayton in southeastern Washington.
Olympia: Democrats oppose state senator
The state Democratic Party announced Tuesday it will work to unseat an incumbent Democratic senator, saying he no longer represents the party.
The party endorsed Kyle Taylor Lucas in the Democratic primary for the 35th District, saying longtime Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, was a DINO – Democrat in Name Only.
“This is not about voting on a bill or two, or crossing the aisle,” said Dwight Pelz, the state party chairman. “We don’t think Tim Sheldon is a Democrat anymore.”
Sheldon has raised the ire of party loyalists for years, endorsing President Bush and 2004 Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, and sometimes voting with Republicans in the Legislature on such issues as gun rights and taxes.
Compromise plan offered to pharmacists
Gov. Chris Gregoire has crafted a compromise rule for pharmacists opposed to selling the morning-after birth control pill, officials said Tuesday.
If adopted by the state Board of Pharmacy, the proposed regulation could end a monthslong stalemate between some women’s groups and the state Pharmacy Association.
Under Gregoire’s proposal, individual druggists could avoid filling prescriptions that conflict with their personal beliefs – but only if the patient is able to get a lawful medication without leaving the pharmacy.
The state Pharmacy Association also has agreed to the new proposal, Gregoire’s office said. Rod Shafer, the association’s director, was out of the office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Associated Press
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