Lawmakers at the judge's table

Legislators reported for what promises to be a 105-day marathon of constituent meetings, committee hearings, and floor action on Monday. Considering the long months ahead, it would be easy to understand why a representative would want to spend the weekend before session relaxing at home with their family and friends.

Not the case for Representatives Sam Hunt, Chris Reykdal, and Dave Upthegrove.

The three lawmakers spent Saturday, January 12th judging the “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” civic education contest. High school students participated in the statewide competition held at the capitol campus in Olympia.

Tahoma High School earned first place, while Evergreen and River’s Edge took home the second and third place honors. Tahoma High will advance to the national finals in Washington, D.C. this April.

Despite their busy weekend schedules, we can confirm that all three lawmakers were able to catch the heartbreaking Seahawks defeat on Sunday. Although, we're not sure we would call that a relaxing morning kicking around the house.

Reps. Chris Reykdal (center) and Dave Upthegrove (right) judge students' knowledge of constitutional issues. Photo courtesy of Marcia Swanson.

Rep. Sam Hunt (center) checks his notes during the competition. Photo courtesy of Marcia Swanson.

Read this story in Spanish here.

School without walls, fixed schedules or group pacing gets top ranking

Have you seen TV ads of an online school that uses people as billboards? Some of them are kind of geeky, but its enrollment in our state has quadrupled in 18 months. So, geeky or not, they're getting the word out: Western Governors University offers affordable online bachelor's and master's degrees to working adults.

There are still some skeptics out there who don't believe in getting a degree online; they may just change their minds with last week's news that the Kirkland-based SR Education Group, which rates online colleges and universities, said Western Governors University is the nation's top-performing online school.

SR Education Group, started by a former Microsoft executive, created the ranking of online higher-education institutions using a combination of measures such as reputation among alumni, affordability, and graduation and retention rates.
WGU was founded in 1997 by the governors of 19 Western states. In 2011, led by former Seattle Representative Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney, and Reps. Larry Seaquist and Eric Pettigrew, the Legislature passed a bill to create a partnership between Washington and WGU that:

• Meets a key state need for affordable education in high-demand fields.
• Opens a wide window of opportunities for full-time workers, dislocated workers and other underserved adult learners who would otherwise not have a chance to get a degree.
• Offers the best of nontraditional opportunities — high quality, affordability, and flexibility.

All at absolutely no cost to Washington taxpayers.

A 2009 survey of employers in states that already had WGUs and who have hired WGU grads found that:

• 98 percent of employers rated employees with degrees from WGU as "excellent" or "good."
• 90 percent of employers consider WGU grads' preparation for the workforce either "good" or "excellent."
• 91 percent said they would be willing to hire additional WGU graduates.
• 81 percent of employers said they would recommend hiring WGU graduates to their associates.
• 79 percent of employers indicated that they noted a higher level of individual learning ability in WGU graduates.
• 82 percent rated WGU graduates higher than other employees in terms of self-motivation and direction.

Check out the Online College Rankings Report.
Read the story in the Seattle Times.
Visit the WGU Washington website.

Read this story in Spanish here.

This is the legendary Hopper, where bills are born

Staff at the Code Reviser's office stamp a bill after it's put in the Hopper

You’ll hear lawmakers talk about “dropping a bill” or “putting a bill in the Hopper.”

This is what that actually means. Staff at the Code Reviser’s Office take draft legislation from lawmakers, stamp it and make sure the text is in the proper format to turn into possible law. That’s tougher than it sounds, because the staff must look up what possible changes any legislation makes to all possible existing laws, then cross out words, sentences or entire sections of existing laws and show exactly what would replace them.

You can learn about any proposed legislation this session by going here.

Read this story in Spanish here.

More scenes from opening day in Olympia

It's been about 24 hours since legislators took the oath of office yesterday. Here are just a few of our favorite shots from opening day action...

Reps. Roger Freeman and Dawn Morrell rise for the the oath of office (photo by Linda Barnfather)

Rep. Jamie Pedersen discusses gun control legislation with KIRO's Essex Porter

Reps. Joe Fitzgibbon (l) and Marcus Riccelli gather in the rotunda prior to taking the oath of office (photo by Linda Barnfather)

Speaker Chopp makes a few last-minute updates to his opening day speech

(L to R) Seatmates Reps. Kevin Van De Wege and Steve Tharinger, along with Rep. Derek Stanford following opening day ceremonies (photo by Linda Barnfather)


Read this story in Spanish here.

Citizen-lawmakers get to work

The founders of Washington state wanted part-time lawmakers instead of full-time politicians, so they set up the House and Senate to only meet during the winter, and to have citizen-lawmakers who'd get their work done and go back home to work as farmers and firefighters, teachers and nurses.

More than 100 years later, our state still has citizen-lawmakers like Rep. Tami Green (D-Lakewood), who works as a registered nurse when she's not in Olympia serving as the Majority Floor Leader.

Here's Rep. Green on the first day of the 2013 session:

Photo by Linda Barnfather

And here she is on her last day of work a nurse, before coming down to Olympia:

Rep. Tami Green on her last day of work as a nurse before the beginning of the 2013 legislative session

Read this story in Spanish here.

Opening Day!

Speaker Frank Chopp gives his Opening Day speech

No, we don't mean baseball is back. But your legislature is!

The gavel fell at noon today in the House of Representatives, calling into session the 63rd Washington State Legislature. All 98 members took the oath of office, administered by Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara Madsen.

Frank Chopp was re-elected Speaker of the House and delivered his traditional opening day speech. Also re-elected were Speaker Pro-Tem Jim Moeller and Chief Clerk Barbara Baker.  Tina Orwall was elected Deputy Speaker Pro-Tem, as well.

House committees began their schedule of meetings at 1:30, and the agendas were not easy, first-day-of-school stuff: the new Finance Committee receiving an update from the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council and the Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on Governor Gregoire's budget proposal.

*** UPDATE *** Our website is currently down, so the link to the Speaker's opening day speech won't work. We'll update this post when the service provider has our site back online. You can also watch the speech on TVW below.


*** UPDATE 5:54 p.m. *** We're back up. Thanks for your patience.




Read this story in Spanish here.

49th LD town hall video available online

 If you missed Saturday's 49th Legislative District Town Hall Meeting, don't feel left out!

CVTV covered it from start to finish, so get in on the conversation with Reps. Sharon Wylie, Jim Moeller, and Senator-elect Annette Cleveland. It may take a little bit to load, so please be patient.

Read this story in Spanish here.