the BLOG

David Dicks, Executive Director, Puget Sound Partnership

07/21/08

Whether you live, work or play on Puget Sound, or just enjoy its undeniable beauty, you have a stake in its recovery. Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature recognized this when they created the Puget Sound Partnership, a community-led effort with citizens at the helm.

07/16/08
Jay Manning, Director of Ecology

To help battle growing wildfires in central and Eastern Washington, I signed a statewide state of emergency proclamation today. This frees up equipment, human resources and funding.

07/11/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

To help battle growing wildfires in central and Eastern Washington, I signed a statewide state of emergency proclamation today. This frees up equipment, human resources and funding.

07/10/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

With gas and food prices at record highs, paying for health care is an even bigger challenge for many Washington families. As anybody who has been sick knows, prescription drugs are one of the biggest costs in getting healthy. To make good health more affordable, I encourage all Washingtonians to sign up for the state’s prescription drug discount card.

07/09/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Today’s announcement by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is good news for Washington state, Boeing, its workers and the nation. The Department of Defense will rebid the tanker contract using the same criteria for both bidders. I believe Boeing should have been awarded the contract all along based on the Air Force’s criteria, and I believe the tanker contract should have been awarded to Boeing today.

07/07/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Although school has been out for a few weeks, the state of Washington just received some outstanding grades. We earned an "AA" rating from Fitch Ratings and an "AA+" rating from Standard & Poors, two international bond rating firms. The rankings are among the highest that the two firms assign bonds.

07/03/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Independence Day brings celebrations across Washington. For the second year, the holiday means the arrival of dozens of tall ships to Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. To help commemorate the event, I’ve declared July 3 "Tall Ships Tacoma Day." More than 700,000 visitors are expected to tour the 32 ships lining the Port of Tacoma during their four day docking.

07/02/08
Mary Selecky, Secretary of Health

By now you’ve heard about the recent salmonella outbreaks linked to raw tomatoes. More than 800 people have been sickened across the country, including four in Washington. Foodborne illness can be very serious, even deadly. Fortunately, in many cases it can be prevented.

07/01/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Squeezed by escalating food and gas prices, the number of Washington families using food banks jumped this year by 15 percent after being steady for the past several years. It’s true all over — from Bellingham to Vancouver, Spokane to Seattle.

06/18/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Today the people of the state of Washington received some great news. The Government Accountability Office has ruled to recommend that bids be reopened for the U.S. Air Force’s new refueling tanker. You may recall that the Air Force accepted the bid from Northrop Grumman Corp and its European partner EADS in February.

06/13/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

With record high gas and food prices Washingtonians are struggling to keep up. I encourage you to contribute to the 6th Annual Strike Out Hunger Day at Safeco Field on Saturday, June 14 sponsored by the Mariners, Northwest Harvest and KOMO.

06/10/08
Paula Hammond

With gas prices hovering around $4.25 a gallon in Puget Sound, there was great celebration last week when we cut the ribbon on the I-5 Everett expansion project. The $260 million project is a great example of how WSDOT is actively managing congestion. We added HOV lanes, general purpose lanes and designated ramps for transit and carpool only on I-5 through six miles of Everett.

06/05/08
Cindi Holmstrom

Small business is the lifeblood of Washington’s economy. It is our priority to continuously develop and implement new strategies to lower the cost of doing business in Washington and at the same time make targeted investments to promote small businesses and commerce.

05/29/08
David Dicks

By 2020, as many as 1.5 million more people will call the cities and towns surrounding Puget Sound home.

And as last week's Seattle Times special report points out, if we want to succeed at bringing the Sound back to health, we must figure out how to grow with grace.

05/23/08
John Lee

Memorial Day invites us as Americans to remember the brave men and women who swore an oath to defend our freedoms and paid the ultimate price. It is also a time to thank veterans and current service members, especially as citizen soldiers from the National Guard’s 81st Brigade prepare to deploy this summer.

05/21/08
Jay Manning

In a winter like the one just past, it’s easy to take our mountain snowfields and glaciers for granted. But that’s a mistake. Despite variations like this year, Washington, along with the rest of the world, is warming at an alarming rate due to emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — oil, gas, coal — that create a greenhouse effect.

05/19/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

The commitment of state agencies to provide information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible was confirmed this week when the State Auditor’s Office released its latest performance audit. State cabinet agencies had a 94 percent success rate in the audit. The few mistakes were clerical errors and not attempts to withhold information.

05/13/08
Karen Lee

The April unemployment rate in Washington is 4.7 percent, the 19th month in row under 5 percent. But even with our low unemployment rate, there are always people looking for work.

05/06/08
Mary Selecky

When you turn on a faucet, you probably take it for granted that you’ll get clear, refreshing water from your tap. And that’s a good thing, because it means your water supplier has been consistently providing you with safe, reliable drinking water.

05/02/08
Valoria Loveland

Some of Washington’s most productive orchards were hit by unseasonably cold weather in April. At the governor’s request, I headed to the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin this week to survey the damage and talk to some of the impacted producers.

04/25/08
Cindi Holmstrom

Washington has the fourth-best tax system in the nation for entrepreneurs and small businesses, according to the Business Tax Index 2008 issued recently by the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

04/22/08
Governor Chris Gregoire

Today is Earth Day, and I suggest each of us to take a minute to think about our beautiful state and then ask: Can I do more to protect it for future generations? The fact is, every day should be earth day, and the answer from each of us should be “Yes, we can!”

04/14/08
David Dicks

Figure out what’s wrong with Puget Sound, then organize a community-led effort to fix it. That’s the ambitious charge Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature gave the Puget Sound Partnership.

04/09/08
Mary Selecky

Helping people live longer and live healthier is a top priority at the state Department of Health. When someone stops using tobacco, for example, he or she could live a longer, healthier life and avoid some diseases.

03/27/08
Eva Santos

State government, like the people we serve, represents a diverse mix of cultures and ethnicities. As an employer, the state is committed to having a work force that benefits from Washington’s diversity in culture, race, ethnicity, ability and gender.

03/21/08
Mary Selecky

One of the most important things we do at the state Department of Health is provide vaccines so kids across Washington can be protected from diseases such as measles, whooping cough and chicken pox. Vaccination has a positive impact on the health of people in our state.

03/18/08
Karen Lee

Today we released the latest job growth data that showed Washington’s unemployment rate remained steady and added 3,500 non-agricultural jobs in February. By contrast, the United States lost 63,000 non-agricultural jobs in February.

03/12/08
Paula Hammond

A new chapter began at the WSDOT last week when David Moseley took the helm of the Washington state ferry system. And I couldn’t be happier.

03/11/08
Chris Gregoire

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see a community’s dream fulfilled with the opening of the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle.

03/05/08
Chris Gregoire

This morning I had a chance to talk to Marty and Jodi on The Marty Riemer Show on 103.7 The Mountain. We covered Boeing, the 520 bridge and the presidential primaries. You can listen to the interview here.

03/04/08
Chris Gregoire

Our hard work to make Washington state government the best in the nation is drawing attention once again from outside our state — this time by the prestigious Pew Center on the States.The Center just gave our state an A- ranking for its performance in managing public resources.

02/29/08
Chris Gregoire

Today marks a new beginning for my website. I’ve invited members of the Cabinet and others to join me in creating a blog. We’ll discuss issues of the day and why they are important to the people of Washington. Be sure to check out these pages on a regular basis to hear these interesting and insightful perspectives.