EFF just sent me the below. There's some sizzling news at the bottom of this missive about HB 2079 which is up for executive session to pass out of committee tomorrow at 3:30 PM (EFF intel got old and bad - mine's from the bill website)… just enough time to miss the cut-off. So please read this e-mail and fling away, because our liberty depends on it.

Thought you would be interested in this….

Each week, The Olympian newspaper here in Olympia invites a government official or other person of note to an online Capital Chat in which citizens, constituents, readers, and other interested parties can ask questions. This Friday, March 30, 2007 at noon, State Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, a co-sponsor of HB 2079, will be participating in The Olympian’s Capital Chat. Here is your opportunity to ask a co-sponsor of HB 2079 why she supports the bill.

HB 2079 was written by the WEA and changes the law to say that “A labor organization does not use agency shop fees when it uses its general treasury funds to make such contributions or expenditures if it has sufficient revenues from sources other than agency shop fees in its general treasury to fund such contributions or expenditures.”

Time for a correction to an earlier post.  It's not 19 repeat findings but twenty-one (21) repeat audit findings, going all the way back to 1986 in which Washington State Ferries (WSF) has had, "inadequate controls over revenue collection".  A new collection system for fares is being installed.

Of course, Transportation Secretary Doug McDonald had this to say to The Everett Herald: "When the electronic fare system is finished, maybe we'll see the auditor move on to another finding, but I'm not sure of that because it may be stuck in his word processor."  But there's more he had to say, after the State Auditor (also a Democrat) found that, "The Department of Transportation does not have adequate internal controls to ensure compliance with federal and state laws for leased properties on a timely basis" and "The Department of Transportation does not have adequate internal controls in place to ensure gasoline purchased is for authorized purposes."