State Rep. Don Barlow, D-Spokane, says he's doing well after recent heart surgery at Sacred Heart hospital in Spokane.

"I'm feeling much better than I or anyone else expected at this stage," he said in a press release.

Barlow had the surgery to repair a congenital defect in a heart valve. He said he's known about the condition since he was a boy "and it was finally time for a tune-up."

Barlow, elected two years ago, is running for re-election this year. He said he'll take things easy for the rest of this month, but will be back in action in June. He's staying in touch with his legislative duties by phone and e-mail, and said he's eager to hear from folks while he's on the mend.

He's at barlow.don@leg.wa.gov.

The state Democratic Party is seeking donations to hire a plane to fly around Seattle skies on Tuesday, trailing a banner reading "JOHN MCCAIN: 100 YEARS IN IRAQ."

Tan Lam, a Vietnamese refugee who came to America in 1982 with a fourth-grade education and went on to get a master's from Dartmouth, is running for the 33rd District (Des Moines, Normandy Park, Burien, SeaTac, Kent) seat held by Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Burien, a former Senate staffer who chairs the House ecology and parks commission.

Catching up...

-- Dinner with John McCain in Bellevue can be yours next week, for $33,100 a plate.

-- The Everett Herald's Jerry Cornfield takes a closer look at the widespread budget woes of school districts.

-- And finally this: An impasse between a Texas-based educational foundation and the union-backed state compensation rules for Washington teachers has cost schools -- including Spokane's -- more than $13 million in math and science help for thousands of students.

It looks like The Vancouver Columbian's Howard Buck broke that story Saturday:

A $13.2 million, five-year grant from the National Math and Science Initiative, designed to add new Advanced Placement teachers, courses and exams for thousands of Washington high school students, has been scrubbed.

The reasons?

The state’s rule against merit pay for teachers, and top-down inflexibility, said discouraged Southwest Washington program leaders who broke the news Friday.

...Despite weeks of talks, no way was found around teachers union collective bargaining rules to meet the rigid guidelines of the grant organization.

Among the casualties: state Rep. Bill Fromhold, D-Vancouver, who said months ago that he'd step down from the Legislature this year in order to run the grant. As Buck wrote, "the job has evaporated." More:

Rich Wood, spokesman for the Washington Education Association, said many nonprofits have granted money to school districts without this outcome.

“Some outside group can’t impose a new system of pay on teachers,” Wood said. “That’s just not the way that schools work in our state.”

The Seattle Times had a similar story on Monday.

In an op-ed in Spokane's alternative weekly, The Inlander, state Sen. Chris Marr blast Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's recently announced transportation plan as a bad idea that would "gut" the state's main checking account largely to pay for western Washington roads.

Speaking of equity, for a plan that bills itself as a "statewide" proposal, it decidedly focuses on Puget Sound projects. Excluding a purported $2.2 billion investment in the North-South freeway, it spends only $129 million — less than 1 percent of diverted tax revenues — on seven small Eastern Washington projects. And watch out for Rossi's attempt to make "congestion relief" the top transportation priority — trumping safety, maintenance and economic vitality. This is code for moving expensive Puget Sound projects to the front of the line, at the expense of freight mobility, farm-to-market roads and modest investments in Eastern Washington projects with far greater bang for the buck than floating mega-bridges and waterfront tunnels.

The full column is here.

The state's Parent-Teachers Association held its annual convention in Seatac last week, drawing more than 1,000 people from across the state. Here are some highlights from a panel discussion on a topic that's sure to dominate the five-way race for state superintendent of public instruction this summer: the controversial Washington Assessment of Student Learning test.

The WASL is now a "high-stakes" test, meaning that the Class of 2008 is supposed to pass parts of it – or otherwise show they know the material – to get a high school diploma. But the test remains a lightning rod, with many educators saying it now overshadows other important aspects of education.

"It's unfortunate that the test has become the poster child of all the things that maybe aren't working in this system," said state assistant superintendent Joe Willhoft. Regardless of the test, he said, schools need more resources and tools to improve instruction.

"It's as if we have taken our temperature and noticed we had a fever, and now we're trying to blame the thermometer," said communications consultant David Fisher. He argued that the debate over the test shouldn't eclipse the need for high standards and accountability.

But despite a "menu" of alternative assessments for kids who cannot pass the WASL, "Students do not experience it as a menu," said Yelm high school teacher Lester Krupp. "They experience it as increasing confusion and pressure…It just adds to the likelihood they'll be overwhelmed."

Spokane Education Association president Maureen Ramos cited Spokane's success bringing up test scores at schools with even very-low-income students. How? By changing the curriculum, training teachers, and forging a coordinated plan to improve.

Yes, Ramos said, schools need an accountability system. But it's a mistake, she feels, to pin so much on the WASL. Kids are exhausted, she said, and the pressure leaves some in tears. It's unfair to children struggling to learn English, she said, and the high-pressure testing often doesn't reflect what a child really knows.

"The WASL has overrun its premise," she said.

From this morning's paper:

OLYMPIA _ For decades, Washington has encouraged its teachers to get graduate degrees. The theory was that more education makes a better teacher.

A five-year teacher with a master’s degree, for example, earns 19 percent more than a five-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree. A doctoral degree bumps the salary up roughly 14 percent more.

More than 60 percent of Washington teachers have graduate degrees, well above the national average.

But do advanced degrees result in students getting higher test scores?

In most cases, the answer is no, the state Legislature’s research arm reported Tuesday, citing its analysis of more than a dozen studies.

“Teachers with a graduate degree do not improve student test scores more than teachers with a B.A.,” Steve Aos, assistant director of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, told an education task force in Olympia.

The exception, he said, seems to be math and science. Some studies suggest that advanced degrees in those subjects improve learning.

What really seems to make a big difference across the board, he said, is experience, particularly early in a teacher’s career. On average, there’s a spike in student achievement in a teacher’s first six years on the job. And the improvements in test scores continue – although not as dramatically – for at least 20 years. The data comes from 15 studies analyzed by the institute.

Such findings could influence lawmakers as they try to overhaul basic education funding, one of the state’s thorniest budget topics. The state’s Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force has until December to accomplish two goals: One, find a way to steer more money into education, and two, make the state’s arcane school-funding system simpler and fairer.

“This is an opportunity we won’t get again in our lifetime,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson told the other task force members Tuesday.

Although reportedly trailing Gov. Chris Gregoire in fundraising last month, Republican challenger Dino Rossi recently celebrated a milestone: racking up as many individual campaign contributions as he got during his entire 2004 campaign.

To thank the 30,746th donor this year, Rossi led a sort of Prize Patrol trip to the door of an Auburn woman named Rhonda. (The prize: some balloons and Rossi's 2005 book.)

Along the way, Rossi tells the video camera: "Sixty two percent of our contributors now are people that are new to the campaign, people that did not participate last time," he said.

The soundtrack? The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda," which abruptly cuts out just before the final words of "Help me Rhonda, yeah, get her out of my heart."

Gov. Chris Gregoire, meanwhile, got the endorsement today of the Washington State Labor Council. At the group's annual convention, more than 350 union delegates voted -- unanimously -- to back her. They represent more than 400,000 Washington union members.

Here's Rossi's video clip:

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs today issued a preliminary report on crime last year. The upshot: statewide, major crimes dropped 8 percent compared to 2006. The number of major crimes per person is down slightly more (10 percent).

Violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) dropped 2 pcent, with murder down nearly 6 percent. Also dropping: property crime (down 9 percent), particularly car theft (down 18 percent).

What's going up? Hate crimes, apparently, or at least the reporting of them as such. Nearly 200 incidents of hate- or bias-motivated crimes were reported last year, totalling more than 250 offenses. That's a 15 percent increase.

Locally the overall picture is a bit bleaker. Violent crime was up 10 percent in the city of Spokane last year, for example, although it dropped slightly in nearby Spokane Valley. And in areas covered by Spokane County Sheriff's deputies, it was up a striking 30 percent.

Violent crime was up slightly in Stevens County, down in Pend Oreille County, and down sharply in Ferry County, although it's important to note that small differences can skew the percentages wildly in small jurisdictions. The number of reported rapes in Pend Oreille County, for example, dropped a startling 50 percent -- meaning 2 in 2006 and 1 last year. Other interesting data: Property crime was up in Whitman County.

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will be in Spokane May 20 to headline a $40-a-head "Friends of the Family Banquet" at the Spokane Convention Center.

The governor's office is holding four "roundtables" with small businesses this year, intended as listening posts at which small business owners can tell Olympia what's working and what's not.

As Faith Lumsden, head of the governor's Office of Regulatory Assistance, said in an announcement about the meetings, "Please tell us what it takes to make Washington an easy and affordable place to do business."

For people in Spokane, Yakima and the Tri-Cities, it apparently takes a big carbon footprint. The only Eastern Washington meeting (May 29, 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.) is in Wenatchee.

UPDATE: A reader notes that last year's meetings included Spokane and the Tri-Cities: "So maybe it was just Wenatchee's turn?"

Thanks for the note.

Thanks to I-872 several years ago and a recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, Washingtonians are about to vote in a new pick-no-party primary this summer. The top two vote-getters for an office -- regardless of party -- will face off on the November ballot.

The ballot (or polling place) will be marked with a note saying:

"Washington has a new primary. You do not have to pick a party. In each race, you may vote for any candidate listed..."

Each candidate will get a chance to list a "party preference" and the ballot, like this:

-Chris Gregoire (Prefers Democratic Party)

But as I've written before, candidates are free to put whatever they want in between "prefers" and "party," so long as it's 16 characters or less and isn't obscene.

"If the name of the political party provided by the candidate would be considered obscene, the filing officer may petition the superior court" to have it edited, the rules say, or replaced with "states no party preference."

From tomorrow's paper:

That was the upshot of a ruling Thursday by the state's highest court, which upheld the conviction of a Ferry County man who allegedly had his friends stalk his ex-girlfriend.

The ruling overturned an appeals court, which had concluded that the crime of stalking cannot be accomplished through a third person.

Wrong, said Justice Pro Tem Bobbe Bridge, writing for the court's 6-3 majority.

(Click here for the dissenting opinion.)

The case involved Andre Paul Becklin, a 58-year-old retired logger, miner and driller who lives in Republic.

Starting in 1992, Becklin had what the court described as a "tumultuous" relationship with his girlfriend at the time, Mary Alison McGee. The two frequently got into fights, particularly after McGee ended the relationship. During a dispute over custody of their son, now 10, Becklin tried to force his way into McGee's home. She got a protection order in 2003. He couldn't contact her – even through a third party -- or come within 100 feet of her.

Despite that, McGee testified at trial that Becklin's friends repeatedly drove Becklin's cars by her home. One reportedly trailed her home from court. Two of his friends said they filled out written reports for him, detailing where they'd seen McGee around town.

McGee went to police, who arrested Becklin for violating the protection order and stalking her.

In tomorrow's paper:

In a ruling that could affect some other sex-offender cases, a sharply divided Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said that a Vancouver man was wrongly committed as a sexually violent predator.

Several dissenters on the court agreed that there was a technical mistake in the case, but said it didn't merit freeing the man.

The court challenge came from Sheldon Martin, a kidnapper and sex offender arrested in 1992 in Portland, Ore. and sentenced to a year in prison. He was also sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a Vancouver, Wash. burglary and indecent exposure. Only the Oregon crimes fall under Washington's sexually violent predator law, which allows the state to continue to hold dangerous predators even after they've served their sentences.

Court opinion: click here.

Dissent: click here.

As rumored for more than a week (hat tip to the TNT's Joe Turner), former Democratic lawmaker and current union executive director Randy Dorn says he's running for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

That makes it a race between three strong candidates: incumbent Terry Bergeson, seeking another term; Richland superintendent Rich Semler, and now Dorn.

Bergeson is a former Washington Education Association president who's locked horns with the union over her support for the controversial Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. So much so, in fact, that the union has (as it did four years ago) endorsed a Bergeson opponent: Semler.

Dorn is executive director of the Public School Employees of Washington, a smaller union that represents the rank-and-file workers in schools: bus drivers, food workers, aides, and so forth. Dorn says the WEA also encouraged him to run.

Even though there are many months between now and Election Day, it already seems pretty obvious that the race will revolve around two glaring issues: teacher (and some parent) unhappiness with the WASL test and how to come up with more money for schools.

Dorn said he thinks the WASL woes are fixable. There needs to be some sort of testing, he said, but it should be faster, better-quality and something that provides feedback that teachers can use to hone their instruction of individual students.

The bigger issue, he said, is stable funding for a 21st-century education. As things stand now, Dorn said, things like school security, technology and tutoring for struggling students aren't considered part of the state's basic funding formula.

In what I'm guessing is the first of many such events, Semler and Bergeson (and nice guy but longshot perennial candidate Don Hansler) are slated to be at a candidates' forum tomorrow at the annual state PTA conference in SeaTac.

Here's an interesting analysis of the race so far from blogger Ryan at the I Thought a Think blog.

State Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington, was arrested Sunday afternon on charges of fourth degree assault and interfering with reporting of domestic violence. He says -- see below -- that the charges are baseless and that he'll be exonerated.

In essence, Simpson told the police that he and his ex-wife were arguing over tax paperwork that she was about to tear up. Any contact between the two, he said, was "incidental" to his efforts to save the documents.

Here's a summary of what's in the King County Sheriff's Department incident report, filed Monday morning by officer Christopher Sawtelle:

According to Sawtelle's report, Simpson and his ex-wife got into a dispute at the home they used to share before their recent divorce.

The report is pretty heavily blacked out, but it seems that during the argument over tax paperwork, Simpson allegedly grabbed his ex-wife's hand and squeezed it painfully. When she went to pick up the dropped paperwork, he then allegedly grabbed her arm and painfully squeezed that. He weighs 265 pounds; she weighs 150.

At that point, Simpson's ex-wife apparently got his cell phone and said she was calling the police to help her get her belongings. Simpson allegedly "grabbed the phone from her then grabbed onto her arm and drug her out of the house." She called for a deputy.

Two arrived. Sawtelle said he could see "some minor reddening" on Simpson's ex-wife's upper arm. Simpson, meanwhile, allegedly told the other officer that he never grabbed anyone.

Due to the allegation, Simpson was then arrested.
Simpson subsequently volunteered to give a statement. He said he, standing behind her, grabbed the tax paperwork from his ex-wife because she was about to rip it up.

"He stated that he never grabbed onto her and that any contact was incidental," the report says. "He stated that he took the phone away from (her) only after he told her to give it back and she refused, and that again, any contact was incidental."

Simpson said he never grabbed her or twisted her wrist.

A witness whose name is blacked out also told the deputy that he heard Simpson's ex-wife call out to him in a "frantic" voice and that he saw Simpson holding onto her arm and trying to pull her out of the house.

Click here to read the police report.

UDPATE: Barbara Baker, chief clerk of the House of Representatives (and a lawyer) said she's advising House Speaker Frank Chopp to find out more about what happened before proposing any discipline.

"The House of Representatives takes criminal charges against any of the members very seriously -- especially those of domestic violence," she said in a written statement. "...I will be talking later this evening with the Speaker and other members of leadership about this unfortunate situation. Our next steps will be based on what we learn in the days ahead."

State Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington, was arrested this weekend on a domestic violence charge. Details are sketchy -- I'm trying to get the police report from the King County Sheriff's Office, which Covington contracts for police coverage from -- but Simpson has released this statement.

This is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved. The end of a
marriage is an emotional and trying time for any family, and mine is
no exception.

As a firefighter and first responder, I have witnessed the reality of
domestic violence and provided care for many victims.

As a state legislator, I remain strongly in support of erring on the side
of protecting potential victims with our laws and their enforcement –
even when, in situations like mine, it can result in unwarranted
charges. I am confident that once the facts come to light I will be
exonerated.

I believe in our justice system and will continue to cooperate fully as
this situation is resolved.

Horse's Ass blogger (and founder) David Goldstein, who is close to Simpson's new campaign manager, has more.

From this morning's paper:

If there’s any doubt that Washington’s about to be a national battleground in the fight over assisted suicide, just take a look at the checks.

With months left to go before Election Day, Washington’s Initiative 1000 has drawn cash contributions from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Among them: more than 400 contributions from California, nearly 150 from New York and $215,000 from the Oregon group Death With Dignity.

Proponents of the measure, which would allow terminally ill people to get a lethal prescription, had raised about $900,000 by the end of March. Both sides predict an emotional, bitter battle in the only state to be considering a ballot measure on this issue this year. Opponents have raised about $50,000 so far.

“They didn’t get California, couldn’t get Vermont, and they’re trying to get Washington,” said Marilyn Golden, a California-based disability rights advocate who was in Eastern Washington last week arguing against the measure.

Recent polling by both sides suggests that between 60 percent and 64 percent of voters support the measure. Former Gov. Booth Gardner and other proponents hope to keep that number up while proponents try to whittle it below 50 percent by November.

Both sides agree that the battle over I-1000 is a David-and-Goliath struggle. But both claim to be the underdog.

Opponents, with about one-sixteenth of the money proponents have collected, would seem to have a lock on the underdog title. But proponents say that in state after state, money has quickly flooded in from politically powerful groups: doctors, the Catholic Church and right-to-life groups.

Click here to read the full print story.

In the wake of initiative pitchman Tim Eyman's announcement today that he's taking out a second mortgage on his home to come up with a quarter million dollars to loan to his initiative campaign, let's take a look at how the I-985 finances are going.

Not well, it seems.

He's raised $322,000, according to the latest campaign finance reports. But of that, $210,000 came from Mike Dunmire, his primary financial backer on recent measures. And Dunmire's apparently focusing his money elsewhere now.

Another $84,000 came from campaign contributions made to another Eyman political committee last year.

What's left? About $27k, the vast majority of it from about 200 individual donors. And most of those folks donated $50 or less.

In his fundraising email this morning, Eyman called on his supporters to donate again. He says the campaign needs another $290,000, most of which will come -- for now -- from his $250,000 second mortgage.

It's hard to say how much risk Eyman is really taking. Maybe Dunmire and his checkbook will again ride the rescue after all. And Eyman has a long history of 11th-hour pleas for campaign cash, only to have it all work out in time to file the signatures.

But his critics have said for years that the $30-Car-Tabs activist of nearly a decade ago hasn't maintained a broad base of supporters. Instead, he has increasingly relied on Dunmire to back recent ballot measures. It's easier, after all, to work one large donor than an army of kitchen-table check-writers.

But now, it looks like he's asking an awful lot of a relatively small pool of donors. Even if the roughly 200 named individual donors in I-985's campaign reports start adding a zero to their checks -- donating $500 instead of $50, for example -- it's far less than the $290k that Eyman says he needs.

As always when Tim Eyman is concerned: Stay tuned.

A now-defunct company that sold magazine subscriptions on the auction site eBay has agreed to refund thousands of dollars to Washingtonians who never got their publications.

Cheapest-Magz, run by Wilmyr Dagohoy and Eireen Ejem-Dagohoy, has agreed to pay $15,000 in refunds, a fine and attorneys' fees.

The company, initially based in Bremerton, sold thousands of subscriptions to magazines like Newsweek, Oprah, Playboy, TV Guide and Wired. In thousands of cases, the state attorney general's office says, the magazines never came.

"A promise to deliver is a promise to deliver," said Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Customers who paid for subscriptions with Cheap-Magz will be contacted within 40 days and sent a check equal to what they paid. Anyone with questions should call the AG's Consumer Resource Center at 1-800-551-4636.

The Washington Education Association has endorsed Richland school superintendent Rich Semler in his run for state superintendent of public instruction.

Incumbent Terry Bergeson – a former WEA president who's drawn fire from the union over testing – is running for re-election.

Despite Bergeson's former role with the group, the endorsement of a challenger shouldn't be a big surprise. Four years ago, the WEA endorsed another Bergeson challenger, former state schools chief Judith Billings.

Semler began his career as a teacher in Spokane and who has a son, Travis, who lives there. He's pledging "to refocus Washington education from testing to a more balanced curriculum that embraces high standards yet respects individual student needs and desires."

OK, so that's a crappy headline. But in what is either a sign of desperation or a novel way to light a fire under campaign donors, initiative promoter Tim Eyman says he's taking out a $250,000 second mortgage on his Mukilteo home in order to pay signature gatherers.

He hopes to get that money back from contributors.

Initiative 985, in case you've misplaced your scorecard, would open up carpool lanes to all vehicles in off-peak hours and steer red-light camera money into anti-congestion projects, among other things. (Spokane readers: that last item means that your red-light fine could pay for smoother traffic in, umm, Seattle, but I'll write more about that if I-985 makes it to the ballot.)

Eyman says the campaign has raised nearly $280,000, but needs $290,000 more to pay signature gatherers now. For the measure to appear on the fall ballot, Eyman needs about 250,000 valid signatures by July 3rd.

In recent years, Woodinville investor Mike Dunmire has shoveled hundreds of thousands of dollars into Eyman's measures and a "compensation fund" for Eyman and his Spokane partners, Mike and Jack Fagan.

But that well may be running dry. In a letter to supporters Tuesday, Eyman said Dunmire informed him that

"because of charitable donations and other obligations, we can't count on anything more from him in the foreseeable future."

"I'm jumping off a big cliff," he wrote to contributors. "Please help catch me."

The 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 3-car-garage home on a golf course that Eyman bought a decade ago for $433,000 is now worth $844,000, according to the local county assessor's office.

-Skagit County's Stephen Michael Hopley, a Democrat, joins the already-crowded race to replace retiring Sen. Harriet Spanel, D-Bellingham.

-Bremerton's Mark Duane Lowe, a Republican, is running for first-term Democratic Rep. Christine Rolfes, a former Bainbridge Island city councilwoman. (M's fans, siddown: This is not Mariners relief pitcher Mark Lowe.)

-Kennewick restaurateur and caterer Steven Simmons, a Republican, for the House seat now held by state Rep. Shirley Hankins, R-Richland.

-Spokane attorney Mark E. Vovos, for superior court judge.

-Wapato Mayor Jesse Farias, a Democrat, for Yakima County Commissioner.

John Patrick Moyna, 52, has just filed paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission to run as an independent for the 3rd District seat long held by state Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.

Moyna is a night janitor for Dicks Hamburger's, a Spokane icon. (For whatever it's worth, Moyna is a vegan.)

He has an extensive personal/campaign web page, on which he describes himself as:

"the Independent minded populist candidate for principled politics who is too conservative for democrats, too liberal for republicans, too radical for libertarians, too constitutional for greens, and too controversial for patriots."

A South Carolina native who grew up as an on-the-move military brat, landed in Spokane for a few years as an adult, and subsequently spent nearly a decade on the road as a "homeless tramp," he offers the hard-to-argue-with observation that:

A community that does not recall what it was yesterday, and does not understand what it should be today, will fail in its efforts to reach its goals in the future.

and

Inovation is gained by the renovation of conservation.

He is the only candidate to have filed against Brown.

Today's the last day of Dave Ammons' 1971-2008 career as a statehouse reporter for the Associated Press.

Ammons -- as he recounts in a soon-to-be-online TVW interview with David Postman -- arrived on the scene at a time when reporters were still a hard-drinking, chainsmoking lot who would belly up to the bar with sources and look forward each year to the arrival of lobbyists pulling cases of high-octane Christmas cheer out of their car trunks for the press.

It's hard to imagine Ammons trying to fit in in such an environment -- he's unfailingly nice, suffers fools gladly, and in a press corps whose language remains R-rated at best, I can't recall ever hearing him swear.

In an industry where sendoffs typically consist of beers at the pub and help carrying your stuff to your car, Ammons will get an official farewell next month over at the state's Temple of Justice, the marbled home of the state Supreme Court.

He's not going far. He's taking a job as communications director for Secretary of State Sam Reed.

But we all know it will be different. No longer will he be part of the press scrums, scribbling onto a full-sized legal pad with a large, battered cassette recorder -- a cassette tape recorder -- rolling in one hand.

And no longer will new arrivals get the advice -- as I did, eight years ago -- to pick up the key to the office "and then go find Dave Ammons."