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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1887 | 1 |
| 1888 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 7 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1903 | 4 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1916 | 2 |
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- The Expense Account Scandal
An investigation by the state bureau reveals that the Industrial Insurance Commission chairman was padding his vouchers to cover personal travel and family expenses.
- The Great 1910 Census Padding Scandal
Across Washington state, towns are inflating their populations with ghosts, hobos, and unborn children to secure their status.
- The Paradise of Thieves: Seattle’s 1876 Corruption Crisis
When the Territorial Legislature legalized gambling to fund a mountain road, Seattle residents warned that the city was becoming a lawless playground for criminals.
- The Shadowy Streets of 1870s Seattle
A wave of violent street crime hits the city as a mysterious gang terrorizes residents and burns down a derelict dance hall.
- The Investigation of the Friendless Dead
Seattle's medical establishment faces a reckoning over the exploitation of vulnerable patients.
- County Printing Scandal Brews in Centralia
Local newspaper proprietors accuse the News-Examiner of padding invoices for county work.
- The Walla Walla Water War
As the city population swells, local business leaders and engineers butt heads over the cost and feasibility of securing a gravity-fed water system.
- Padding the Patrol
A skeptical editorial questions the necessity of a bloated police force in an orderly town.
- The Wrestling King of Walla Walla
A professional wrestler defeats three local opponents in succession at Armory Hall, showcasing the rugged spectacle of early 1900s prize fighting.
- The Phantom Section Hands of the Northern Pacific
A roadmaster at Cle Elum is arrested for padding six railroad crews with fictitious workers—until a foreman’s conscience, and the auditors, caught up with him.
- The Padded Guest List
A political movement to reform Seattle government gets caught red-handed inflating its support with the names of prominent citizens who never agreed to join.
- The Fight for the Ballot Box
A legislative attempt to curb 'professional petition pushers' aims to ensure only legal voters influence state law.
- The Great City Printing Graft
Seattle’s local newspapers accused the Telegraph of padding city bills, sparking a political firestorm that reached the city council.
- The Great Seattle Canal Subscription Scandal
Prominent business leaders expose the local newspaper's fabricated list of wealthy donors to the Lake Washington ship canal project.
- The Milkman's Watered-Down Secret
A leaked letter from a diary hand reveals how Seattle milk was being diluted with water to pad wages in 1892.
- The City’s War on Early Motorists
Tacoma's Chief of Police launches a crackdown on 'auto speeders' along Pacific Avenue, dragging local business owners and residents into court for driving too fast.
- The Shadowy Business of Patent Medicines
A cynical drug clerk reveals the grisly truth behind 'medical' concoctions and the dangerous incompetence of the pharmacy trade in 1880s Seattle.
- A Silent Wedding in Seattle
A young couple, both deaf, marry in a quiet ceremony at the Seattle National Bank building.
- The 'Mayor of Little St. Petersburg' Faces Perjury Charges
A political operative is arrested in Walla Walla for allegedly padding voter rolls with illegal naturalizations of Russian laborers.
- The Political Shadow of the Civil War in North Yakima
When the President nominated a former Confederate leader's son to a federal land office in North Yakima, the local press ignited a firestorm over whether the territory should be a landing pad for the sons of secessionists.
- Seattle's Corrupt Policing: The Fee System of 1887
How Seattle’s police force was incentivized to hunt for arrests and padding their own pockets through court fees, sparking a local civic scandal.
- The Price of Patronage: Political Graft in Washington Territory
A scathing editorial exposes how federal appointments in the Washington Territory were treated as commodities, with government officials accused of padding their estates through systemic corruption.
- The Ex-Administrator's $15,000 Reckoning
A successor accuses A. L. Parker of paying himself, padding the estate's accounts and charging two years' rent on a Green Lake house.
- The Groom Who Didn't Exist
A jilted lover's lawsuit in the Lewis River country unravels a bizarre family scheme to pass a son off as a different man to save the family farm from seizure.
- The Codlin Moth War: Hogs, Padded Poles, and a Walla Walla Grower's Doubts About Spraying
W. S. Offner reported a quarter-million-dollar fruit trade from the Walla Walla valley—and explained why the standard spray calendar failed against the orchard pest.