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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 3 |
| 1859 | 1 |
| 1860 | 4 |
| 1861 | 6 |
| 1862 | 3 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1864 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 3 |
| 1876 | 25 |
| 1877 | 19 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1879 | 2 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 12 |
| 1884 | 12 |
| 1885 | 13 |
| 1886 | 8 |
| 1887 | 7 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 41 |
| 1890 | 13 |
| 1891 | 39 |
| 1892 | 45 |
| 1893 | 65 |
| 1894 | 67 |
| 1895 | 90 |
| 1897 | 2 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 16 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1902 | 2 |
| 1903 | 33 |
| 1904 | 9 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1907 | 1 |
| 1908 | 14 |
| 1909 | 71 |
| 1910 | 8 |
| 1911 | 16 |
| 1912 | 5 |
| 1914 | 4 |
| 1915 | 4 |
| 1916 | 10 |
| 1917 | 7 |
| 1923 | 9 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1925 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
716 stories matching session
- The Governor, the Corporations, and the Session He Wouldn't Call
A leaked cabinet meeting shows Governor Ferry weighing an extra legislative session against the wrath of corporations—and his own officials split over whether the state can wait.
- The Governor's Cabinet Meets as Washington's Bills Go Unpaid
With public servants holding $103,000 in IOUs, Olympia officials debate whether to call the legislature back for an emergency session.
- Two Hundred Odd Fellows Take Walla Walla — and an Old Man Cannot Speak
The state grand lodge opens three days of sessions at the Odd Fellows' Temple, elects its officers, and surprises an eighty-year-old past grand master with a veteran's jewel.
- The 1909 Legislature Went Home With a $10 Million Tab and an Unfinished Scandal
Washington's eleventh session adjourned with record spending, a sweeping new criminal code, a local-option liquor law, an equal-suffrage referendum — and an insurance investigation the House only agreed to after the acting governor threatened to drag them back.
- The Legislature’s Unfinished Business—and the Case for a Special Session
An anonymous Olympia lawmaker told The Tribune that defective appropriation laws, unpaid citizens and stalled state business demanded a special session by December.
- The House Turns on Its Insurance Commissioner
The Washington House votes unanimously to impeach Insurance Commissioner James H. Schively, opening a Senate trial that could remove him—and prolong the special session.
- The First Teachers’ Institute: A Battle for Seattle’s Soul
In September 1872, the Territory’s top educators gathered in Seattle to debate everything from corporal punishment to the role of women in teaching, laying the groundwork for public education in Washington.
- Washington's Fourth Legislature Adjourns After a Marathon Final Day
Lawmakers pass 53 bills, defeat a school-book trust, kill a Seattle-Tacoma bridewell, and bury woman suffrage for at least two years.
- The Last-Week Jam in Olympia: Liquor, Primaries and a Budget Nobody Counted
With the 60-day session expiring, Washington's lawmakers settle local option, rewrite the primary ballot, kill the initiative and abandon the joint budget committee — leaving taxpayers to foot a three-mill levy.
- The Man Who Bought the Territory: Miles C. Moore’s Rise to Governor
From a Walla Walla bookstore clerk to the head of Washington Territory, Miles C. Moore’s appointment signals a shift in power from Seattle’s elite to Eastern Washington’s business barons.
- The State Is Broke: Why Olympia Needs an Emergency Legislature
A supreme court ruling on university lands has left Washington's brand-new state government without money to pay its own debts — and the Olympia Tribune argues the legislature must be hauled back to the capital before the state's credit collapses.
- Eight Days, $7 Million in Requests, and a Labor Agenda Left to Die
Washington's 1909 legislature entered its final week with appropriations far outrunning revenue, more than 30 liquor bills pending, and nearly every labor measure quietly sidetracked.
- The Governor Calls the Legislature Back to Get Rid of an Insurance Commissioner
Olympia convenes in extraordinary session to hear the investigating committee's report on Commissioner Schively — and cannot agree on whether to impeach him or simply abolish his office out from under him.
- A Special Session Becomes an Impeachment Court
Washington lawmakers returned to Olympia to try Insurance Commissioner Schively, with the accused demanding that more than a dozen senators be disqualified as biased judges.
- The Funeral Grifter of North Yakima
An undertaker is conned out of five dollars by a man feigning the grief of a widower.
- Two Weeks In, Still No Senator: Olympia's Republicans Tire of the Ankeny Fight
The legislature has been in session a fortnight and Washington still has no United States senator. A colleague's insulting letter blows up, the Wilson and Allen camps fold, and a caucus is called to force the thing to an end.
- Olympia Moves to Outlaw the Insanity Defense — and Gag the Press on Murders
With the 1909 session half gone, Washington's legislature advances local option and an anti-racetrack gambling bill, while a sweeping new criminal code would strip juries of the insanity plea and bar newspapers from covering homicides before trial.
- The Late-Night Fight That Killed Washington's First University Building
A governor's-office showdown between the state auditor and the university building commission halted construction, left laborers unpaid, and pushed Olympia toward a special legislative session.
- The Riotous Mock Legislature of 1886
A railroad-backed lobby, frustrated by their political losses at the Olympia legislative session, staged a rowdy mock government to harass and demean King County representatives.
- Washington Kept Dodging Its Own Congressional Map
After the 1890 census gave Washington a second representative, the state spent years avoiding the required division into two congressional districts.
- The High Stakes of Olympia's Final Session
Legislators face political uncertainty as the 1923 session nears its end, with debates over taxation and state spending threatening to ignite the 1924 campaign.
- The 83-Ballot Deadlock: 'Either Allen or No One'
In Olympia, John B. Allen’s Republican caucus held the line while Judge Humes and Levi Ankeny saw their candidacies frostbitten—and the ballots kept piling up.
- 651 Bills, 13 Laws: Inside Olympia's Frantic Last Two Weeks
A deadlocked local-option fight, a women's eight-hour bill that ended in fisticuffs, and a marriage law barring 'drunkards' and the 'feeble-minded' — the 1909 legislature's chaotic home stretch.
- The Statehouse Recesses—and an Impeachment Trial Waits
Lawmakers adjourn until August 11 to try Insurance Commissioner J.H. Schively on 26 counts, capping a special session that cost $117,984 and spawned investigations of the Supreme Court and a 'Nurses' Trust Bill.'
- The Railroad Freight Fight That Nearly Forced a Special Session
Farmers and reformers pushed the Anderson railroad bill to a Senate showdown, while Gov. McGraw threatened to keep lawmakers in Olympia until freight rates came down.
Also about this, in other words
- The Speakerless Session: A Legislative Standoff
After seventeen ballots and tense debates over legal swearing-in procedures, the Territorial House finally elects a Speaker.
- A Politician's Vulnerable Moment
A future governor breaks down while addressing boys at the state reform school, revealing a hidden side of his history.
- The Whole Thing
A heated clash between a city councilman and the acting mayor erupts over procedural power struggles.
- Neglect of Duty Leads to Jailbreak
A night jailer is suspended for ten days after a lapse in security allows an inmate to escape the city jail.
- An Eccentric Prisoner's Optimistic Dance
A man awaiting sentencing in a local court baffles reporters by dancing a jig and promising a champagne celebration upon his release.
- The Squeaky Delegate from Everett
A state labor convention in Spokane comes to a screeching halt when a delegate's artificial limb runs dry.
- A Labor Day Skirmish at the Salvation Army
A reveler celebrating Labor Day early finds himself in a brawl after a nap at the Salvation Army barracks.
- The Strict Moral Geometry of the Schoolroom
Teachers debate the merits of strict discipline, the threat of school suspensions, and the 'moral atmosphere' of the classroom.