This year, the Washington legislature wanted to raise the pay of the "poorest of the working poor" 25 cents an hour. The increase would have allowed thousands of home health care workers to earn a whopping $7.93 an hour. Of course they would still have no sick days, no paid vacation, no health insurance, no retirement...

It also happened that lawmakers didn't pass "a small liquor tax increase as part of its budget-balancing plan" that would have brought in $31 million in state taxes. Locke said that the loss would be made up somehow and this is where the story becomes interesting.

Locke saved $4.2 million vetoing the 25 cent raise for home health care workers. Funny thing is, Locke's vetoes saved a total of $37 million. That's $6 million more than needed.

According to Peter Callaghan of The News Tribune, Locke blames one man for the failure to increase the liquor tax, House Speaker Frank Chopp. "And which legislator was the champion of the home-care workers and their pay raise? That would be House Speaker Frank Chopp."

Makes one wonder who at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts ticked off Gov. Locke. Oops, forgot, it's not a sports arena, is it?

1964: LBJ predicts a future woman president

2001: 300 May Day participants celebrate at Harrison and Division, and plant a garden

1999: NATO missile strikes civilian bus

2001: Olympia city workers bulldoze the garden planted during May Day celebration

1963: Children stage protest marches for 2nd day in Birmingham. Are assaulted by dogs and powerful streams of water from fire hoses

1961: First "Freedom Ridersî set out by bus to test segregation barriers in the South

1970: Kent State student killings by Na. Guard

1925: John T Scopes arrested for teaching the theory of evolution

1960: U-2 incident: US spy plane shot down in Soviet Union

1997: Chehalis students protest removal of gay speaker

1998: Elma school board votes allows man to speak on creationism

1999: 3 NATO missiles slam into Chinese embassy in Belgrade

2001: California has 1st rolling blackouts since March

1999: NATO blame embassy bombing on "intelligence failureî

2001: WA senate votes to prohibit day-use fees at state parks

2001: WA Dept of Ecology reports bacterial contamination of the Skokomish River puts Hood Canal shellfish at risk

2000: S Carolina house votes to remove Confederate flag from capitol dome

2001: Boeing selects Chicago for new HQ

1963: Home of MLK, Jrís brother/ integrated hotel in Birmingham is bombed

2001: McVeighís execution is delayed

2001: 1,000 members at the WEA convention in Spokane vote no confidence in Governor Locke and the WA state legislature

2001: The Dalai Lama speaks before 25,000 in Portland, OR

2001: Mothers protest development of vacant lot (Division/Harrison)

2001: Harvard study finds Blacks who make up about 6% of drug users in King County account for 57% of adult drug arrests

1916: US Marines land in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder

2000: Thurston County Commissioners allow roadside memorials

1999: FBI announces crime rate continues to fall for seventh straight year

1999: NATO bombs sites inside Kosovo

1961: Castro offers prisoners captured in Bay of Pigs invasion for 500 US Heavy tractors

1999: Makah successful in taking first whale

1910: Halleyís Comet passes over the sun, frightening many hundreds of thousands of people throughout the United States

1536: Anne Boleyn beheaded by Henry VIII

1856: Sen. Sumner of Massachusetts gives his "Crime Against Kansas" speech

1961: Mob attacks Freedom Riders

1996: Supreme Court rules Colorado law forbidding protection for gays is unconstitutional

1961: Gov. declares martial law in Montgomery

1997: Olympia City Council reduces parking time in downtown

1995: Supreme Court bans term limits

2001: EPA fines Fort Lewis $60,000 instead of $470,000 for over 100 violations

2001: King County is forced by arbitrator to reinstate sheriffís deputy who indiscriminately sprayed citizens with pepper spray

1961: Freedom Riders arrested in Mississippi

2001: Striking state workers shut down Evergreen; most classes are canceled

1943: Riot at Mobile, AL shipyard over upgrading black workers

1999: NATO approves larger ground force; airstrikes continue

1998: Supreme Court rules police not responsible for injuries in high-speed chases unless their actions "shock the conscience"

1998: Group revives bid to add fluoride to Olympia water supply

2000: Ulster Unionist party votes for joint coalition w/ Catholics

1915: In Berlin women demonstrate for peace

1999: Commerce Dept announces personal savings rate at all-time low: minus 0.7%

1995: Clinton vows to "leave no stone unturnedî to find out what happened to MIAís in Vietnam and earlier wars

2001: FTC decides not to take any action against Amazon for deceiving customers by secretly collecting personal information

1912: American Marines land in Cuba to protect U S property

1999: NATO missiles kill 16 in hospital and retirement home