Stories for March 30, 2008

Cheers not jeers to Speaker Chopp on the Microsoft tax concession

Sun, Mar 30, 11:23 a.m.

By Ted Van Dyk

The Columbia Basin Herald this past week characterized House Speaker Frank Chopp as being a Forrest Gump, "stupid is as stupid does" villain for opposing big proposed tax breaks for Microsoft and Yahoo. The tax concession, those companies said, were necessary to keep them from fleeing Grant County, where they have huge server farms. The requests were similar to the $3.2 billion in breaks Boeing Co. got from Governor Gary Locke and the Legislature when it threatened to take some of its assembly operations elsewhere.

The Mariners in the playoffs this year: a big if

Sun, Mar 30, 5 a.m.

By Mike Henderson

A promising roster means the playoffs are within the realm of possibility, unless individually, the players don't play — or aren't positioned to play — to their strengths.