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	<title>KEN'S Corner &#38; The Real News...</title>
	<link>http://kenbalsley.com</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:45 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Tourism Promotion Area hits Lacey Roadblock</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Efforts by the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Visitor and Convention Bureau to create a Tourism Promotion Area (TPA) , has hit a roadblock in Lacey. A Tourism Promotion Area would levy up to a $2 a bed hotel/motel tax with the money being used to promote visitors and conventions to Thurston County. Most hotels and motels in Olympia [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/05/18/tourism-promotion-area-hits-lacey-roadblock/</link>
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		<title>They did what?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The City of Lacey eliminated two city ordinances dealing with bicycle registration and garage sale requirements. I know, I couldn&#8217;t believe it either. But at its meeting on May 10, the Lacey City Council removed the requirement that all bicycles in the city be registered. First adopted in 1973, the purpose of the ordinance was [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/05/17/they-did-what/</link>
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		<title>Evergreen Changed Olympia</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Perhaps no event in the last 50 years has had more impact on Olympia, than the opening of The Evergreen State College in 1971. Prior to Evergreen, Olympia had been a blue collar town. Plywood mills abounded on Port of Olympia property and downtown Olympia businessmen controlled the Olympia City Commission. State government played little [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/05/11/evergreen-changed-olympia/</link>
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		<title>Lake Lois bridge fiasco</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Put me in the camp of those who think the City of Lacey made a mistake when it built the new Carpenter Road and put a wall between the drivers and Lake Lois. Those driving on the new Carpenter Road can no longer see Lake Lois because the wall separating the roadbed from the lake [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/05/07/lake-lois-bridge-fiasco/</link>
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		<title>Olympia needs city wide leaders</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I haven&#8217;t been to an Olympia City Council meeting and I have no first hand knowledge of the conflict between the Boys and Girls Club and Westside neighbors. All I know about the conflict is what I read in the papers. But, I do know one thing. It&#8217;s a normal conflict in Olympia. The Not [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/05/01/olympia-needs-city-wide-leaders/</link>
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		<title>Taking over Puget Power will be expensive</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If taxpayers in Thurston County opt for public power, it will be expensive. That&#8217;s the opinion of Ken Johnson, director of state policy and government affairs for Puget Sound Energy. Johnson said that Puget Sound Energy&#8217;s assets in Thurston County total $500 million. When other costs are added, the price for public power could climb [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/04/27/taking-over-puget-power-will-be-expensive/</link>
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		<title>Plastics and garbage</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s no doubt that we use too much stuff. There&#8217;s no doubt the stuff we use creates &#8211; - garbage. It&#8217;s estimated, by people more knowable than I, that the average American creates four and a half pounds of garbage each day. That&#8217;s on the low side. Some estimates has it as much as seven [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/04/20/plastics-and-garbage/</link>
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		<title>Love trumps everything</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I did something last week that I haven&#8217;t done in a long time. I paid for parking in downtown Olympia. I know, I said I&#8217;d never pay to park in Olympia, and yet, love seemed to trump that remark. I asked my wife where she wanted to go to lunch on her birthday and she [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/04/20/love-trumps-everything/</link>
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		<title>Alexander pleased with state budget</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Republican priorities were incorporated in the current legislative session. That&#8217;s the opinion of State Representative Gary Alexander, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. Alexander made those remarks at the Thursday meeting of the Lacey Rotary Club. The Republican budget, released by the House contained the principals of the party, Alexander said. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/04/12/alexander-pleased-with-state-budget/</link>
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		<title>House leaders challenged by bad choices</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By Jan Teague, President/CEO Washington Retail Association There were few good choices left for the Democrat leaders in the Washington State House of Representatives as they debated the final hours of the 2012 legislative session. They were forced to accept a lot of what the State Senate wanted or risk another special session that would [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://kenbalsley.com/2012/04/11/house-leaders-challenged-by-bad-choices/</link>
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