Day 39

As I type this right now, last I heard the two sides were still negotiating, which is at least a tiny bit encouraging as talks didn't end twenty minutes after they began. The big news, howerver, is that State Attorney General Christine Gregoire has stepped in, and is threatening legal action to get school started again. With Governor Locke going to trade meetings in China this weekend, it's now looking like she'll be the focus of things over the next few days. (As a side note, Locke is not running for reelection — and Gregoire is running to take his place. If she forces teachers back to work, I can tell her right now that she won't get a lot of support from teachers around this state.)

Lost in all the shuffle, there is one person that I believe the governor and AG need to talk to to get the real picture of what is going on — the mediator! He has been in on this for weeks now, he is familiar with what's happening on both sides and their actual positions, and he is (or at least should be) a neutral party. Gregoire should really ask him what the real story is, because then she's likely actually get it!

I suspect there will be a few of these quick little updates throughout this weekend. Fingers crossed, everybody!