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A gold rush of local election-season advertising is pouring into Seattle media outlets, raising questions in some cases about who is trying to influence voters.

Nearly $40 million in political advertising has been reserved or bought in the Seattle television market…

In seven of those races, the Republican candidates hold modest-to-comfortable-to-double-digit leads. The three uber-toss ups are Nevada, Illinois and Washington. Not only is Washington the last of those to close, with polls shuttering at 11 p.m. ET, the state's voting rules and reputation…

Such "soft money" spending is hard to track. It's even more difficult to determine who is behind it.

"You can't just go to the Federal Elections Commission to easily find where they're spending the money," said Todd Donovan, a Western Washington…

Sister Julia Shideler had no idea what to expect as Afina, one of her students in East Timor, led her on a four-hour walk to her home village in the mountains. When they got there, many of Afina’s relatives and neighbors were happily surprised that Shideler had walked all the way to visit them.…

Michael Dashiell is the new editor of the Sequim Gazette, newspaper managers announced this week.

Dashiell, 34, is a graduate of Western Washington University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism degree in 2001.

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There’s no doubt the national concern about the economy is “going to cream some incumbents,” said Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University.

But he said Democrats could do better than they did in the primary, when GOP turnout was likely boosted by a…