So about that Washington State news outlet...

State Rep. Deb Wallace makes a good observation regarding lack of basic news information in Southwest Washington, after the demise of Comcast Channel 14 and broadcast of KIRO Seattle news:

The College Bound scholarships paid for by the state Legislature should be a dream come true.

After all, up to 56,000 seventh- or eighth-grade students who sign up by June 1 will be eligible to receive free college tuition and $500 for college books when they are ready for higher education.

But Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, was concerned to find out that just 4,000 students have signed up so far.

“People’s lives are so busy, particularly when you’re working a job or two, and it’s really difficult to get information out to people,” Wallace said. “I also think that so much of our media comes from Oregon, so information about programs like this don’t get out as they do in the Seattle area.”

That's a great point, and it reminded me of promises made to get KIRO or some other Seattle news outlet on basic cable. Why this isn't in the local franchise agreement between CVTV and Comcast is a bit odd, especially knowing the unique media condition of Clark County.

Tracie Looney at CVTV informs me that there are discussions with KIRO to get broadcast permission on to Channel 21, one of the government channels in the basic cable range. I asked her if there's a time limit for them to respond and she indicated that they'll open it up to other Seattle news stations, most likely KOMO, unless KIRO responds by this week.

Anything that preempts CVTV's constant repeats of Dinesh D'Souza would be ideal at this point.