OLYMPIA - December 2, 1997 - King County Superior Court Judge George Finkle has ordered that the State Attorney General's Office be given access to key tobacco company documents for use in the state's lawsuit against the industry. The AG's Office contends the documents will support its claim that the tobacco industry misrepresented the health hazards of smoking.

OLYMPIA -- Thousands of compact discs worth more than $1.5 million are rolling into Washington schools and libraries this week as a result of a national antitrust settlement.

Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire said more than 72,800 of the CDs will be distributed to K-12 schools for use by students. Ninety Washington libraries will receive more than 40,000 CDs.

Washington, D.C. -November 16, 1998 - A historic settlement proposal, that mandates the most significant legal reform in the tobacco industry and the largest financial recovery in the nation's history, was negotiated and released today by a team of eight Attorneys General.

Olympia - October 13, 1999- Whether passage of Initiative 695 in November would subject motor vehicles to the state's personal property tax is a question that will have to be settled by the courts or the Legislature, an informal Attorney General's opinion released today concludes.

OLYMPIA -- As the national tobacco settlement reached another significant milestone today, Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire said tobacco payments should arrive in state coffers within two weeks and that there are encouraging signs of a dramatic decline in total consumption of cigarettes.

The tobacco settlement, which was announced last November, reached final approval status today. That means the agreement has completed a legal appeal process and been formally court approved in at least 45 jurisdictions.

December 31, 1996--Attorney General Christine Gregoire and state and federal recovery agencies are warning storm-stricken Washington residents not to fall victim to scams while repairing and recovering from the recent storms.

"As the snow melts and the waters recede, scam artists often descend into a heavy-hit storm area," said Gregoire. "They take advantage of people with innocent-sounding offers of help."

SEATTLE - February 17, 1999 - An Issaquah man who falsely claimed the proceeds from the sale of discount coupon books would be used to help local troubled and homeless youth, then used the funds to support himself and his own children, has been closed down by the Attorney General's Office.

Peter Militello of Issaquah allegedly recruited and used local high school students to sell the coupon books offering discounts to restaurants and businesses in Issaquah and Renton. Many of those business had never been contacted by Militello and offered no discounts.

 OLYMPIA -- Washington and 15 other states today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Michigan alleging that four drug manufacturers illegally conspired to keep a cheaper, generic form of a widely prescribed heart medication off the market for at least a year.

     According to the complaint, drug manufacturers Aventis (formerly Hoechst Marion Roussel), Andrx and others manipulated laws intended to encourage competition and ease the entry of cheaper generic drugs into the market.

Olympia -11/10/03- Major tobacco companies have agreed to remove cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertisements from the editions of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report that are sent into classrooms for use by students, according to Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

Gregoire welcomed the move by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris USA Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co.

Olympia - Washington has received $1.295 million as part of two national settlements resolving disputed payments from tobacco manufacturers, according to Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

The first settlement resolves a dispute between the states that are parties to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and Premier Manufacturing, Inc. of Missouri over whether the firm had paid the states in full for all the cigarettes it manufactured.