OLYMPIA- Communities can feel a little safer today as key crime legislation requested by Attorney General Rob McKenna to protect communities against sex offenders and to combat meth crimes becomes law Wednesday.

NEW METH LAWS

OLYMPIA --- State officials today expressed their disappointment with the U.S. District Court's ruling striking down the tobacco product sampling ban passed during the 2006 legislative session.

Spokane – The state of Washington and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation received news of a significant victory today in federal court.

The United States' Superfund law that governs cleanup of contaminated sites applies to Teck Cominco Metals of Canada, regardless of the fact that the pollution the company poured into Lake Roosevelt originated in Canada.

This decision was filed today in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. The court upheld an earlier decision by Federal District Court Judge Alan McDonald.

OLYMPIA – Attorney General Rob McKenna today issued the following statement on the state Supreme Court’s decision in State ex rel. Public Disclosure Commission v. Washington Education Ass'n, et al.

OLYMPIA - Malcolm Ross, Assistant Attorney General with the AG’s Sexually Violent Predator Unit, won his fourth civil commitment case this year, preventing a multi-victim sex predator from returning to society.

Late Monday, July 17, after a little more than an hour of deliberation, a Snohomish County jury ordered the civil commitment of Garth Snively. Snively, 57, was convicted of three sexually violent offenses against children and, prior to treatment, confessed in an interview that he had as many as 100 victims

OLYMPIA…The Attorney General’s Sexually Violent Predator Unit recently won two civil commitment cases preventing two of the state’s most sexually violent predators from returning to society.

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has released a follow-up study to its nationally-recognized 1997 study on child abduction murders. The 2006 study completed earlier this year adds another 175 additional solved cases to the research and presents some surprising new findings.

SPOKANE – Attorney General Rob McKenna is proud to announce the Gonzaga University Law School Women's Law Caucus is presenting its 14th Annual Myra Bradwell Award to Gonzaga Law School alumna Cheryl Wolfe, an assistant attorney general and senior counsel for the Attorney General’s Office Spokane Division.

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Attorney General’s Public Counsel Section filed expert testimony on Tuesday with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) opposing key parts of a proposed rate increase by Cascade Natural Gas Company. Public hearings on the proposed rate increase are scheduled for Aug. 29 in Yakima and Sept. 7 in Bellingham.

OLYMPIA –The Attorney General’s Office today formally filed its request to the United State Supreme Court to review the Washington state Supreme Court’s decision in State ex rel. Public Disclosure Commission v. Washington Education Ass'n, et al.