Washington State University announced today that it has hired an internationally-renowned expert in smart grid technologies as a Boeing Distinguished Professor.
You can read more about it here.
Championed by Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, STARS funding is designed to help the state lure high caliber faculty in new economy fields. WSU has worked in Olympia to maintain funding for the program in the face of major budget cuts.
In other news, the Legislature reconvened without fanfare this morning for the first of a 30-day special session. The Senate Ways & Means Committee is meeting this afternoon to consider several bills but the day has been otherwise uneventful as members get their bearings and plot out a path forward.