Chris Gregoire: Democratic Governor

Convicts Dept: "We're sitting on the potential of having the third-largest crop, at around 105 million boxes, and we can't get them picked," Gregoire said in an interview, according to Vancouver Sun. She called it "a one-time deal," but said the nation's top apple-producing state had little choice when growers could not find enough workers, even after advertising jobs with pay of $120 to $150 a day and even after deploying 105 convicts this week to help pick apples, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire says growers still need from 3,000 to 4,000 workers to help harvest before the season's first major freeze. The Democratic governor defended the plan to dispatch the male offenders to an orchard in eastern Washington state, where they began work Monday, earning $8.67 an hour. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.