News from Yakima Herald, also heard on KUOW:

Beginning in April, all outgoing stamped mail from Olympia will be postmarked and canceled in Tacoma, imprinted with an "Olympia/Tacoma" postmark, in that order. Initially, the U.S. Postal Service was going to eliminate Olympia completely in favor of Tacoma but backed down under protests from state and federal elected officials.

Sam Reed, secretary of state, still isn't happy. Of all places, the state capital should have its own postmark, he said.

"We're fighting it," Reed said Thursday in a telephone interview.

At least two other capitals have historically never had a postmark: Annapolis, Md., and Carson City, Nev.

Taking a well-established one from Olympia is a matter of historical pride, Reed said. "The Olympia postmark goes back to the mid-19th century and we're going to get copies of that and show there's a long history to our state capital and the postmark."

Why does Yakima care? There is talk of taking their postmark away too.