Northwest briefly: 6-year-old Elma boy shot by brother dies

SEATTLE -- A 6-year-old Washington boy shot in the face -- reportedly by his 8-year-old brother -- has died.

Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson confirms that Jacob L. Banks of Elma died shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday night. The death was first reported by radio station KBKW of Aberdeen.

Mason County investigators say the shooting happened Tuesday, and that the boys apparently gained access to a .45 caliber pistol kept in the house as the children's mother slept on the living room couch with her year-old toddler. They're still looking into how the children got ahold of the weapon.

Criminal charges against the victim's brother are unlikely.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office is expected to perform an autopsy.

Olympic National Park: Wildfire continues to spread

A wildfire started by lightning is burning in the Mount Hopper area on the east side of Washington's Olympic National Park.

Park spokeswoman Maggie Tyler said Friday the fire has expanded to 120 acres from about two acres on Thursday. The fire started Aug. 5.

She says the park is letting the fire burn because no structures are threatened and the wildfire is in a wilderness area.

Judge OK's release of lawyer's DUI report

A King County Superior Court judge has OK'd the release of a redacted police report in the case of a prominent Seattle attorney who was arrested on suspicion driving.

However, The Seattle Times said the report won't be immediately released to give attorney Anne Bremner time to appeal.

Bremner frequently appears as a legal expert on cable news programs. She was arrested the night of June 3 in Kenmore, but she has not been charged.

She sought to block the release of the report to avoid negative publicity. She claims that she had drinks with dinner that night but was not drunk, and she only appeared drunk because she had a concussion after she was the victim of an earlier hit-and-run collision.

The sheriff's office said she never mentioned any accident or request medical attention at the time of her arrest.

Tacoma: Red tide closes beaches to shellfishing

State health officials have closed most Pierce County beaches to shellfish harvesting because of red tide.

Red tide is a naturally occurring neurotoxin that can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning if consumed. The News Tribune of Tacoma reported that the Health Department found potentially fatal levels in shellfish samples collected from Day Island and Penrose Point.

The closure includes Carr Inlet and the eastern shoreline of Pierce County from King County down into Thurston County.

The closure covers clams, oysters, mussels and scallops and other mollusks, but not crab or shrimp.

Commercial beaches are sampled separately and officials say commercial products should be safe to eat.

Kennewick: Asphalt being laid over leaky Hanford tanks

Crews at Hanford Nuclear Reservation are laying nearly 2 acres of asphalt over five underground tanks that are believed to have leaked radioactive and hazardous chemical waste.

The Tri-City Herald reported that the goal is to keep the contaminated soil around the tanks dry. Rainwater or snowmelt otherwise soaks into the soil and spreads the contamination.

The barrier is asphalt that's been modified to be waterproof and crackproof, and it's being paid for with federal stimulus money. It's the second one built at the Hanford tank farms, where 53 million gallons of waste are stored in groups of underground tanks. The waste is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program.


Chehalis: Longview man killed in logging mishap

A Lewis County sheriff's officer says a 47-year-old Longview man died while operating a logging processor west of Chehalis.

Deputy Gene Seiber says Michael R. Messner died Thursday when a chain broke and rammed through the windshield of the processor's cab, striking him in the throat.

Messner was working for C&C Logging on Weyerhaeuser Co. land.

Washington state Department of Labor and Industries spokesman Hector Castro tells The Daily News of Longview that the agency is investigating the death but won't finish its report for several weeks.

An unidentified C&C official told the newspaper the company is also conducting an internal investigation.

Pullman: WSU cutting 3 of 9 vice president positions

A Washington State University spokesman says the school is eliminating three of nine vice president positions in a reorganization driven primarily by budget forces.

Spokesman Darin Watkins says there will be no faculty or staff job losses as a result of the change.

Watkins tells The Moscow-Pullman Daily News the university will see immediate savings of $700,000 to $900,000.

He notes that the university this week was asked to prepare for budget cuts of anywhere between 4 percent and 7 percent. WSU is working through a $13.5 million reduction in state funding, which comes on top of a $54 million reduction it absorbed last spring.

WSU President Elson Floyd plans to discuss the reorganization at a public forum Monday.

Port Angeles: Meth defendant flees court

A woman apparently didn't like being told by a Clallam County Superior Court judge that she was going to jail. So she left the courthouse.

The Peninsula Daily News reported that 35-year-old Travis Louise Dinius bolted when Judge George Wood told her she'd have to serve 16 months for violating the terms of a court-mandated drug treatment program by using methamphetamine.

And there was no one there to stop her. There were no jail staff members in the courtroom because Dinius was not in custody when she appeared for the hearing, and the head of court security was on vacation.

Sheriff Bill Benedict said Dinius was not the first person to escape from the court, and she probably won't be the last because the Sheriff's Office doesn't have the money to hire another court security officer.

A warrant was issued for her arrest.

West Richland: Irrigation pipe breaks, floods streets

An irrigation pipe broke in West Richland and flooded streets with about 3 feet of water.

The pipe broke Friday morning near Keen and Highlands roads.

Columbia Irrigation District crews worked to clean up the mess. Assistant manager Russ Pelleberg said the garage and crawl space of one nearby home were flooded, but no water got in the home itself.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the rupture.

Vancouver, Wash.: Woman accused of 2 DUI crashes in 3 days

Clark County authorities say a Battle Ground driver was arrested twice this week following collisions in which she was under the influence of prescription drugs.

Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Schanaker said Friday that 40-year-old Deette Rude's ability to drive was impaired by medications and she had several prescriptions in her possession after crashes Monday and Wednesday that resulted in minor injuries.

He says Rude has posted bail and been released from custody.

The latest DUI arrest is Rude's third since May and fifth in the past two years.

The sergeant said driving under the influence is a misdemeanor in Washington until someone has four previous DUI convictions. A fifth DUI can be charged as a felony.

Oregon: Man gets 2 years in multistate fraud ring

An Oregon man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a commercial burglary and bank fraud ring that operated in dozens of cities.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman on Thursday also ordered 30-year-old Raymond Contreras of Portland to pay $146,000 in restitution.

Federal prosecutors say Contreras was part of a team that stole checks, credit cards and personal information from commercial office buildings and then created fake IDs to commit bank fraud.

Four co-defendants are already in prison and two are awaiting sentencing. Co-defendant Richard Mastin is scheduled to appear at a change of plea hearing later this month and Gregory Zimmerman is a fugitive.

Prosecutors say the team operated between 2001 and 2007, hitting businesses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
From Herald news services