Northwest Briefly: Hood Canal bridge closures scheduled
Published 10:29 pm Monday, September 28, 2009
SHINE — The Transportation Department said the Hood Canal floating bridge will be closed to drivers intermittently from now through the month of October in the overnight hours.
Motorists could be delayed up to 90 minutes for testing.
Since the bridge reopened in June with a new east half, more than 100 employees have been working on a $20 million contract to upgrade electrical and mechanical systems.
Seattle: King County to cut 367 jobs
The King County executive has proposed a 2010 general fund budget that would eliminate 367 jobs, slash general fund support for human services and close nearly 40 parks.
Layoff notices went out to 145 employees on Monday. Executive Kurt Triplett’s proposal says the rest of the proposed job cuts would come from openings that have been left unfilled.
The county is facing a $56 million deficit in the 2010 general fund. The general fund, or operating fund, pays for the day-to-day operation of county government.
The proposed $621 million general fund budget for 2010 is $26 million less than that same budget in 2009. Criminal justice services would be least affected, with just a 1 percent cut proposed there.
UW students to get swine flu kits
About 10,000 swine flu kits have been prepared for University of Washington students who start classes on Wednesday in Seattle.
Most of the kits containing items such as hand sanitizer and throat lozenges are going to students living in dorms, fraternities and sororities. Students or staff who feel sick can help prevent spreading the flu by staying in their rooms or going home.
Deputy fired for excessive force
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr has fired a deputy who was seen on a video beating a teenage girl in a holding cell.
Sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart says Paul Schene was fired for excessive force and making false statements.
Schene met with the sheriff Sept. 9 and she decided to fire him for the department violations.
Schene also faces a fourth-degree assault charge in connection with the incident that took place Nov. 29 in a holding cell at SeaTac City Hall. He has pleaded not guilty.
Video of the incident shows the 15-year-old, who had been arrested for investigation of auto theft, kicking off her shoe at the deputy. He responds by knocking her into a wall and the floor and striking her.
Olympia: Gregoire seeks farm aid
Gov. Chris Gregoire has asked the federal government to designate six Eastern Washington counties as farm disaster areas due to weather-related losses.
Gregoire said farmers in some areas got as little as half the average moisture they usually receive. The six counties are Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, Lincoln and Okanogan.
A federal disaster declaration would make emergency low-interest loans available to farmers in those areas, as well as adjoining counties.
Gregoire made the request in a letter Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Goldendale: Oahu’s trash coming to state
Some of Hawaii’s trash is headed to a landfill in eastern Washington.
Oahu started shipping trash Monday under a contract signed in August with Seattle-based Hawaiian Waste Systems.
The company will ship up to 100,000 tons of solid waste each year at a cost of $99 per ton to the Roosevelt landfill in Klickitat County, east of Goldendale.
The company’s Web site says the waste is compressed and sealed in bales weighing 3 tons each.
Barges with more than 8,000 tons of waste will dock on the Columbia River just four miles from the landfill.
The shipments will ease the pressure on the only municipal landfill on Oahu.
Zillah: Man shoots son in accident
The Yakima County sheriff’s office said a Zillah man killed his son and wounded his daughter in an accidental shooting.
The sheriff’s office says Daniel Austin was returning from coyote hunting Sunday evening and was removing a .30-30 rifle from the back seat of his truck when it fired through the door.
The bullet hit Daniel Austin Jr. in the abdomen and daughter Kennedy Austin in the thigh.
The 3-year-old boy died on the way to Toppenish Hospital.
The sheriff’s office is not recommending charges.
Yakima: Log pile fire smolders
Burning log piles are expected to smolder for days at a wood-chipping operation in Yakima.
The fire began Saturday at the former Boise Cascade mill site now known as Yakima Resources.
The Yakima Herald-Republic reports black smoke shot across parts of Yakima.
Chelan: Hwy. 97 bridge opens 1 lane
The state transportation department said one lane has been opened on the Highway 97 Beebe Bridge at Chelan Falls.
A pilot car started leading traffic across the bridge Monday.
The Columbia River bridge had been closed to traffic since Aug. 31 when it was damaged by a tractor-trailer truck crash that killed two people.
Bellingham: Boy accused in calf death
A hearing is set for Friday in juvenile court in Bellingham for an 11-year-old Custer boy accused of killing neighbor’s livestock.
The Bellingham Herald reports a Whatcom County sheriff’s deputy investigating the killing of a 3-month old calf last month followed tracks to the boy’s house. Court documents said he admitted killing the calf and a sheep on a different property.
Deputy Prosecutor Dave Freeman said the boy is charged with theft and animal cruelty.
The owner of the calf, Heather Christensen, said she doesn’t know the boy or why her animal was targeted.
Longview: Police will destroy old pills
Longview residents can now take their unused prescription drugs to the police department to be destroyed.
The aim of the program starting Monday is to prevent drug abuse and overdose deaths. It also helps prevent drugs from being flushed down toilets and entering the ecosystem.
The Daily News of Longview reports the drugs will be burned in a method approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fort Lewis: Soldier killed in Afghanistan
Another soldier from the 5th Stryker brigade has been killed in Afghanistan.
Fort Lewis says 27-year-old Spc. Kevin J. Graham of Benton, Ky., was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb in Kandahar.
The News Tribune of Tacoma reports the 5th Stryker brigade has lost 16 soldiers since it deployed in July to southeastern Afghanistan. Graham is the 10th casualty from the brigade’s 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. That unit has been clearing villages of entrenched Taliban influence.
Spokane: Arrest in double killing
Police have arrested one suspect in a double killing in Spokane and are looking for another.
Police said early Monday that 33-year-old Mark Toner had been arrested at a motel on Sunset Highway and jailed in Spokane for investigation of criminal assistance.
Police are still looking for a 27-year-old man for investigation of two counts of murder. The two are accused in Saturday night’s shooting of 33-year-old Jack Lumere and another man.
A witness told The Spokesman-Review the shooting apparently followed a dispute over trading two used cars.
Centralia: Coal-fired plant opposed
Environmental groups said Washington’s only coal-fired power plant is being allowed to operate without adequate pollution controls that would help prevent the release of mercury, climate-warming gases and haze into the air over Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks.
The Southwest Washington Clean Air Agency recently renewed an air pollution permit for TransAlta Corp.’s plant in Centralia, as it does every five years. But groups led by the environmental law firm Earthjustice said the agency is ignoring state and federal clean air laws, and they appealed the permit on Monday to the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board.
They identify the coal plant as the state’s biggest single polluter, contributing 10 percent of the climate-warming emissions released in Washington.
TransAlta spokesman Richard DeBolt said recently that some of the latest pollution control technologies aren’t cost effective for the plant, and the company is taking voluntary steps to reduce pollution.
B.C.: ‘Prince of Pot’ taken into custody
Canada’s so-called Prince of Pot is in jail awaiting extradition to the United States for selling marijuana seeds.
Marc Emery has sold millions of marijuana seeds around the world by mail over the past decade, drawing the attention of U.S. drug officials, who want him extradited to Seattle.
Emery has agreed to plead guilty in Seattle to one count of marijuana distribution in exchange for dismissal of all other counts, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is pressing for a sentence of five to eight years in a U.S. prison.
Associated Press
