TWISP — Thousands of endangered year-old Twisp River spring chinook died when debris clogged water intake screens at a salmon rearing pond in the northern Cascade Range, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said Wednesday.
Between 75,000 and 90,000 little fish are believed to have perished the weekend of April 13-14 during heavy rains at the pond near Twisp.
An alarm system at the pond failed, and the fish kill was discovered April 14 when hatchery staff arrived to feed the yearlings.
The cause of the failure has not been determined.
Seattle
Suspect charged in U-District killing: A 22-year-old man was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder, accused of bashing another man in the head with a skateboard in a dispute in the University District. The injured man died three days later. If convicted, Timothy Strano of Seattle faces a maximum 19 years in prison in the death of Demetri Andrews, 33, of Renton.
School district to appeal ruling: The Seattle School District said Wednesday it will appeal a federal court panel’s ruling that its use of a racial tiebreaker in high school admissions is illegal. "The superintendent and the school board feel that diversity is so central to what we do and offers such significant educational advantages to students that they wanted to pursue this appeal," district spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein, who found last year the district’s policy was legal because it applied to whites and nonwhites.
Jimi Hendrix’s father dies: James Al Hendrix, the low-key father of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, died at home in his sleep Wednesday after a months-long battle with congestive heart failure. He was 82. Hendrix was chairman of the board of Experience Hendrix, a family company centered on his son, who died in 1970, and headed by his daughter, Janie L. Hendrix. In 1999, Hendrix wrote a book about his eldest son, "My Son Jimi."
Selah
Motorists rescue family: Four good Samaritans rescued a Kent couple and their daughter when the family’s van ran off Interstate 82 and rolled into a pond here. Driver James Casteel said he wasn’t sure what had happened as he stood, shaking, at the spot where the van plunged into the shallow water and came to rest on its side Tuesday afternoon. Washington State Patrol investigators speculated the van’s tires ran off the road, and Casteel overcorrected. Two men from Selah and two women from Ellensburg pulled over as soon as they saw the accident.
Kelso
"Snake oil" seller sentenced: The bogus cancer cure former nurse Joyce Brown sold was "snake oil," according to a judge, who still gave her only three months in jail for causing the death of a man who traveled across the country to get some. Brown’s punishment for manslaughter, handed out Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning, was far below the 27 months sought by deputy prosecutor Heiko Coppola. Warning said the short sentence was justified because the desperately ill Edward Steward, 52, of Metairie, La., was determined to try an alternative treatment after doctors said he was going to die of liver cancer.
Davenport
Killer shows no remorse: An Odessa man who shot another man to death in a feud a judge called "petty" was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison. Stephen F. "Dutch" Fussell, 54, was unrepentant Tuesday when Lincoln County Superior Court Judge Philip Borst sentenced him to a term of 19 years, four months. "I’m sorry he’s dead, but he deserved it," Fussell said of the fatal shooting of Odessa resident Michael Johnson, 38, last May.
From Herald news services
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