OLYMPIA — Logging on state lands could increase by about 35 percent over the next two decades under a plan tentatively approved by the six-member Board of Natural Resources on Tuesday.
Board members said they hope the new approach will finally end the bitter timber wars of the 1990s, when state and federal regulators sharply curtailed logging to protect spotted owls and salmon.
But a truce remains elusive. Environmental leaders attacked the plan on Monday, and said they may sue to block it.
Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland says the state can have it both ways: increase logging and improve the forest environment. The logging plan, if it wins final board approval this summer, will be the main achievement of Sutherland’s four years in office.
The new logging plan would increase the annual harvest from 470 million board feet this year to an average of 554 million board feet in the first decade and 636 million board feet in the second decade. It takes about 15,000 board feet of lumber to build a 2,000-square-foot home, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Associated Press
Olympia: Senate votes to boost license fees
Various driver’s license fees would increase under bills approved Tuesday by the Senate, while passenger-only ferry service from Vashon Island to downtown Seattle might end later this year. The license fee increases would raise $25 million per two-year budget cycle once fully implemented. The driver’s license exam fee would increase from $10 to $20. A learner’s permit would increase from $15 to $20. An occupational driver’s license, which lets people with suspended licenses drive for work purposes, would quadruple, from $25 to $100. The bill would also reduce the registration fee for small trailers from $30 to $15. Meanwhile, the supplemental transportation budget cuts nearly $1 million from the popular but costly foot-ferry service as a way to offset voter-approved cuts in some vehicle registration fees. Both now go to the House.
Associated Press
Seattle: Bill to downsize Fircrest ruled legal
A King County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the Legislature did not violate the state constitution last year when it passed a bill calling for the downsizing of the Fircrest school for the developmentally disabled. Judge Julie Spector’s ruling gives the Department of Social and Health Services the go-ahead to continue moving residents out of the Shoreline school against the wishes of their families. Phil Talmadge, a lawyer for Friends of Fircrest, which was among those seeking to halt the downsizing, said the plaintiffs planned to appeal. Kathy Leitch, DSHS assistant secretary of Aging and Disability Services, said she was pleased with Spector’s ruling.
Associated Press
NAACP files $10 million claim against schools
The NAACP has filed a $10 million claim against the Kent School District, alleging discrimination against black students by security officers at schools in the district south of Seattle. The claim was filed Monday on behalf of three female students and their families who contend the girls were "violated and humiliated with undue use of force, handcuffing and physical and mental abuse." The families each asked for more than $3.3 million in damages, arguing that their children’s civil rights were violated. Two girls, students at Meeker Junior High School, allegedly were mistreated by a white security officer at the school, said Carl Mack, president of the Seattle chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A third youngster allegedly suffered similar treatment at Kent Meridian High School.
Associated Press
Spokane: Former judge sentenced for child porn
A former deputy prosecutor and district court judge was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography. Ralph Perkins, 54, admitted in U.S. District Court documents that he got hooked on child pornography while researching the topic as part of his job as Okanogan County’s chief criminal prosecutor. "All I can tell you is I did this crime and I’m guilty," Perkins, a former Pend Oreille County district court judge, told Judge Fred Van Sickle before sentencing. Perkins told federal investigators he initially downloaded the images in work-related research while prosecuting child pornography cases, but that it later turned into sexual gratification.
Associated Press
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