EPHRATA – Vote counting in Grant County is to wrap up today following multiple breakdowns of its ballot-reading machine.

There are about 4,500 ballots left to count, said county Auditor Bill Varney. Results from 15,000 ballots are in from Tuesday’s election.

The majority of those 15,000 were counted Wednesday thanks to a substitute machine brought in from Douglas County.

Wenatchee World

Vancouver, Wash.: Suspect in wreck dies

Diego Ayala, a long-haul trucker who allegedly caused a fiery fatal rear-ender crash on I-5 last spring, has died of cancer, state troopers said Thursday.

Clark County officials had issued an arrest warrant for Ayala, a California resident, alleging vehicular homicide and six counts of vehicular assault.

Washington State Patrol Detective Glen Hobbs, who was tracking Ayala, learned that he died on Oct. 16 at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Calif., according to a bulletin from trooper Mike Kesler.

The Columbian

Bellingham: Wal-Mart looks for new site

Wal-Mart has given up its effort to turn its Bellingham store into a superstore, the company announced Wednesday.

Instead, the company will look at several other sites outside the city to build a superstore with a full grocery selection.

Wal-Mart real estate manager John Petrovich wouldn’t say where those sites are, but he said he’s looking at several in the Bellingham market large enough for a 200,000-square-foot superstore. There are no plans to close the Bellingham location on Meridian Street, he said.

Bellingham Herald

Tri-Cities: Transit agency loses receipts

Ben Franklin Transit officials have apparently lost a box of receipts for about $1.87 million that was received during 2005.

Transit managers were unable to provide state officials with the receipts when the annual audit was done in September.

“It was serious enough to report it as a finding, but it was not reported as fraud and we didn’t note that money is missing or lost,” said Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for the state Auditor’s Office.

Tri-City Herald

Eldon: Two lost hikers found on trail OK

A two-person search team along the Duckabush Trail found missing hikers Neil Twilla, 41, of Silverdale and Jeff Mersmann, 38, of Bremerton about 1:30 Thursday afternoon.

Both men appear to be in good condition though cold, hungry and tired.

Additional searchers are hiking to the men’s location with extra food and supplies and will accompany Twilla and Mersmann on the remaining six-mile hike out to the Duckabush Trailhead.

Kitsap Sun

Spokane: Inmate found dead in cell

A Spokane County jail inmate was found dead in his cell, and an autopsy failed to determine why he died, sheriff’s deputies said.

Toxicology tests may determine why Torben Ty Begines, 18, of Hayden, Idaho, died early Tuesday at the Geiger Corrections Center, where he had been held since Oct. 3 on a second-degree burglary charge and was in the work-release program, sheriff’s Sgt. R. David Reagan wrote in a news release.

Begines had been acting strangely during the night, his cellmate said.

An autopsy was conducted Wednesday with inconclusive results, and there was no sign of foul play or suicide, Reagan wrote.

Associated Press