PORTLAND, Ore. – Raids on fishing boats at the mouth of the Columbia River led to more than a dozen immigration arrests, officials said Wednesday.
Federal agents joined Washington state agencies to execute search warrants Tuesday on vessels at the Port of Chinook and at Bell Buoy Crab Co. in Chinook, Wash., said Mark Oswell, spokesman for NOAA Fisheries Services Office for Law Enforcement in Washington, D.C.
The warrants were issued as part of an investigation into possible violations of fishing report requirements.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers also arrested 16 people – six women, nine men and a boy – for being in the country illegally. They were transported to Portland for processing and will be sent back to their country of origin, said Lori Haley, an immigration regional spokeswoman.
Olympia: Justice seeks re-election to high court
Justice Tom Chambers planned to announce his bid for a second six-year term on the state Supreme Court on Thursday in Yakima, promoting his Eastern Washington roots.
Chambers, 62, scheduled his announcement for Yakima Valley Community College, which he attended in 1963. Chambers was born and raised in Wapato, near Yakima.
“I want to remind people in Eastern Washington they have someone with roots from Eastern Washington on the court,” he said Wednesday.
Chambers, former president of the state bar association and the state trial lawyers’ association, was elected in 2000, replacing Justice Phil Talmadge, who retired from the high court after a six-year term.
Spokane: Falls roar in downtown this spring
It’s show time at the roaring Spokane Falls through downtown.
The swollen Spokane River is sending torrents of water over the scenic falls, and the spectacle is expected to continue throughout the spring because of heavy snowpack in the mountains.
“It’s impressive,” said John Yelle, a missionary from Brazil who spent part of Tuesday walking across a footbridge above the upper falls in Riverfront Park.
The falls usually slow to a trickle later in the summer.
Tacoma: Former PLU president dies at 74
William Rieke, a pioneering medical researcher who boosted academic programs as well as fundraising in 17 years as president of Pacific Lutheran University, is dead at 74.
Rieke, who spent 10 years as director of the Ben B. Cheney Foundation after leaving the university in 1992, died Saturday after a battle with cancer. His death was confirmed on the Tacoma school’s Web site.
In an Exxon Educational Fund survey in 1986, he was ranked in the top 5 percent of college and university presidents in the United States in effectiveness.
East Wenatchee: Dentist fined $6 million
East Wenatchee dentist Dr. Tom Michael must pay $5.78 million in reimbursements, interest and penalties after two state agencies found he billed Medicaid for work he did not perform.
An audit by the Department of Social and Health Services found that Michael overbilled the state department by $1.29 million over five years.
On March 23, the state Department of Health’s Dental Commission ruled that Michael billed for work he did not do or for work that was not justified, and that he lied about his dental work on 14 Medicaid patients from 1998 to 2002.
Michael, a dentist for nearly 20 years who still has a practice in East Wenatchee, said he did nothing wrong and has appealed the commission’s ruling in Douglas County Superior Court. That ruling places his license on probation for two years and requires him to take classes in ethics, billing practices and referral procedures.
Oregon: Anti-sea lion devices don’t hurt fish
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the devices used to keep sea lions out of the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam do not appear to be hurting the fish count.
Engineers removed two of the 12 devices earlier this week to test the impact of fish traffic. After monitoring fish for two days and finding no significant difference, the Corps is putting the devices back.
The devices are intended to keep hungry sea lions out of the fishways while allowing for free passage of salmon.
But some area fishery agencies were concerned the devices might be contributing to the low number of salmon passing upriver to spawn.
Fish traffic has been only a fraction of what it has been in past years at this point in the season. But officials say the low numbers are caused in part by a migration that seems to be starting late.
Anglers drop anchor, sink, get rescued
Three Idaho fishermen dropped anchor in a Snake River reservoir and nearly got themselves killed.
The anchor caught hold in high, swift water, a sheriff’s deputy said.
The back of the 17-foot jet boat filled in less than a minute, he said, and shortly after that it was pulled under.
The three were in 50-degree water. Although they weren’t wearing flotation devices, they had grabbed one vest and a floating cooler.
They were rescued by three more fishermen about 400 feet away.
Associated Press
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