WENATCHEE — An East Wenatchee man has died of burns suffered when he used gasoline while trying to burn out stumps on his property, fire officials said Sunday.
Pedro Mendoza, 50, died Saturday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was flown after initial treatment at Central Washington Hospital.
The gasoline "blew up" on Menoza, setting him afire, when he tried to use it to burn stumps, said an official with Douglas County Fire District Two.
He suffered burns over 50 percent to 60 percent of his body.
Oregon
Vote by mail unlikely to catch on: An interesting idea, but one that probably won’t be repeated nationally. That was the general feeling at a weekend seminar in Portland that brought together national experts on mail balloting. "I don’t think people nationally understand it," said James Thurber, who heads the Center of Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, which sponsored the seminar. "They think that it’s going to be bad, and there’s no evidence of that." Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., said national political officials worry about vote-by-mail in states with a tradition of political corruption. State and county elections officials say they have seen little evidence of fraud in Oregon. While there has been no proof of fraud, evidence suggests that vote-by-mail does increase voter turnout. A 1996 study estimated that vote-by-mail increased turnout by 6 percent. Priscilla Southwell, a University of Oregon political scientist, concluded the average increase is about 10 percent, with the greatest gains made in lower-interest elections.
From Herald news services
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