National Park Inn to reopen after flooding

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2006

LONGMIRE – The National Park Inn at Longmire will reopen for guests Saturday, having been closed since the Nov. 6-7 flooding shut down Mount Rainier National Park.

Mount Rainier Guest Services, which runs the inn, said it will be open daily through Jan. 1, and then on Fridays and Saturdays until road repairs are completed and the park is open to vehicle traffic.

Guests will have to park in Ashford and take a shuttle to the 25-room hotel.

The road to Paradise, the location of the winter snow play area, will not be accessible because of damage to the roadway caused by the floods.

The News Tribune

Seattle: Foundation gives homeless grants

The Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation has announced nearly $6 million in new grants to help homeless families and those at risk of becoming homeless in Washington.

The foundation said Monday it would give $3.66 million to six organizations in King and Pierce counties to pay for services and 140 new apartments.

The foundation also announced Monday it would be giving $2 million to the Washington Families Fund, a public-private partnership that does similar work across the state of Washington.

Associated Press

Oregon: Archdiocese reorganization costly

Settling nearly 170 claims of priest sex abuse would cost the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland about $75 million under a reorganization plan proposed to end the first bankruptcy in the nation filed by a diocese.

Insurance companies have agreed to pay nearly $52 million under the proposal, with the rest of the money coming from various archdiocese assets – but not its parishes and schools.

The reorganization plan, filed Monday just before midnight in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, said 143 claims had been settled for $40.7 million.

The plan must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, along with creditors of the archdiocese – including the alleged abuse victims.

Associated Press