Northwest briefly
Published 10:22 pm Monday, January 25, 2010
15-year-old accused of beating Metro bus driver
SEATTLE — A Renton 15-year-old accused of beating a Metro bus driver unconscious had a court hearing scheduled Monday to determine if he’d be held for investigation of assault. The King County prosecutor’s office said a 16-year-old from Tukwila and a 17-year-old from Kent accused of breaking a bus rear door also had detention hearings on possible malicious mischief charges.
Police said the 15-year-old attacked the driver early Saturday in Tukwila because she would let the group exit the rear door. The suspects were tracked by a police dog and arrested at a house. Charges may be filed later this week. A police officer responding to the incident collided with another police car.
Former union official charged with embezzlement
Federal prosecutors have charged a former Seattle union official with one count of embezzlement. They said Sid Mannetti took more than $50,000 while he was president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1170 from 2006 to 2008. The union represents about 140 workers at Pacific Medical Centers in the Seattle area.
Charging papers filed in U.S. District Court on Monday say he used the union’s credit card and bank account to pay for personal expenses.
Centralia: Gunman flees after credit union shooting
Police believed a gunman was holed up at a credit union after a failed robbery Monday only to discover after a standoff that he had fled the scene, a police spokesman said.
Centralia police officer John Panco said the man is considered armed and dangerous and may be hurt from broken glass. Officers with police dogs searched the area without success. A police officer had fired twice at the gunman and missed, but pulled away a bank employee who had been held with a gun to her head and a knife to her throat.
She had come to the door and mouthed the words, “He has a gun.”
Panco said the warning likely saved the officer.
Alaska: Pilot from Seattle dies in light plane crash
The bodies of two pilots whose plane crashed Friday near Sand Point have been found. State police spokeswoman Megan Peters said the wreckage of the ACE Air Beechcraft 1900C was found off Sand Point Sunday and divers were able to identify the bodies of Seattle native Emily Lewis and former Marine Ameer Ali. The Coast Guard says the aircraft crashed early shortly after takeoff from the Sand Point airport.
Man pleads guilty to 24-year-old slaying
A Federal Way man has pleaded guilty to killing a 70-year-old Seattle woman more than 24 years ago.
The plea to the first-degree murder charge was entered Monday in King County Superior Court by 50-year-old Daryl Hart.
Prosecutors said Hart was 25 years old in 1984 when he sexually assaulted and killed Nora Gracey, a neighbor. The case went unsolved for decades until the state crime lab in August returned test results showing Hart was the source of DNA collected after Gracey’s death.
Hart denies having sexually assaulted Gracey. He is to be sentenced Feb. 26.
Vancouver, Wash.: City cutting up to 75 positions
Facing a $6 million deficit in its 2010 budget, the city of Vancouver is eliminating up to 75 positions, beginning this week.
City Manager Pat McDonnell says the cuts to the city’s 1,100-person work force should cover about 75 percent of the budget shortfall.
McDonnell says every department will be affected, with reductions happening through limited retirement incentives, layoffs and the elimination of vacant positions across the city.
He says affected employees are being notified now but details about the cuts won’t be revealed until early February. McDonnell declined to tell The Columbian which departments would be hit hardest.
The newspaper says this likely won’t be the end of layoffs since the city faces an expected $10 million to $12 million shortfall in 2011.
The reductions are in addition to the elimination of 57 positions and the freezing of 24 vacant jobs in the last year.
Spokane: Peterson confirmed for federal bench
Rosanna Peterson has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a new federal judge for the Eastern District of Washington.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the confirmation vote was unanimous on Monday.
Peterson is a Gonzaga law professor, who previously was in private practice in Spokane.
She is the first woman to serve as a federal district judge in Eastern Washington.
Walla Walla: Clerk shot by gun he thought was fake
A clerk who was shot in the back during a robbery at a convenience store in Walla Walla is expected to recover after surgery.
Police say the 35-year-old clerk didn’t believe the gun was real, grabbed at it, and was shot during the struggle.
Police have surveillance video of the Friday night holdup as they look for the robber who fled the PDQ store with a small amount of cash. His face was covered and he wore a dark coat.
Four doctors go to Haiti
A team of Walla Walla doctors will be in Haiti this week providing medical services to earthquake victims.
The team left Sunday and will be in Haiti until Friday. In addition to doctors Ron Fleck, Scott Hutson, Raquel M. Collins, and Jacqueline Tracey, the group includes a public health expert from Seattle, John McGhee, and Spokane diesel mechanic Eddie Wickward.
Walla Walla General Hospital donated antibiotics and other medicine.
Olympia: House passes bill to ban BPA in baby bottles
The Washington state House has approved a bill that would ban the chemical bisphenol A from baby bottles and other food and drink containers.
It passed on a 95-1 vote Monday and now heads to the state Senate.
The measure would ban food and drink containers made with BPA, if they’re intended for children under age 3. Sports water bottles made with the chemical also would be banned. If it’s approved by the Senate and Gov. Chris Gregoire, the ban would go into effect July 1.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said research shows cause for concern over the chemical’s potential effect on children.
Connecticut and Minnesota passed similar laws last year.
Pullman: Northwest Public Radio changes
Northwest Public Radio, the statewide network owned by Washington State University, will become part of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The school said the change would occur on Feb. 1.
Management of the station will shift from the university’s Information Technology department to the Murrow College, but the network will remain a professionally-operated, autonomous unit. Northwest Public Radio is heard on 13 stations across Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Southern British Columbia.
Public television stations KWSU and KTNW were moved from Information Technology to the Murrow College last September.
From Herald news services
