OLYMPIA — Washington state has awarded more than $22 million in loans and grants to 11 affordable housing projects in seven counties.
More than 700 units will be built or rehabilitated in Clallam, Island, Walla Walla, King, Spokane, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
In addition to creating housing for low-income people, state commerce officials estimate the money will create close to 500 jobs during construction in urban areas. And more than 100 people keep the projects maintained. Similar estimates are not available for the projects in rural areas.
The state’s budget for building affordable multifamily housing is now out of money for the 2009-11 biennium. Twelve other projects were considered but not funded.
Ex-security guard pleads guilty to voyeurism charges
A former security guard at a J.C. Penney store in Olympia will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to two counts of voyeurism.
Two teenage shoplifting suspects say Michael Anthony Olivas told them he wouldn’t call police if they took off their clothes.
The Olympian reports the 17- and 18-year-old girls say they were held for more than two hours Feb. 22 after they were accused of shoplifting.
Olivas, who lives in Shelton, has pleaded guilty to the two counts of voyeurism, as part of a plea deal in exchange for prosecutors dismissing five other criminal charges including kidnapping with sexual motivation and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Seattle: Supreme Court might hear state’s referendum signature case
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in January if it is going to take a Washington public records case. At issue is whether the state should release 138,000 signatures collected to get a domestic partnership referendum on the ballot.
John Doe vs. Sam Reed could determine whether Washington’s Public Records Act violates the First Amendment rights of voters who sign ballot petitions.
Supreme Court justices will decide at a Jan. 15 meeting whether to accept or reject the case. If the court decides to hear the public records case, the justices will likely hear arguments in April and make a decision by the end of June.
The Secretary of State’s office said if the Supreme Court decides not to hear it, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision will take effect, allowing release of the names.
Redmond: Police consider man’s death suspicious
Redmond police have labeled as suspicious the death of a man whose body was found lying face down in some foliage in an area formerly occupied by Group Health.
Spokesman Jim Bove says police responded to a call at midmorning Wednesday. He says it appears the body had been there at least 24 hours. The man was believed to be in his late 40s or early 50s.
Bove said the King County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death and identify the man. He said police are still in the early stages of their investigation.
Yakima: Scientists may thin bighorn sheep herd to save it from disease
Scientists may have to thin the Yakima bighorn herd to save it from disease.
Fourteen years ago, a pneumonia outbreak among bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon along the Snake River killed about 300 of the animals.
Wildlife experts are urgently working to prevent that from happening again in the Yakima River Canyon.
Since the first week of December, about 10 bighorns on the west side of the canyon have died from pneumonia and dozens more have become infected.
State wildlife officials are hurriedly developing a strategy to prevent the disease from wiping out not only the 150 or so bighorns on the ridges west of the canyon, but neighboring herds totaling 500 animals.
State proposes lifting groundwater rule for Kittitas County
The state Department of Ecology is proposing to allow new groundwater withdrawals in central Washington’s upper Kittitas County.
The state imposed a moratorium on new wells there in July. The emergency rule was extended 120 days in November, but is set to expire March 25, 2010.
The proposal would allow new water withdrawals to occur without requiring mitigation for at least 150 days once the emergency rule expires. Ecology officials say this would allow construction projects to move forward during the spring and summer.
Tom Tebb, Ecology’s central regional director, said developers also will have more time to plan for new water rules that are likely to take effect in September 2010.
Issaquah: Black Labs switched by kennel
Two black labs didn’t make it home for Christmas this year.
They spent the holiday with other families, thanks to a mix-up at an Issaquah kennel.
Bella, who belongs to Stacey and Rob Peterson of Maple Valley, ended up spending a few weeks in Issaquah with Anne Galasso.
Meanwhile, Galasso’s dog LaiLa, spent time in Canada near Stacey Peterson’s parents and then in Maple Valley after the Petersons returned from Europe.
Both dogs were boarded at PetSmart PetsHotel of Issaquah. The family knew something was up because their replacement dogs didn’t behave the same as their real pets, but they were very similar in other ways.
The pooches were reunited with their humans after the Petersons took LaiLa to a nearby veterinary hospital that scanned her microchip.
Idaho: Indians want Gov. Otter to create new cabinet post on tribal relations
Idaho Indian leaders want Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to create a cabinet post dedicated to improving tribal relations.
That includes resolving disputes that erupt when non-tribal members are apprehended for reservation crimes, only to be released without arrest because no agreements — or trust — exists with sheriffs in neighboring counties.
Coeur d’Alene, Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone Paiute tribal leaders met with Otter, though the Republican governor made no commitments, especially during an economic downturn when he’s cutting state budgets.
Coeur d’Alene Tribe Chairman Chief Allan said on Wednesday, “Tribal economies in Idaho generate at least a half-billion dollars annually. It only seems fair for tribes to have place within Governor Otter’s administration.”
Otter aides called last week’s meeting a “listening session.”
American grandparents lose international custody battle
The Idaho Supreme Court says two orphaned Idaho children will remain with their grandmother in Argentina, not with family members in California who also wanted custody.
The Wednesday ruling means that Alden and Aliana Heiss will stay with Violeta Conti in Ushuaia, a region dubbed “the end of the world” by locals.
The children’s parents, Karl Heiss and Marisa Bauducco-Heiss, were killed in a car crash near Seattle last year. Aliana sustained severe brain damage in the crash; Alden had whiplash but recovered fully.
The parents had handwritten wills granting custody to Conti, but paternal grandparents Fred and Anna Belle Heiss, of Malibu, Calif., sought custody, contending Aliana needed medical care only available in the U.S.
From Herald news services
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