Northwest briefly

BELLINGHAM – One of two men sought in a California homicide case was ordered held on $2 million bail Wednesday, while the other was released from St. Joseph Hospital and booked into jail after a car chase that ended in gunfire at the U.S.-Canada border.

Authorities arrested Jose Antonio Barajas, 22, of Mexico, and Ishtiaq Hussain, 38, of Pakistan on Tuesday after they allegedly sped away from a Whatcom County sheriff’s deputy at 100 mph, drove through a spike strip designed to flatten their tires, failed to stop at a border checkpoint and tore through Peace Arch Park.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent fired his gun, hitting Hussain, and a sheriff’s deputy blocked the fleeing vehicle with his squad car. The Peace Arch border crossing was closed for more than 10 hours Tuesday.

Associated Press

A coalition of conservationists and clean energy advocates filed an initiative Wednesday that would require Washington utility companies to increase the amount of renewable sources in their electricity supply to 15 percent by 2020.

Under the initiative, which would also require utilities to invest in energy conservation programs, utilities with more than 25,000 customers would have to meet 15 percent of their annual load with resources such as wind power, solar energy or sewage gas.

Associated Press

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Wednesday she will oppose Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, saying he did not show he will be an independent judge who will uphold the rights and liberties of all Americans.

Murray voted in favor of Chief Justice John Roberts in the fall, describing her vote as one of hope over fear.

Murray, who met with Alito Wednesday morning, called his record troubling, saying he had a history of “voting for the government and corporations and against individuals.”

Associated Press

Here’s a chicken recipe you don’t want to try: Take a tractor-trailer rig carrying 6,700 live fowl and put it on a foggy rural road with a narrow dirt shoulder softened by a month of rain.

That’s what happened about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, officials said, when the driver of a Volvo rig pulling two trailers loaded with chickens strayed onto the right-hand shoulder of NW 31st Avenue west of La Center, and the shoulder collapsed.

The truck turned over onto its right side, breaking straps that held 20 or more bins of chickens on the flatbed trailers. Many of the birds spilled out, killing an estimated 400 to 500, according to Foster Farms. The birds were headed to the company’s Kelso-area processing plant.

The driver, 57-year-old Larry Garrett, a Longview-area resident, wasn’t hurt, and no other vehicles were involved, said sheriff’s deputy Todd Baker.

The Columbian

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