ROCHESTER — U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., says $74 million has been authorized for a Chehalis River levee construction program.
In a visit to the area Wednesday, she told local officials the federal government still needs a local partner.
Local governments have been unable to agree on the work because many fear that protecting I-5 would increase flooding in Centralia and Chehalis. The freeway was closed for nearly a week by the December floods.
Associated Press
Spokane: Man who killed parents sentenced
Bryan Kim, the mentally ill 19-year-old convicted last month of murdering his parents, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without possibility of parole despite a motion from his attorneys that he be given a 44-year prison term instead.
On Wednesday, the Spokane County Public Defender’s Office filed a motion for an exceptional sentence — in this case to shorten the time Kim might have to spend in prison — because of his mental illness. Kim’s conviction on Jan. 29 on two counts of aggravated murder means he faced life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kim was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for stabbing his father, Richard Kim, and bludgeoning and strangling his mother, Terri Kim, on Dec. 5, 2006, as they returned to their Mount Spokane home after work.
Chief criminal deputy prosecutor Jack Driscoll told the eight-woman, four-man jury that Kim planned the murders because he was angry his parents were about to kick him out of the house after escalating arguments over his grades and his failure to take medication for his bipolar disorder. He called the murders an “execution.”
Spokesman-Review
Bellingham: Student dies of rare infection
Chris Feden, a Western Washington University student from Olympia, died Wednesday night at St. Joseph Hospital of complications from MRSA pneumonia, a rare, severe methicillin-resistant staph infection, campus officials said.
Feden, 20, was a junior from Olympia majoring in manufacturing engineering technology.
“While this is a tragic loss of a young life and our thoughts are with the family and friends of this young man, there is no evidence of an outbreak of severe MRSA in our community,” said Dr. Greg Stern of the Whatcom County Health Department. “This appears to be an unusual and random event.”
Stern said residents could take precautions to avoid the spread of infectious diseases such as influenza and MRSA by thorough hand washing.
Bellingham Herald
Bremerton: Vandals break banks’ windows
Police say vandals threw pieces of bricks with notes attached through the windows of four banks in Bremerton.
The notes say the banks are a target because of ruling class decadence.
Police spokesman Andy Oakley says officers responded to alarms at two banks about 4 a.m. Thursday and found the broken windows. They also found broken windows at two other banks.
In all four cases, the bricks had the same note from “social youth chaos.” The notes say the brick is part of a wall between the ruling class and working class and, the note says, “by flaunting your decadence, you have made yourself a target.”
Associated Press
Olympia: Evergreen to pay for damaged car
The Evergreen State College will pay for the damage caused when students overturned and trashed a Thurston County sheriff’s patrol car.
A spokesman for the college, Jason Wettstein, says it’s working on how much it will cost. Early estimates are $50,000.
The violence broke out Friday after a campus police officer attempted to arrest a man for fighting at a hip-hop concert. She had to call sheriff’s deputies for backup and a crowd of about 200 people overturned the patrol car, broke its windows and stole a laptop computer and radar gun. The crowd was dispersed by a SWAT team and officers with pepper spray.
Campus police recommended a misdemeanor assault charge Wednesday for a man who had been detained.
Associated Press
Mount St. Helens: Volcano simmers down
Mount St. Helens has calmed down, for now.
U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Seth Moran said the lava extrusion that began in the fall of 2004 in the crater has paused. Earthquakes have diminished to background levels in the past month.
As a result Thursday, the USGS and University of Washington scientists at Vancouver’s Cascades Volcano Observatory lowered the alert from orange-watch to yellow-advisory, the second-lowest of four levels.
It’s too early to say the volcano is done. Moran says there’s still plenty of hot lava in the mountain that could send up a steam cloud if hit by heavy rain or melting snow.
Associated Press
Seattle: Man found stabbed to death
A man about 30 years old has been stabbed to death in the north end of Seattle.
Police officer Renee Witt says firefighters found the man bleeding in the street in the Greenwood area about midnight. He died early Thursday at Harborview Medical Center.
No one has been arrested. Witt says there were two witnesses — a woman who saw the man as she was driving by and a nearby resident who heard noise outside his window — but neither got a look at whoever did the stabbing.
Police say it’s also unclear whether the man was stabbed where he was found or was forced out of a vehicle.
Associated Press
Blaine: Runaway girl, 14, caught at border
Border officials stopped a Montana teen’s Valentine’s Day attempt at running away from home.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials stopped the 14-year-old Missoula-area resident at the Peace Arch border crossing after discovering the 1979 Buick she was driving was stolen.
Blaine Police Chief Mike Haslip said the girl had taken the car from her parents while the family was out shopping because she and her parents had not been getting along.
Haslip said the parents indicated the girl had taken the car in the past but only made it as far as Kalispell, Mont.
The girl was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property and booked into Whatcom County Juvenile Detention while officials arranged to have her returned to her parents.
Bellingham Herald
Tacoma: Man gets 18 years for two killings
A man who pleaded guilty in the stabbing of his wife and mother-in-law has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Chang H. Yi, 47, of Frederickson was sentenced Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court to the low end of the standard range. Yi could have gotten as much as 21 years for two counts of first-degree manslaughter.
Dr. Lawrence Wilson, a retired University of Washington psychiatrist, testified that Yi apparently was experiencing “a very severe psychotic illness with a very rapid onset” following the recent death of his mother when he attacked his wife, Hyunsook Kim Yi, 42, and her mother, 64-year-old Eun Wah Kim, at the family’s home on May 6.
The killings came to light after Yi, a diabetic, hit a deer with his car and slammed into a guardrail along I-5 near Grants Pass, Ore., the next day. Following treatment at a hospital for high blood sugar, he told authorities about the stabbings.
Associated Press
Tukwila: Driver shot to death in his car
A driver was fatally shot as he stopped at an intersection in Tukwila, on Pacific Highway S.
Police Sgt. Doug Johnson said witnesses said the man was stopped at a red light about 11 p.m. Wednesday when the driver of another car got out, shot him in the head and drove away.
The victim, a 24-year-old Seattle man, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where his family told KIRO-TV he had died.
Associated Press
Yakima: $5.4 million worth of pot seized
More than 600 pounds of marijuana valued at $5.4 million has been seized in the Yakima area.
Local and federal agents seized the pot before daybreak Tuesday in simultaneous raids on two houses, one in Yakima and the other in the Wenas area north of Selah. The raids were revealed in documents filed Wednesday in Yakima County Superior Court.
Investigators say the marijuana apparently is from Mexico, and much of it was in green and clear plastic-wrapped bales.
Two brothers and a woman were arrested in Yakima and a couple were arrested at the Wenas-area house.
Associated Press
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