Northwest Briefly
Published 10:47 pm Sunday, September 30, 2007
Trapped woman upgraded to serious condition
SEATTLE — A woman who spent more than a week trapped in the wreckage of her sport-utility vehicle has been upgraded to serious condition, a spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center said Sunday.
Tanya Rider, 33, was admitted in critical condition Thursday with kidney failure and other injuries, after a search team using cell phone technology tracked down her mangled Honda Element SUV in a ravine off a highway in Renton.
By Sunday morning, she was in serious condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no bold lede-in:Associate Methodist pastor says she’s gay
The associate pastor of a Methodist church in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood has told her congregation she is gay and has known since childhood.
The Rev. Kathleen Weber has served at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church for four years.
She made the announcement on Sunday and many in her congregation surrounded her with a prayer of support.
The United Methodist Church prohibits “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church.
In a written statement, Elaine Stanovsky, a Methodist district superintendent, told KING Television Weber is a probationary elder working toward ordination who is “in good standing.”
Tacoma: Police seek suspect in shootings
Police say they’re actively searching for a man believed to have shot and killed one man and wounded another after an argument outside a house in Tacoma.
Police spokesman Mark Fulghum says they’ve identified the suspect, but they’re not releasing any information about him.
Police say one man was shot in the torso and another in the leg in the 4300 block of S. Cedar Street late Saturday morning.
The man hit in the torso — identified as 20-year-old Dowell Thorn III — drove after the shooter, then crashed less than a half-mile away. He died after being taken to a hospital.
Oregon: Coast Guard suspends search
The U.S. Coast Guard says it has suspended the search for a 35-year-old man who fell overboard near the entrance to the Columbia River.
The Coast Guard’s office in Astoria, Ore., got a call from a 36-foot fishing vessel late Saturday morning that one of its crew members had fallen overboard and was not wearing a life vest.
The Coast Guard sent a helicopter and two life boats to the scene amid gale-force winds.
Petty Officer Jason Koelle says the search was suspended about 10 hours later because someone on the boat saw the man go underwater, and he would not have been able to survive that long with water temperatures in the low to mid-50s.
Associated Press
