TACOMA — Federal prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison term for the woman convicted of arson for the Earth Liberation Front fire at the University of Washington.
Briana Waters is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in federal court in Tacoma.
Prosecutors are asking for a terrorism enhancement. A document filed Wednesday says the fire in 2001 was calculated to intimidate the government.
Defense lawyer Neil Fox says the arson was not terrorism and Waters should spend no more than a year-and-a-half in prison.
The 32-year-old from Berkeley, Calif., was a student at The Evergreen State College who acted as a lookout for the arson at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. The ELF claimed responsibility because it believed, mistakenly, a researcher was genetically modifying poplar trees.
Seattle: Four teens plead guilty to rape
The King County prosecutor’s office says the four teenagers charged in the rape of a 16-year-old Bellevue girl have pleaded guilty in juvenile court.
Yevgeniy Sadykbayev, Marshall Carpenter, Kirill Korostelev — all 17 — pleaded guilty to Âsecond-degree rape. Sergey Davniy, 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.
During the investigation, Bellevue police discovered the teenagers had discussed the rape on the social networking site MySpace.com.
All four will be sentenced next month, and face sentences between 30 to 65 weeks.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no:Acoustics save church from wrecking ball
An old Seattle church building has been saved by its acoustics.
The for-sale sign outside the 83-year-old building on Capitol Hill said the property would be great for condos or townhomes. But it won’t be torn down.
Seco Development of Renton paid $3.15 million to the owner, Medhane Alem Evangelical Church, because Seco President Michael Christ loves the sound inside. He calls the acoustics “hauntingly beautiful.”
Christ also owns Triad Studios and plans to use the church to record music. It also will be rented for religious services or other meetings.
The 300-member congregation of Medhane Alem Evangelical Church had outgrown the space.
Olympia: Memorial Day traffic down
The state Department of Transportation says highway traffic was down about 3 percent over the Memorial Day weekend, compared with a year ago.
There were 6,100 fewer vehicles on Snoqualmie Pass Friday and 3,900 fewer vehicles crossing into Canada.
The state numbers are similar to the national decline in driving due to high gas prices.
Spokane: 3 pit bulls stolen from shelter
Three pit bulls were stolen from the Spokane County animal shelter over the Memorial Day weekend.
Intruders broke into the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service twice, stealing two pit bulls on Saturday night and one on Sunday.
Law enforcement officers spotted a car near the shelter on Sunday and inside found four people and one of the pit bulls, named Chewie. Officers were told the four had been commissioned to steal pit bulls for fights, according to a Spokane County Sheriff’s Office press release.
The other two pit bulls have since been recovered.
Deputies arrested and booked the four suspects into jail for two counts each of suspicion of Âsecond-degree burglary.
Olympia: Humpback whale visiting sound
A humpback whale that has been sighted the past two weeks in Puget Sound around Vashon Island appears to be a young adult in good condition.
Observers with Cascadia Research of Olympia have been monitoring and photographing the whale to identify it.
Cascadia’s founder, John Calambokidis, says a humpback is sighted in Puget Sound about once a year. He says 300 to 500 humpback whales congregate this time of year to feed off the northern Washington coast.
Bellingham: Missing stallion located
A show-jumping stallion reported missing in Whatcom County has been located in Chilliwack, B.C.
Whatcom County sheriff’s deputy Jeff Parks says the horse was moved in an ownership dispute. Douglas Spink, the manager and trainer of the 12-year-old horse named Capone I, reported him missing May 18 in Custer.
Centralia: Man fined for filling wetlands
The state Department of Ecology is fining a man who wants to build a horse arena on his property near Winlock for affecting stream water quality by filling in wetlands.
The director of the agency says Phil Smith will be fined $232,000. The fines could continue to build.
In December, the Department of Ecology ordered him to fix the damage from clearing, grading, filling and burning on the 190 acres he owns along I-5.
Ecology says although Smith’s land is not listed as wetlands by Lewis County maps, more than half of the property is listed under the National Wetlands Inventory.
Alaska: Search for climbers suspended
The National Park Service on Thursday suspended an aerial search for two Japanese climbers missing on Mount McKinley, concluding it’s unlikely they are alive.
Searchers flew 33 hours at high and low altitudes looking for Tatsuro Yamada, 27, and Yuto Inoue, 24, on North America’s tallest mountain.
Mountaineering rangers will continue seek clues to their location by reviewing photos taken during the search.
Associated Press
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