OLYMPIA — Washington state will challenge the Bush administration’s decision to reject tough new auto emission standards pioneered by California, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday.
Gregoire, a former state attorney general who said she doesn’t like hauling the federal government to court, announced that the state will join California, Oregon and other states in filing a federal lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA on Wednesday refused to let California implement its tailpipe emissions law for cars, trucks and SUVs.
Gregoire said numerous states and Canadian provinces have adopted the California clean car standards or plan to, potentially affecting 50 percent of the nation’s autos. Many in Congress support the states’ efforts, she said.
Under the Clean Air Act, California needed a federal waiver to implement the rules.
Population boom worsening traffic woes
The population boom in central Puget Sound is causing traffic congestion and time delays for commuters.
A new state Department of Transportation report says the region added 107,000 residents from 2004 to 2006, making congestion worse. Of the 38 most congested routes, travel times got longer on 32 routes, better on three routes and stayed about the same on three.
Increased commute times ranged from one to seven minutes over the two-year period. The biggest increase was seven minutes added to the morning rush-hour commute on Interstate 405 from Tukwila to Bellevue.
The state says it plans one of the nation’s largest highway construction programs and is using several techniques to ease congestion, including faster clearing of accidents and synchronizing traffic signals.
Vancouver, Wash.: 3 killed in gunfight
Three men were shot to death in a gunfight at a house, and a fourth was wounded and hospitalized for surgery early Thursday, police said.
A handgun that may have been used in the shooting was recovered, but no arrests had been made, and the motive was unclear, Sgt. Kimberly Anne Kapp said. Investigators were trying to determine whether anyone involved was still at large, Kapp said.
Gunfire was reported around 12:30 a.m. in the Burton neighborhood of modest ranch-style homes in the east end of the city, Kapp said.
Officers arrived to find four men had been shot — one who was already dead, two who died after being hospitalized, and a fourth who underwent surgery. Further details on the fourth man’s condition were not immediately available.
Kapp would not say whether the men were found inside or outside the house but added that the shots had not been fired from a vehicle.
Neighbors told The Oregonian of Portland there were people who were coming and going at all hours at the house, and that young men who rented it moved in three to four months ago.
Kapp said she didn’t know if police had been called to the house previously.
Spokane: Man to be tried in fatal crash
A man involved in a highway crash that killed five children will stand trial for vehicular homicide, a judge ruled Thursday.
A lawyer for Clifford Helm of Deer Park had sought to have the five counts dismissed. But Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque denied the request.
Investigators contend Helm, 57, caused the Nov. 1, 2005, crash that killed five children from the same Chewelah family.
Helm’s lawyer, Carl Oreskovich, argued that investigators could not show Helm did anything illegal when his pickup crossed a divided highway, drove 244 feet and smashed head-on into the truck carrying the family.
The driver of that vehicle, Jeffrey Schrock, suffered serious injuries. Killed in the crash were Schrock’s children: Carmen, 12, Jana, 10, Carinna, 8, Jerryll, 5, and Craig, 2.
Last November, the Washington State Patrol completed its investigation and found that Helm was not drunk at the time of the accident. The State Patrol also subpoenaed cell phone records that showed Helm had briefly used his cell phone just before the crash.
Oreskovich said that on the date of the crash, it was “perfectly legal” to operate a motor vehicle in Washington state while using a hand-held cell phone.
D.C.: Amendment on salmon eliminated
Senate Democrats thwarted Republican Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s bid to use a federal spending bill to dictate water flow for Northwest salmon.
A bill approved by Congress removed a Craig-sponsored amendment directing the Bush administration to go forward with a policy on Northwest fish that a judge has twice ruled illegal.
“Endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead are vital to communities in the Northwest, and it is critical that we get the salmon protection plan right,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who led the effort to remove a provision inserted by Craig, a Republican, in an earlier version of the spending bill.
The amendment would have directed the Interior Department to implement without further delay a salmon recovery plan issued by the Bush administration in 2005.
U.S. District Judge James Redden ruled last year that the plan violated the Endangered Species Act because it did not do enough to promote recovery of threatened salmon.
The order marked the second time that Redden has overturned Bush administration salmon policy. Redden ordered federal officials to submit a new plan that would balance demands of dams and threatened or endangered fish runs in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
