HYAK – A Greyhound bus caught fire and burned early Thursday on Snoqualmie Pass and passengers had to wait in the snow for help.
The Washington State Patrol said all 53 people on board got off with only one suffering a minor injury.
The fire broke out about 2 a.m. eight miles west of Snoqualmie Pass in the eastbound lanes, the patrol said.
Passing motorists offered to shelter the bus passengers until all were transported to the Summit Inn on Snoqualmie Pass, where they were picked up by another bus.
The fire-damaged Greyhound was a total loss, troopers said.
Hoping that fewer words will get lost in translation, trade promoters here are offering “word cleaning and editing” services to their Chinese counterparts.
In a deal with officials in Shenzhen, China, staffers at the World Trade Center Tacoma will edit English-language trade brochures and other publications. They also plan to provide trade leads and business referrals.
Andreas Udbye, the Tacoma center’s director, said the idea began when officials noticed grammar and spelling errors in English-language brochures, signs and advertisements created in China.
For example, Udbye recalled a banner he saw on a trip to China a few years ago with Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed: Instead of “Welcome the Honorable Sam Reed,” the sign read “Welcome the Ordinary Sam Reed.”
The Richland City Council has dropped a move to define pit bulls as potentially dangerous, while the council in Royal City approved a ban on pit bulls and Rottweilers even in cars passing through town.
The Richland council voted unanimously Tuesday night to reject a proposed ordinance that had passed its first reading in November 4 to 2 after a rental property owner said a neighbor’s pit bull was scaring away potential tenants.
“I don’t see where amending the (dangerous dog) ordinance will gain anything,” said council member Edward Revell, who voted in favor of the proposal Nov. 21.
In Royal City, population about 1,900, the council voted to banish Rottweilers as well as pit bulls effective Jan. 12, including dogs used by the State Patrol or in motor vehicles passing through the Grant County town southwest of Moses Lake.
Violators would be subject to a fine and the dog could be impounded.
Shoppers began fleeing a Costco store Thursday after a man in a restroom stall dropped his pistol, accidentally firing a bullet into the wall, a Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman said.
The 59-year-old man, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office, was released after deputies determined he had a valid concealed weapon permit and hadn’t broken any laws.
Deputies said the man was carrying the .357-caliber semiautomatic pistol in a shoulder holster, but it fell out while he was in a restroom stall around noon on Thursday, Sgt. Dave Reagan said in a statement.
Another patron in the restroom alerted store employees after looking over the stall to find the gun owner fumbling with the pistol. Costco workers began evacuating the building, and deputies were called to the scene.
Authorities said the ammunition was several years old, and the bullet that was fired did not manage to penetrate the restroom wall.
A hospital warehouse supervisor has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he stole inventory and netted more than $644,000 by selling medical supplies in an online auction.
Kevin Lee Ruff, 42, entered the pleas Wednesday in U.S. District Court to health care fraud and four counts each of embezzlement from a health care facility and money laundering.
He could face up to 10 years in federal prison on the first five counts and up to 20 years in prison for the four money laundering charges. He remains free pending a March 20 sentencing hearing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said officials at Sacred Heart Medical Center questioned inventory adjustments Ruff had made to the computer inventory log that tracks items in the hospitals warehouse from January 2002 to October 2005.
Ruff told District Judge Fred Van Sickle he took items that included diabetic glucose test strips and inkjet cartridges, then sold the items online on eBay for below-market value.
FBI agents were able to track the stolen items when they subpoenaed Ruff’s online PayPal account, Harrington said.
An animal rehabilitator violated his state permit when he took it upon himself to release a black bear into the wild after it had been tranquilized in downtown Grants Pass, authorities said.
Investigators said David Siddon, executive director of Merlin-based Wildlife Images, violated his permit when he released the revived bear on Dec. 2 near Galice without state Department of Fish and Wildlife approval.
Lt. Jeff Williams of the Oregon State Police issued Siddon a warning this week and explained the permit requirements.
Siddon said he released the bear because he had no room to hold it that weekend and no one was available at the wildlife department office. Moreover, the department has a policy against releasing bears habituated to humans, and Siddon said that’s contrary to the philosophy at Wildlife Images.
An Idaho man pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the beheading death of his estranged wife in a deal that spares him the death penalty.
Prosecutors in Caldwell had originally sought a death sentence, accusing Alofa Time of first-degree murder with aggravating factors because they said they had evidence he tortured Theresa Time before he cut off her head June 15.
Under the plea agreement, Time, 51, is to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Formal sentencing was set for March 5 in 3rd District Court.
Prosecutors alleged Time killed his wife, then tossed her severed head into his Dodge Ram pickup and drove into Boise. There they allege he swerved into oncoming traffic and collided with a sedan, killing a woman and her young daughter. He faces second-degree murder charges in those deaths.
The impact caused Theresa Time’s head to fly out of the truck onto a busy Boise street.
Associated Press
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