SEATTLE – U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, a Huskies football player on the 1961 team that played in the Rose Bowl, will be the University of Washington’s speaker at its 2007 graduation ceremony.
Dicks graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1963 and a law degree in 1968. He has represented the 6th Congressional District, including his hometown of Bremerton, plus Tacoma and most of the Olympic Peninsula, since 1977.
He said Monday he was very excited about the opportunity to speak at his alma mater.
“I’ll have to start working on my speech,” Dicks said on his cell phone on his way back to Washington, D.C., after joining Gov. Chris Gregoire at the Des Moines signing ceremony for her Puget Sound cleanup initiative. He said his speech might contain an environmental message.
Associated Press
Bremerton: Stolen car found floating in water
A car was found floating in the Port Washington Narrows this morning, but police believe it was abandoned.
The car, a Pontiac Grand-Am, was spotted at about 6 a.m. near Evergreen Park, and fire crews and police responded there.
A diving team from the Suquamish Police Department was called to investigate, according to Pat Johnson, acting sergeant with Bremerton police. But the team was called off after police and fire crews were able to attach a tow truck’s “J-hook” to the car and pull it to shore, he said.
No one was inside, but the car was stolen, and had been completely stripped of any valuables down to its cylinder head and tail lights, he said. There was some gas and oil that leaked from the car, he added.
Kitsap Sun
Grandview: Gang activity on the rise
An escalation in gang activity in the lower Yakima Valley has police dealing with more than graffiti in recent months, and a new task force could soon be examining the issue and researching ways to fight gang-related crime.
Area police departments don’t have specific numbers of gang-related incidents, but they have reported an increase in gang-related crime in recent months.
The latest occurred last week, when a 20-year-old Sunnyside man died from a gunshot wound in Outlook, about 30 miles southeast of Yakima. Authorities have not confirmed that the victim, George P. Salinas, was affiliated with a gang, but initial reports showed the shooting may have involved a confrontation over gang affiliation.
Two teenagers have been arrested in the shooting.
Officers actively policed gang activity during weekend Cinco de Mayo celebrations, arresting a half-dozen gang members in Sunnyside.
Associated Press
Alaska: Oil executives plead guilty to bribery
ANCHORAGE – The founder of a multinational oil services company and one of his top executives have admitted illegally paying more than $400,000 to Alaska lawmakers in a widening political corruption scandal.
Bill J. Allen, chief executive of Anchorage-based VECO Corp., and Rick Smith, a vice president and 18-year employee, pleaded guilty Monday to bribing state legislators with cash and the promise of jobs and favors for their backing on bills supported by the company. Allen, 70, and Smith, 62, appeared separately in U.S. District Court to plead guilty to extortion, bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.
The pleas came days after the indictment of one current and two former Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on federal bribery and extortion charges related to last year’s negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline.
The three indicted lawmakers – Rep. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and former Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau – have pleaded not guilty to accepting payoffs from VECO.
Associated Press
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