SEATTLE – Washington’s children will probably not be in school on the Fourth of July, say state school officials who are putting the finishing touches on a new rule that gives districts some flexibility in how they make up for the flood, wind and other such days they’ve lost this year.
There’s already a rule governing snow days.
Districts in counties where the governor has declared an emergency will be eligible to apply for an exemption to the state rule that students must be in school for 180 instructional days. If their application is granted, districts will be able to make up the hours instead of the days to meet the state’s requirement of 1,000 instructional hours.
The rule will cover the entire 2006-07 school year and future years, and the application process will be short and simple, said Jennifer Priddy, assistant superintendent for financial services.
Voters in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett could be asked this fall whether they want to pay higher sales taxes to extend the Sound Transit light rail line from Seattle.
The proposed sales-tax increase would cost the typical household $125 per year, according to Sound Transit’s governing board.
The board approved the draft plan 12-3 Thursday and is scheduled to make a final decision in April on the election.
The transit package would appear on the November ballot with a highway measure that would increase sales and car-tab taxes.
A 16-mile light rail line now being built from downtown Seattle to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is to open in 2009 and be followed by an extension to Husky Stadium.
The next phase would add 40 miles of line to Bellevue, Tacoma and Lynnwood. The $17 billion project would take 20 years to complete.
Anchors fall from 2 oil tankers in Pacific storm
Anchors fell off two oil tankers during storms as they were carrying crude oil from Alaska to Long Beach, Calif. The Coast Guard and state of Washington are investigating.
The anchors were discovered missing in late December when the 941-foot tankers were being unloaded at Long Beach, said Anil Mathur, chief executive of the Alaska Tanker Co. of Beaverton, Ore.
The ships were allowed to continue to Washington, where they finished unloading at a BP refinery at Cherry Point. Now the Alaskan Frontier is at Port Angeles and the Alaskan Navigator in Seattle while they await new anchors.
Democratic lawmakers on Friday proposed a constitutional amendment to limit state property tax assessments to annual growth of 1 percent.
The proposal by Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup, and 13 co-sponsors, applies to the state portion of the property tax, not locally imposed taxes. The state share typically amounts to about a quarter of a homeowner’s tax bill.
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, and Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Carrolls, also are sponsoring legislation to lid state and local property tax levy growth to 1 percent. Initiative 747, a voter-approved measure sponsored by Tim Eyman in 2001, imposed such a limit, but a King County Superior Court judge threw out the initiative last year. The case is on appeal to the state Supreme Court.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks says the National Park Service has found $18 million to help repair damage to Mount Rainier National Park caused by November’s heavy rains.
The money should provide for public access to Paradise by mid-March. It will come from unspent highway and construction accounts and will not have to be provided by Congress, the Democratic congressman told The News Tribune on Friday.
Dicks is chairman of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the National Park Service.
The Federal Highway Administration will provide an additional $18 million in emergency funding to cover the remaining cost of roads, Dicks said.
Most of the park has been closed since Nov. 6 after 18 inches of rain fell in 36 hours. It’s the longest shutdown of the park since all of the national parks were closed during World War II. Repairs got under way last week.
The federal government has paid two campers $400,000 to settle a lawsuit filed after they were trapped by a wildfire that killed four U.S. Forest Service firefighters, a spokeswoman said.
Without admitting liability, the settlement with Bruce and Paula Hagemeyer of Thorp cancels a scheduled March 12 civil trial.
In 2003, the couple sued the Forest Service, claiming damages for burns and emotional distress suffered in the July 10, 2001, fire in Chewuch Canyon in the Okanogan National Forest.
Associated Press
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