TACOMA — A barrier at the state ferry dock at Point Defiance was smashed Monday morning, apparently by vandals since police didn’t find any vehicle in the water, officials said.
The start of service on the Point Defiance-Tahlequah run was delayed until about 7:30 a.m. because of the police investigation, said ferry system spokeswoman Susan Harris-Huether.
Police divers were summoned after the first ticket seller on duty found the lowered traffic arms had been smashed into pieces in the direction of the water as if by a fast-moving vehicle, Harris-Huether said.
After searching for more than an hour and a half, "they don’t believe there’s a car in the water," she said.
The run is usually used by about 5,500 riders daily, chiefly Vashon Islanders who work or go to school in Tacoma, but fewer were likely to use the ferry Monday because of the Presidents Day holiday, she added.
Tacoma
Body of helicopter pilot recovered in Iraq: The body of a missing Army helicopter pilot has been recovered from the Tigris River in Mosul, The News Tribune of Tacoma reported. The remains of 1st Lt. Adam G. Mooney, 28, of Cambridge, Md., were found Friday by Mosul residents who alerted officials in the Stryker brigade on deployment from Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, the newspaper reported.
Indianola
Cleanup drags on six weeks after oil spill: Six weeks after an oil spill sullied the Doe-keg-wats estuary, cleanup crews continue sopping up the black, gooey mess. As the faint smell of petroleum drifts in the air, most of the surface oil that coated the rocks, cobbles and driftwood on the beach near this Kitsap County town is gone. Crews have hauled away more than 6 tons of oily debris. Waves have scrubbed the remaining rocks and driftwood, and the loosened oil has been soaked up by absorbent booms that still line the beach. Seven birds were found dead in the water, and three died later. Two others, a horned grebe and a western grebe, have been returned to the wild. Biologists continue to assess birds and small mammals living in the estuary.
Seattle
Former UW dean and ombudsman dies: Morton Kroll, a political science professor and library development expert who served as dean of arts and sciences, Faculty Senate chairman and ombudsman at the University of Washington, is dead at 80. Kroll, author of a number of books on library management, died Wednesday of cancer, relatives and university officials said. He was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington in 1969-1975, then returned to teaching and held a one-year term as chairman of the Faculty Senate. He became the university’s ombudsman in 1984, left that post in 1988 and retired from the university in 1993.
Oregon
Benefits OK’d for dead firefighter: Oregon’s state-owned workers’ compensation company will pay benefits to the estate of deceased firefighter Mark Ransdell, the driver of a van that crashed in Eastern Oregon last summer, killing eight firefighters. Officials at Saif Corp. decided to make the payments after determining that there was not enough proof that alcohol was the major contributing cause of the accident. A blood test showed the 23-year-old Ransdell had been drinking before the crash, but the exact level of alcohol in his body has become a disputed issue between attorneys for his employer, First Strike Environmental of Roseburg, and the Malheur County District Attorney’s office.
Girl to demonstrate ‘stupid human trick’: Nine-year-old Keizer resident Morgan Kepford’s unusual skill may have earned her a spot on the "Late Show With David Letterman." For the past two weeks, Morgan has practiced shoving a balloon up her nose, holding it in place with her toes and blowing, something she hopes to perform on Letterman’s "Stupid Human Tricks" segment of his show. "She’s always doing very strange things," said Morgan’s stepmother, Dawn Kepford. "She’s very, very intelligent and she has a creative outlet for it." Morgan, a talkative third-grader, and five other people will perform "Stupid Human Tricks" during a taping of the show. Three performances will be featured on the show.
From Herald news services
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