OLYMPIA – An initiative to ban indoor smoking qualified Tuesday for a slot on November’s ballot.
Initiative 901 would prohibit smoking in and near bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, minicasinos, most hotel rooms and most other nontribal businesses. Violations would be punishable by a $100 fine.
Election officials examined a 3 percent sample of signatures. Of the 9,825 signatures inspected, 1,216 were found to be invalid, a 17.37 percent invalidation rate.
Signatures are invalid if the signer is not a registered voter or if he or she signed more than once.
Last week, a measure expanding the state’s new performance audit program, Initiative 900, qualified for the ballot. The Secretary of State’s office also is checking signatures on measures to roll back the recently enacted gasoline-tax increase.
Two rival measures, dealing with medical malpractice and lawsuit reform, already are assured a public vote in November.
Associated Press
Seattle: Ethiopian businesses won’t move
Seattle University is about to lose its patience with a group of Ethiopian businesses that have been told to move out of a building to make way for the college to expand.
Jeff Hawkinson, an attorney representing the university, said he planned to go to King County District Court in the next couple of weeks seeking an eviction order.
He said the university has been very patient with the businesses and has done what it could to help them by not charging rent or utilities since January. The university wanted the businesses out at the end of March but gave them more time – until Monday – to move. “At some point, we can’t just keep granting them extensions,” he said.
But stores such as Adwa Productions imports shop were still open for business Monday. Racks of Bob Marley T-shirts were still on the sidewalk.
“We have a lease until the end of September,” said Tsegaye Milke, the owner of the import shop, explaining why he hadn’t left by the deadline.
Associated Press
D.C.: State river gets wild-and-scenic tag
President Bush signed legislation Tuesday designating a 20-mile section of Washington state’s White Salmon River and one of its tributaries as part of the National Wild and Scenic River system.
The House and Senate approved the bill this summer.
“This is a big win for Washington state,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash. “This legislation was a commonsense approach to environmental protection, so future generations of local small businesses and recreational enthusiasts can enjoy the benefits of this beautiful river.”
The bill protects the upper White Salmon River and its tributary, Cascade Creek, which are located within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington state’s southern Cascades.
An eight-mile section of the lower White Salmon River won federal protection in 1986 when Congress passed the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act.
Associated Press
Alaska: Barrow sees first sunset in 3 months
Residents of the northernmost community in the United States saw their first sunset in almost three months.
The sun went down at 1:59 a.m. on Tuesday for the first time since May 10. It rose a little more than an hour later, at 3:09 a.m.
Some of Barrow’s 4,500 residents had mixed views of the sunset, which brings with it shortening days.
Naomi Itta Tomas said the sunset will help get her young daughters to sleep earlier.
“Now when we tell them it is bedtime they say ‘No, the sun is still up,’” Tomas said.
But local softball player Jim Martin said the first sunset made him depressed.
“The full scope of winter will soon be upon us, and it wasn’t much of a summer anyway,” Martin said.
Each night from now will last progressively longer until Nov. 18, when the sun will go down until Jan. 23 in Barrow, said Dave Stricklan of the National Weather Service in Barrow.
Associated Press
Former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond dead at 83
Jay Hammond, a bush pilot and hunting guide who served two terms as Alaska’s governor during a period that helped define modern Alaska, died Tuesday at his Lake Clark home, police said. He was 83.
Alaska State Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson said troopers received a call from the National Park Service at about 9:40 a.m. alerting them that Hammond had died at his southwest Alaska home. The cause of death was not immediately known, Wilkinson said.
Hammond, a Republican who was both a conservative and a conservationist, served from 1975 to 1982. It was a historic period for the states; he was at the helm when the first oil flowed down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline in 1977, and when voters approved the permanent fund, the state’s oil wealth savings account, in 1976. During his tenure, federal land reserves grew vastly, fishery stocks revived and a broad-based tourism industry was born.
Bearded and barrel-chested, Hammond looked every bit the typical rugged Alaskan to the outside world. In the state, his style combined self-deprecating humor and folksy plainspokenness.
Associated Press
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