HOODSPORT – The Skokomish Tribe’s $5.8 billion lawsuit against Tacoma Power and the Cushman dams will not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court refused last week to hear an appeal of two 2001 federal district court rulings and a 2005 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court also upheld dismissal in 2003.
“The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case lifts a cloud that has been hanging over the entire hydroelectric power industry,” said Tacoma Power Superintendent Steve Klein in a statement.
The tribe filed its claim in 1998 against the federal government and the power company, saying the Cushman Hydroelectric Project on the north fork of the Skokomish River wasn’t properly licensed and ruined fishing and recreational opportunities.
A dispute over the current license remains in the court system.
The Kitsap Sun
Poulsbo: Bodies of two women recovered
Two bodies of adult women have been recovered from the inland marine waters off Kitsap County, and authorities were investigating.
The first was spotted floating about 11:30 a.m. Sunday in Poulsbo. Police brought the body to shore, and County Coroner Scott Sandstrom says investigators were working to establish the identity.
Later in the day a boater notified the state Fish and Wildlife Department after seeing a body in an advanced state of decomposition between Manchester and Blake Island.
Sheriff’s Detective Scott Wilson said state officials notified the county and deputies recovered the body. An autopsy was pending.
Associated Press
Redmond: Car drives into restaurant, 4 hurt
A midsized automobile drove through the front window of a restaurant in Redmond on Sunday afternoon, injuring four patrons.
Police and fire departments received calls reporting a car drove through the front window of the Kanishka Cuisine of India restaurant.
Witnesses reported the vehicle was moving at high speed when it crashed through the front window of the restaurant.
Firefighters tended to six restaurant patrons at the scene. One restaurant customer was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious abdominal injuries. Three others had abdominal injuries that were less serious and were taken by aid car to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland. Two of the patrons were uninjured.
The driver, a 26-year-old Redmond man, was not injured.
King County Journal
Lacey: Missing teens turn up in Las Vegas
Two River Ridge High School students who have been missing for a week called home early Sunday from Las Vegas.
LaCee Verd, 17, and her friend, Alex Merschon, 18, both seniors at River Ridge High School, were last seen locally at Tolmie State Park at 11 a.m. Jan. 9 in Verd’s red pickup.
The two apparently drove to Las Vegas and arrived Saturday night at the home of parents of one of Verd’s friends, who persuaded them to call home, said Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Dan Kimball.
“They’re fine,” Kimball said.
He said no charges are pending, and Verd, whose 18th birthday is in a few weeks, no longer is listed as a runaway.
The Olympian
B.C.: Small earthquake hits Vancouver Island
An earthquake described as “a miniature version” of the Nisqually quake that rocked Seattle nearly five years ago was a wakeup call in more ways than one, a scientist said.
Many residents in and around the British Columbia provincial capital and the Gulf Islands and a few on the mainland were jolted awake by the 3.9 magnitude quake at 4:29 a.m. Sunday, said John Cassidy, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada.
About 200 people submitted reports on the agency’s Web site, most saying they felt the shaking, Cassidy said. There was no significant damage, but the quake should be a reminder of the possibility of much bigger and more dangerous ones, he said.
Associated Press
Oregon: Panhandlers find donations down
ASHLAND – The panhandlers who work the streets of Ashland are finding donations a bit lacking lately – and they are pinning the blame squarely on a homeless couple whose claim that they make $40,000 per year from street donations was highlighted recently in a Medford newspaper.
The couple in question, Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, have three children, bounce from motel to motel in southern Oregon, and told The Mail-Tribune that on good days, they can make as much as $300.
A man who would identify himself only as “Cliff”, 20, told the Medford paper that the most anyone he knows makes is about $50 a day, and that other homeless people have told him that donations are down since the article.
Associated Press
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