Did you miss your news last week? Here’s a selection of the week’s top news items from across Snohomish County as they appeared in The Herald. For the full stories, go to www.heraldnet.com.
Sunday, Dec. 4
Boys far behind in WASL. Boys across Washington are trailing girls in key areas of a crucial test that ultimately will determine who gets a high school diploma. The problem is showing up on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. At 95 percent of Washington’s high schools, the percentage of boys who passed the writing portion of the WASL lags behind girls. On the WASL’s reading section, boys’ test scores from last spring trail girls’ scores at 85 percent of high schools, a computer-assisted analysis by The Herald showed.
Eric Stevick
Monday, Dec. 5
Police say smokers low on list. Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart doesn’t think his deputies should be in the business of snuffing out cigarettes. “I’ve got better things to do. I don’t know how anyone expects us to enforce a smoking ban when we’re too busy handling emergencies,” he said. “We’re not going to be the smoke police.” Sheriff’s deputies won’t be aggressively enforcing a voter-approved smoking ban, Bart said.
Diana Hefley
Tuesday, Dec. 6
Deal could protect farmland. A land deal between farmers and developers could protect thousands of acres of fertile farmland in the Stillaguamish Valley. Snohomish County is the broker working to bring the sides together with a program to protect farmland and tempt developers to help. Whether the farmers and builders can agree to a price will be the key hurdle. The tug of war over the 3,400 acres of land started decades ago.
Jeff Switzer
Wednesday, Dec. 7
Electric bills may increase. Ed Hansen, Snohomish County PUD general manager, on Tuesday withdrew his recommendation that the PUD pursue a 4 percent rate reduction in 2006. Instead, the utility may have to raise rates by 4 percent. A proposal before a federal judge could force the PUD’s main electricity supplier to step up salmon protection on the Columbia River. The judge is expected to decide Dec. 15.
Lukas Velush
Thursday, Dec. 8
What’s a smoker to do? The air at The Anchor was thick with smoke Wednesday afternoon for the last time in who knows how long. With nine hours left on the clock before Washington’s smoking ban kicks in at 12:01 a.m., nearly everyone at the crowded bar has a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. Bill Mattern, 47, heads to The Anchor four or five days a week to socialize, drink and smoke. “I come from at least five generations of smokers. There’s another generation down there,” Mattern says, pointing to the end of the bar.
Jennifer Warnick
Friday, Dec. 9
Light rail at $125 million a mile. A proposed light rail spur from Everett Station to Everett Community College would run three trains up and down the middle of Broadway every 10 to 15 minutes, carrying 3,000 people a day. Each car would seat up to 200 passengers, stop six times along the 21/2-mile route and get green-light priority at 20 intersections. The spur would also cost as much as $313 million to build – a whopping $125 million per mile.
Lukas Velush
Saturday, Dec. 10
More than a drop in the bucket. As volunteers counted money from Salvation Army donation kettles in Snohomish County on Friday, they found a $1 bill folded into a triangle with its corners taped shut. Inside was a shiny $50 American gold coin with Lady Liberty on the front. The 1-ounce gold coin is worth $500 or more. The anonymous donation was put in a kettle near the GI Joe store in Lynnwood. Dennis King, who owns a coin store in south Everett, said, “Bring it to me and I’ll give them $530.”
Sharon Salyer
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
