Woman sues grocery chain over mad cow

SEATTLE — A woman who says her family ate ground beef linked to the only known case of mad cow disease in the United States has filed a class-action lawsuit against a supermarket chain.

The negligence claim for unspecified damages against Quality Food Centers Inc., owned by Kroger Inc. of Cincinnati, was filed Thursday in King County Superior Court by lawyers for Jill Crowson, 52, an interior designer in Clyde Hill, an Eastside suburb.

Kroger and QFC officials could not be reached for comment Thursday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

According to the lawsuit, a recall order for beef linked to the cow was issued, but QFC waited to begin pulling the "highly hazardous" meat from about 40 stores that carried it.

Associated Press

Overtightened valve led to spill: Government records show that an overtightened valve, faulty or inaudible overflow alarms and two emergency-response boats that wouldn’t start are to blame for Puget Sound’s biggest recent oil spill.

As Coast Guard officials finish their investigation of the December spill at Chevron’s fuel terminal in Edmonds, records obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reveal a frantic but futile effort to contain a slick that spread to beaches six miles away.

When the spill was detected early on Dec. 30, oil was spurting aboard a Foss Maritime Co. tanker barge, according to state Ecology Department records.

Associated Press

Spokane: Spitting

in patrol car no felony

Deliberately and repeatedly spitting in a sheriff’s patrol car after being warned to stop does not amount to a felony, the state Court of Appeals has ruled. In a unanimous ruling Thursday, a three-judge panel of the court’s Division III in Spokane overturned the second-degree malicious mischief conviction of Roberto Carlos Hernandez, a juvenile, in Grant County. Under previous state court rulings, Judge John Schultheis wrote, prosecutors had to show that Hernandez had impaired or raised a danger of interruption of service to the public by damaging the patrol car. Deputy prosecutor Carole Louise Highland noted that deputy Joseph Harris had to spend 15 minutes cleaning and disinfecting the car, but the appellate panel said that was not enough to make what Hernandez had done a felony.

Associated Press

Orchards: Driver blows warning with pot pipe

When state Trooper Jason Gainer saw a motorist wearing no seat belt in Orchards on Thursday afternoon, he rolled down his window to give the man a verbal warning. It was going to be a case of "click it" and no ticket, a kinder and gentler variation of the State Patrol’s recent "Click It or Ticket" seat belt enforcement campaign. But the trooper’s tolerant mood vanished as he watched the motorist pull out a glass pipe and take a big puff of marijuana, said State Patrol trooper Garvin March. Instead of a warning, 34-year-old Robert Shull of Vancouver ended up with tickets for allegedly possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia and failing to buckle up.

The Columbian

Forks: Concern over Olympic park closures

Forks-area leaders say they are worried about tourism when Olympic National Park closes one visitor center and curtails hours at another. Park officials announced Wednesday that the Forks Park and Forest Visitor Information Station will close April 1 through the summer to provide staffing for the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center. Despite the move, Hoh visitor center operations will be cut to five days a week — Thursdays through Mondays — beginning April 4. Previously, the center was open daily during the tourist season. More than 100,000 people visit the Hoh center, compared with substantially fewer visits at the Forks visitor station. Elsewhere, the Hurricane Ridge road will be shutdown for repairs in April.

Peninsula Daily News