RINGOLD – A crew combing the Columbia River’s banks for spawned-out salmon carcasses discovered the body of a man in his mid-60s on Tuesday on the Benton County side of the river upstream from the Ringold area, north of the Tri-Cities.
The crew’s newest hire discovered the body about 10:30 a.m.
“He had just started walking the bank,” said Kurt Hubbard, a crew member. “He was shocked.”
Sheriff Larry Taylor said there was no immediate evidence of foul play, but an autopsy was scheduled.
Tri-City Herald
Ridgefield: Hundreds of racist fliers litter city
Police are looking for leads to try to determine who is responsible for dumping hundreds of racist fliers on city streets.
The fliers, each about the size of a business card, were discovered early Monday morning, four days after the city council suspended city manager George Fox.
Carl Mealing, a black Ridgefield police officer, filed a federal lawsuit last week charging racial discrimination and wrongful discharge after he was fired Sept. 28. He was subsequently reinstated and put on paid leave.
The Ridgefield City Council placed Fox on paid leave pending the outcome of an investigation into alleged racism and other possible wrongdoing in city government.
The cards found Monday depict a chimpanzee wearing a police officer’s hat and express support for Fox.
Police are treating the fliers as a hate crime.
The Columbian
Medina: Tree removal makes national news
The decision of a Bellevue School District principal to take down a “giving tree” because of one parent’s complaints about its religious connotations became Topic A among radio talk show hosts Tuesday.
It even made the national news, according to a parent who objected to the decision by Medina Elementary School Principal Betsy Hill.
Barbara White, parent of two students at the grade school, said Betsy Hill is a “lovely” principal who made a mistake in trying to protect the school district from a litigious world.
In lieu of the tree, Hill substituted a “giving counter” where donors can pick up tags and fill requests from low-income families for holiday gifts. Hill did not return calls from the King County Journal on Tuesday.
“I think the Bellevue School District has gone hyper-, hyper-sensitive,” White said.
King County Journal
Bellingham: Regional airline starting up
The Bellingham International Airport has landed a newly formed airline that hopes to offer passenger air service within a year.
Western Airlines has signed a lease with the Port of Bellingham to open its corporate offices at the airport’s commercial terminal. The company intends to offer direct flights to places other than Seattle and Las Vegas, which are already being offered from the airport.
The airline will need to go through the Federal Aviation Administration certification program before it can start offering flights out of Bellingham, a process the company has begun and expects to complete within 12 months, said Curt Tronsdal, chairman of Western Airlines.
“We plan on offering regular flights out of Bellingham by the end of 2006,” Tronsdal said. “Travelers from north Seattle up to British Columbia are very anxious for an airline alternative. We believe travelers will fly from Bellingham when given the choice, and Western intends to give them that choice.”
The Bellingham Herald
Olympia: Contestant brings home $16,000
Kindergarten teacher Jeffrey Thompson isn’t the area’s newest millionaire.
But the 43-year-old Olympia man has just finished one of the most surreal and thrilling experiences of his life.
Thompson, who teaches at Fort Lewis’ Evergreen Elementary School, won $16,000 during two days on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” the second of which aired Tuesday night.
“I wasn’t ever going for the money, truly,” said Thompson, who might use his winnings to remodel his kitchen or pay off his mortgage. “I would’ve been happy surviving three questions, and I got to nine.”
The Olympian
D.C.: Hastings to donate congressman’s money
Republican Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington state will make a $1,000 donation to charity to offset a 9-year-old contribution from a former California Republican congressman who admitted taking more than $2 million in bribes.
A spokeswoman for Hastings said in a statement that the $1,000 Hastings received from then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in 1996 was legally contributed and spent long ago.
Still, because Cunningham’s actions were “shameful,” Hastings has decided to make a $1,000 donation to the Salvation Army, spokeswoman Jessica Gleason said.
More than a dozen GOP lawmakers and challengers from across the country have announced similar plans, following Cunningham’s Nov. 28 guilty plea.
Associated Press
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