Category Archives: Washington state

‘Good girl and true hero’: dog saves owner by leading US officer to her home

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Gita, 13, sat down in middle of road in Washington state after owner hurt his leg, fell and couldn’t get up

A dog saved her owner – who hurt his leg at home in rural Washington state, fell and couldn’t get up for hours – by walking to a road, sitting in the middle of it until a local sheriff’s deputy stopped, and leading the officer to him, according to authorities.

Gita’s ability to be “a good girl and true hero” in her 84-year-old owner’s moment of need after his injury at their cabin on 25 September led to her “saving his life that day”, the Stevens county sheriff’s office said in a statement.

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Boeing workers walk off the job after vote to strike and rejecting pay deal

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US Pacific north-west region workers voted 96% in favor of the strike and walked off the job early on Friday

Tens of thousands of Boeing workers walked off the job early on Friday after voting overwhelmingly to strike for higher pay, halting production of the planemaker’s strongest-selling jet as it wrestles with chronic output delays and mounting debt.

The company said on Friday it was ready to talk and “get back to the table to reach a new agreement” as striking workers picketed.

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Heatwave across US west breaks records for highest temperatures

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Hottest summer on record continues, with millions from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle under heat alerts

An intense heatwave across the US west has brought unusually warm temperatures to the region – some of the highest of the season – and broken heat records.

Millions of Americans from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle are under heat alerts. Even before this latest bout of extreme weather, which began on Wednesday and is expected to last through the weekend, summer 2024 was already considered the hottest summer on record.

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US pilot who took magic mushrooms and tried to cut engines says behavior ‘unfathomable’

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Joseph Emerson charged with 83 counts of reckless endangerment over incident on flight to San Francisco

An Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to shut off the engines of a passenger plane mid-flight after ingesting magic mushrooms said his actions were “unfathomable”, in some of his first public remarks after he was indicted on 83 counts of reckless endangerment.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Joseph Emerson described the events of 22 October as “30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t”.

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Man accused of starting California’s largest wildfire of the year is arrested

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Suspect allegedly pushed burning car into gully which started Park fire as other fires scorch Pacific north-west

A California man was arrested on Thursday and accused of starting the state’s largest wildlife of the year by pushing a burning car into a gully.

The flames have since exploded into what is now the Park fire, which has burned more than 71,000 acres (28,733 hectares) near the city of Chico. Evacuations were ordered in Butte and Tehama counties, with the blaze only 3% contained early on Thursday.

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US admits dams in Pacific north-west have devastated Native Americans

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US says dams killed off salmon, inundated villages and burial grounds, and spirited wealth away from tribes

The US government, in a report published on Tuesday, acknowledged for the first time the harms that federal dams have inflicted on Native American tribes in the US Pacific north-west.

The report by the interior department details the “historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes”, including how dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers have devastated salmon runs, inundated villages and burial grounds, and deprived tribal members of the ability to exercise traditional ways of life.

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Native American tribe wins right to hunt gray whales off Washington coast

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Makah people, whose right to hunt whales is noted in treaty, granted waiver by US government to kill two or three a year

After facing decades of legal and bureaucratic hurdles, the Makah Tribe in Washington has won approval from the US to resume whale hunting for the first time in 25 years.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) Fisheries announced on Wednesday that it would grant the tribe a waiver, allowing the Makah “a limited subsistence and ceremonial hunt” under an 1855 treaty. The Makah will be permitted to hunt up to 25 eastern North Pacific gray whales over 10 years.

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Mobile butchers mistakenly kill family’s pet pigs in Washington state

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Porcine pals Patty and Betty were shot by butchers who said their GPS ‘screwed up’ when it pointed them to the wrong house

A family in Washington state says a mobile butcher mistakenly slaughtered their pet pigs recently after showing up to the wrong address.

Security camera footage showed an unknown truck pulling up to the home of the family in question when they were not there on 1 May. One of the employees of the family’s farm, who was sent to check on their home, informed them that someone had shot the pigs.

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Zebra on the run in Washington state for six days finally captured

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Shug the pinstriped pony, who hoofed it as her trailer stopped on a highway, was eventually found horsing around

A zebra that escaped from her owner in Washington state and went on the run for nearly six days has finally been rescued.

In a statement released on Friday, the regional animal services of King county (Raskc) announced that the zebra – whose name is Shug – was captured near North Bend after roaming in the foothills of the Cascades for the better part of a week.

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Rodeo workers help Washington police round up runaway zebras on interstate

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Three of the striped African mammals recaptured but one remains at large after escaping from trailer en route to Montana

Three zebras were successfully recaptured by state police and rodeo professionals after wandering on to a major interstate in Washington state, though one remains on the lam.

On Sunday, four zebras escaped from their trailer while being transported to Montana via Interstate 90, the Seattle Times reported.

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Baby dies and two others hospitalized in fentanyl overdoses in Washington state

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Police sound alarm after 13-month-old dies in Everett near Seattle and two other babies taken to hospital in past week

Officials in Washington are sounding alarms after a baby died, and two others apparently also overdosed, in the past week in separate instances in which fentanyl was left unsecured inside residences.

A 911 caller on Wednesday afternoon reported that a 13-month-old baby was not breathing in an apartment in Everett, a city near Seattle, the Daily Herald reported. The baby died later at a hospital, according to authorities. The Snohomish county medical examiner’s office will determine the baby’s official cause and manner of death, officials said.

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Three Indigenous American tribes to get funding to manage ocean and coasts

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Communities in Washington, California and Maine will receive $755,000 under the Infrastructure Act to build climate resilience

This month, three Indigenous American tribes on the west and east coasts will collectively receive nearly $755,000 in federal funding to manage ocean and coastal problems, as well as engage in partnerships to offset the effects of climate crisis in their regions. The tribes’ projects will blend together Indigenous knowledge and scientific data to build innovative strategies around coastal resilience.

On Monday, the federal agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), and the US Department of Commerce announced that the Makah Tribe in Washington, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in California and the Penobscot Nation in Maine will be individually awarded between $200,000 and $290,000 for their two-year projects. The funding comes from the Biden administration’s bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which provided Noaa with nearly $3bn to facilitate environmental stewardship, build climate-resilient coasts and support infrastructure around weather forecasting from 2022 to 2026.

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Full live results of the 2024 presidential primaries, state by state

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Full state-by-state results as well as votes of Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory

Georgia, Mississippi and Washington chose their presidential candidates on Tuesday in contests that come as both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are already their parties’ presumptive nominees.

Hawaii also held its Republican caucuses on Tuesday and Democrats abroad and in the Northern Mariana territory voted as well.

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Divided Washington state to choose Biden or Trump: ‘Everything seems a mess right now’

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A recent poll puts Biden leading Trump 54-38, but the ex-president has committed supporters ahead of state’s primary

Had he heard it, Joe Biden would surely have been delighted by Bianca Siegl’s comment – and the fact she barely paused before making it.

“Of course I will be voting on Tuesday,” says the 47-year-old, speaking at a farmers’ market in Seattle’s University district. “If Trump were to get elected, it would be incredibly dangerous for the world and for my family.”

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Next stop for Democratic ‘uncommitted’ vote campaign for Gaza: Washington

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After successes in Michigan, Minnesota and Hawaii, local organizers urge voters to keep pressure on Biden for ceasefire

The movement among Democrats to cast a Gaza protest vote against President Joe Biden in the primary election moves to Washington state on Tuesday.

Organizers with Vote Uncommitted WA have been working for two weeks to ramp up outreach to voters via phone, text, online and in-person connections to explain how they can use their primary ballots to check “uncommitted delegates” to send a message to Biden in support of a permanent ceasefire.

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Former NFL star Richard Sherman arrested on suspicion of DUI

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  • Amazon Prime analyst arrested in Bellevue, Washington
  • 35-year-old pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent driving in 2022

Former NFL star Richard Sherman was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to the Washington State Patrol.

In a probable cause statement, Trooper Jordan Hazzard-Thomas, who helped respond to the traffic stop, reported talking to Sherman and noticing “the odor of intoxicants” and that Sherman’s eyes appeared to be “bloodshot and watery.”

Sherman was stopped by the Washington State Patrol for going 79 mph within a 60 mph zone at about 2 am local time, according to a first appearance document obtained by CNN.

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Officers acquitted in death of Manuel Ellis, bringing scrutiny to police accountability law

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Three officers were first to be tried under five-year-old Washington law, which removes need to prove officer acted with actual malice

A Washington state law aimed at improving police accountability is under scrutiny after three Tacoma officers were acquitted in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who was shocked, beaten and restrained facedown on a sidewalk as he pleaded for breath.

The measure approved by voters in 2018 was designed to make it easier to prosecute police accused of wrongfully using deadly force. Initiative 940, referred to as I-940, removed a requirement that prosecutors prove an officer acted with actual malice in order to bring a case – a requirement no other state had – and established that an independent investigation should be conducted after use of force results in death or great bodily harm, among other things.

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Monsanto ordered to pay $857m to ex-students of Seattle school for toxic leaks

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Parent volunteers and students claimed polychlorinated biphenyls leaked from the firm’s light fixtures made them sick

A jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer’s Monsanto to pay $857m to former students and parent volunteers of a school north-east of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury found the company liable for selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73m in compensatory damages, and $784m in punitive damages, according to Henry Jones, an attorney at the law firm Friedman Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs.

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US man charged in four murders lured victims with promise of buried gold

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Victims fell for alleged serial killer’s tale that he needed help finding gold in area of his Washington state farm, authorities say

An alleged serial killer in Washington state has been hit with new murder charges after authorities revealed that he may have used the same scheme to kill all four of his victims by telling them he needed their help finding buried treasure.

Richard Bradley Jr, 40, who has been awaiting trial of murder charges in the death of 44-year-old Brandi Blake since his arrest in 2021, has now been charged in the deaths of three more people, one identified from ribs buried on Bradley’s 160-acre Game Farm Park in Auburn and matched to his mother using DNA.

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Two possibly killed in storms caused by atmospheric river in north-west US

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Rivers swell to dangerous levels and forces road and rail closures as rain relieves parched states of Washington and Oregon

An atmospheric river deluged the US north-west for a third day on Tuesday, swelling rivers to dangerous levels, forcing road and rail closures, and possibly killing two people who may have been swept up in floodwaters, officials said.

The rain has helped relieve the parched states of Washington and Oregon, which missed much of the historic rain that fell on California a year ago and ended that state’s extended drought. Much of Washington and Oregon still face severe or moderate drought, according to the US Drought Monitor.

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