Category Archives: Washington state

Renton shooting: one dead and five injured in Seattle suburb

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Police say initial investigation suggests dispute outside of large gathering that led to gunfire, possibly by more than one suspect

One person was confirmed dead and five others were treated for gunshot wounds after multiple shots were fired in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington, police said.

The Renton police department tweeted that officers were called before 1am Saturday and found multiple victims, five of whom were treated for injuries. Police confirmed one fatality in the shooting.

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US supreme court rules in favor of high school football coach over on-field prayers – as it happened

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Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that football coach Joseph Kennedy had a right to publicly pray after games because he was not requiring others to participate in the practice.

“Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks,” Gorsuch wrote.

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Police officer gets $1.5m settlement to resign after antisemitic behavior

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Assistant police chief Derek Kammerzell from Washington pinned Nazi insignia on his office door and made jokes about Holocaust

A senior police officer from Kent, Washington, will receive $1.5m in order to resign in a settlement with the city after an investigation into antisemitic behavior, including pinning Nazi insignia on his office door.

Assistant police chief Derek Kammerzell was initially suspended after multiple complaints surfaced in September 2020 from other officers for behavior indicative of sympathetic behavior towards Nazis, such as displaying Nazi imagery above his name placard on his office door and making jokes about the Holocaust.

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A mega-tsunami in the Pacific north-west? It could be worse than predicted, study says

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Scientists find the size of the ‘outer wedge’ of a faultline can magnify a rupture’s impact, worrying news for a fault running from Vancouver Island to northern California

Scientists have long predicted a giant 9.0-magnitude earthquake that reverberates out from the Pacific north-west’s Cascadia fault and quickly triggers colossal waves barreling to shore.

But what if these predictions were missing an important piece of information – one that, in certain scenarios, could tell an even more extreme story?

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‘This alert is her scream’: new system would help locate missing Indigenous women

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A program in Washington state is intended to trigger an effective search and raise awareness of the problem

Four years ago, Debra Lekanoff was busy traveling across the nation in her role as governmental affairs director for the Swinomish Tribe when her daughter came to her, worried.

The 14-year-old had just learned some of the troubling details of the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and was concerned that her mother, who is Alaska Native and tended to travel alone, might one day not make it home.

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US west coast braces for ‘atmospheric river’ as huge storm brews

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Northern California faces flash flood risk and threat of mudslides, especially in fire-charred areas

A huge Pacific storm is poised to unleash conditions known as an “atmospheric river”, with torrential rains and strong winds putting about 10 million people at risk of flash floods in parts of northern California this weekend.

The incoming tempest has raised fears of mudslides, especially in areas charred during record-setting wildfires this summer.

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Surging wildfire tears through northern California town and threatens others

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Caldor fire explodes in size as Pacific Gas & Electric begins shutting off power to 51,000 customers

Critically dangerous fire weather was forecast across northern California from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday evening, threatening to intensify several large blazes and increasing the risk of new ones, as a small rural town in the Sierra Nevada was ravaged by a fire that grew with devastating speed.

The Caldor fire, which erupted over the weekend, exploded in size on Tuesday and ran through the town of Grizzly Flats, destroying many buildings and forcing residents to leave. Two were injured. Officials estimated that the blaze had blown through 30,000 acres – up from 6,500 acres reported by the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) earlier that day.

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Washington state confirms first live ‘murder hornet’ sighting of the year

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Asian giant hornet spotted about two miles from where first US nest was found last year

Washington state has confirmed its second “murder hornet” sighting of 2021 – the first glimpse of a live one, officials reported.

A statement released by the Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirms the first report of a live Asian giant hornet in the state this year.

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Oregon declares state of emergency as another ‘extreme heatwave’ looms

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Pacific north-west prepares for triple-digit temperatures just weeks after heat resulted in hundreds of deaths in region

The Oregon governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as the region prepared for triple-digit temperatures mere weeks after a deadly heatwave clobbered the Pacific north-west.

Kate Brown said: “Oregon is facing yet another extreme heatwave, and it is critical that every level of government has the resources they need to help keep Oregonians safe and healthy.”

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Three US teachers who sued Monsanto over chemical exposure awarded $185m

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Teachers, who worked in Monroe, Washington, said they suffered brain damage from exposure to PCBs in fluorescent lighting

Three schoolteachers in Washington state who sued the chemical company Monsanto over exposure to materials in fluorescent lights have been awarded $185m.

The law firm that represented the teachers, Friedman Rubin, said a jury returned the verdict on Tuesday in King county superior court. The teachers, who worked at the Sky Valley education center in Monroe, Washington, said they suffered brain damage from exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the fluorescent lighting at the school.

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The activists sabotaging railways in solidarity with Indigenous people

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People coming to the aid of the Wet’suwet’en nation to stop a pipeline are using direct action that is prompting terror charges

The night of 28 November, Samantha Brooks, 24, hunched over the railway tracks near Bellingham, Washington, about 32km (20 miles) south of the Canada-US border and installed a “shunt,” according to trial documents obtained by the Guardian.

Related: Dakota access pipeline: court strikes down permits in victory for Standing Rock Sioux

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Salmon nearly boiled alive in Pacific north-west heatwave captured on video

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A conservation group recorded the video in the Columbia River on a day when water temperatures breached 70F

Salmon in the Columbia River were nearly boiled to death when water temperatures rose during the Pacific north-west’s record-shattering heatwave, according to a conservation group that has documented the disturbing sight.

In a video released on Tuesday by the non-profit organization Columbia Riverkeeper, a group of sockeye salmon swimming in a tributary of the river can be seen covered in angry red lesions and white fungus, the results of stress and exposure to extreme temperatures.

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Sixty wildfires rage across 10 US states – including blaze bigger than Portland

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Thousands have been forced to evacuate from Alaska to Wyoming amid soaring temperatures and a drought

Nearly 60 wildfires were burning across 10 states in the parched American west on Tuesday, with the largest, in Oregon, consuming an area nearly twice the size of Portland.

The fires have torched homes and forced thousands to evacuate from Alaska to Wyoming, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Arizona, Idaho and Montana accounted for more than half of the large active fires.

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Record-breaking US Pacific north-west heatwave killed almost 200 people

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Officials reported 116 deaths in Oregon and 78 in Washington after extreme temperatures in normally moderate region

The death toll from the record-breaking heatwave that struck the US Pacific north-west last week has risen to nearly 200, with health authorities reporting 116 deaths in Oregon and 78 in Washington state.

The data in Washington state are particularly striking given historical context. There were seven heat-related deaths in Washington between mid-June and the end of August in 2020. Between 2015 and 2020, the state saw just 39 deaths in the late spring and summer months.

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‘We thought it wouldn’t affect us’: heatwave forces climate reckoning in Pacific north-west

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Left-leaning states had focused on how global heating would affect others. Then the ‘heat dome’ arrived

The record heatwave in the Pacific north-west is forcing a reckoning on the climate crisis, as many living in the typically mild region consider what rising temperatures mean for the future.

A “heat dome” without parallel trapped hot air over much of the states of Oregon and Washington in the United States, and southern British Columbia in Canada, in past days, shattering weather records in the usually temperate region.

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Daredevil motorbike rider Alex Harvill dies during world-record jump practice

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  • Harvill, 28, crashed during warm-up in Washington state
  • Autopsy to be performed Friday after Harvill fell from bike

An experienced motorcycle stunt rider was killed in Washington state as he practiced for an attempt at a world record jump.

Related: Republicans slap down Manchin’s voting rights compromise – US politics live

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US coronavirus cases rise 8% in two weeks as more states ease restrictions

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Michigan, which had some of the nation’s strongest health regulations, saw its second highest single-day case total on Friday

While the United States’ Covid-19 vaccination initiative has eclipsed that of many other countries, a significant number of US cities and states remain hotspots where coronavirus continues to spread at record rates. The upticks come as more states loosen public health restrictions that have been in place to stop Covid-19’s spread.

As of 16 April, the US saw an average of 70,117 cases daily, a surge of 8% from the mean 14 days ago, with hospitalizations increasing 9%, according to the New York Times. A minimum of 21 states have seen at least a 10% increase in daily positive coronavirus cases, CNN reports of recent Johns Hopkins University data. However, deaths are down 12% in this period.

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Hiker lost in Mount Rainier whiteout dies in ER – and is brought back to life

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  • Hospital uses extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine
  • ‘I’ve got a million people to thank,’ says Michael Knapinski, 45

A hiker who was rescued after being lost overnight in a whiteout in Mount Rainier national park died in the emergency room but was brought back to life after his heart stopped for 45 minutes.

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First murder hornet nest found to have 200 queens capable of spawning new nests

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Washington state scientists found about 500 live specimens in various stages of development inside the basketball-sized nest

When scientists in Washington state destroyed the first nest of so-called murder hornets found in the US, they discovered about 500 live specimens in various stages of development, officials said Tuesday.

Among them were nearly 200 queens that had the potential to start their own nests, said Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist leading the fight to kill the hornets.

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‘They give me the willies’: scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight

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Chris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he’s preparing for the next step

The eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.

The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as “murder hornets”, was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection.

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