In brief: Pelosi requests Wu investigation
PORTLAND – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday called for an ethics panel investigation of Rep. David Wu following a published allegation that a young woman reported he’d engaged in “aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior.”
The Oregon Democrat has been facing calls to resign but remained silent Sunday over the allegation.
In a statement Sunday night, Pelolsi asked the “Ethics Committee to initiate an investigation into the allegations against Congressman Wu.”
Pelosi met with Wu on Saturday, but neither politician disclosed any details.
The Democratic leader says she will send a letter today to leaders of the Republican-led House formally asking for the probe.
Wu’s spokesman Erik Dorey did not return repeated phone calls for comment on Pelosi’s statement.
Democratic Party members said they hoped Wu would respond directly to the allegation, reported by the Oregonian newspaper. The paper quoted sources who said a young woman left voice mail at Wu’s Portland office earlier this year accusing him of an unwanted sexual encounter three weeks after last year’s election.
Citing anonymous sources, the Oregonian reported that Wu told senior aides that the sexual encounter with the young woman in California was consensual.
The paper said the woman decided not to press changes because there were no witnesses and it would have been her word against Wu’s.
More than 40 hurt in hayride crash
SEATTLE – Four people were hospitalized and 40 others sustained minor injuries in a hayride accident on Shaw Island.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said the accident happened Sunday morning when a flatbed trailer carrying about 50 people hit the tractor that was pulling it and dumped the passengers on the road.
Officials said the hayride was part of a weekend retreat by at least two northwest Washington church youth groups.
The tractor and attached trailer were driving downhill when the trailer gained momentum and the tractor jackknifed, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Prison’s cameras not recording
BELFAIR, Wash. – State prison officials are investigating whether a malfunctioning security camera system at Mission Creek Corrections Center was intentionally damaged.
The system of about 50 cameras is still up and running at the women’s prison, but it has lost the ability to record any footage to watch later, according to prison Superintendent Wanda McRae.
McRae started to notice problems with the system June 17, when she was unable to review incidents that happened more than six to seven minutes in the past, she said.
The cameras were installed around 2008, spurred by passage of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, which aimed to reduce sexual assault behind bars.
The glitch will be investigated to “confirm if somebody tampered with them,” said Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis.
The camera system’s backbone is located in an office with TVs that monitor the goings on around the prison. Inmates do not have access to the room, Lewis said.
LEWISTON – Researchers at the University of Idaho and Washington State University plan to use a $1.2 million grant from NASA to study how extreme wildfires affect people and the environment.
Researchers at the two schools will examine how the fires change vegetation, water quality and wildlife habitat. They will also examine how communities respond to fires.
Researchers told the Lewiston Tribune that a trend of large-scale fires in the Western United States is likely to continue as the climate warms and people move into forested areas.