In brief: Gullickson named SFCC president
Janet Gullickson has been named president of Spokane Falls Community College.
Gullickson joined Community Colleges of Spokane in 2010 as interim academic services officer, according to a news release. She was selected to head SFCC after a national search.
Like CCS Chancellor Christine Johnson, Gullickson came to Spokane from Denver. She worked there for the Colorado Department of Higher Education and CollegeInvest.
As academic services officer, she has worked to streamline CCS admissions, registration and financial aid and co-chaired the “quarter to semester study,” the news release said.
Wind farms ordered to cut production
PORTLAND – The Bonneville Power Administration twice ordered Pacific Northwest wind farms to cut production in recent days because it has a surplus of power from hydroelectric dams.
The agency, which manages much of the power grid in the Northwest, confirmed it issued the orders during the early morning hours of Sunday and Monday, when demand is low.
The action rekindles a dispute from last year, when the agency curtailed wind turbines because the water from a large mountain snowpack left the region with more hydropower than the electrical grid could handle.
The BPA controls a majority of the region’s transmission system and markets power from a system of 31 dams and a nuclear plant in Washington. The nuclear plant reduced its output to 85 percent Monday afternoon in an effort to ease the situation.
Audit: Hanford tanks questionable
YAKIMA – The Energy Department and a contractor building a waste treatment plant at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site procured and installed tanks that did not always meet requirements of a quality assurance program or the contract, a federal audit concluded Monday.
The audit also found that the agency had paid the contractor a $15 million incentive fee for production of a tank that was later determined to be defective and, while it demanded the fee be returned, never followed up to ensure that it was.
In recent months, the $12.3 billion plant under construction at southcentral Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation has been the subject of whistleblower complaints about its design and safety. The plant is being built to convert highly radioactive waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal underground.
The tanks’ design is significant because they will be located in so-called “black cells,” which are areas of the plant that will be too radioactively hot for workers to enter once the plant is operating.
The audit focused on tanks that were received and installed prior to mid-2005. No tanks of similar design have been received since then.
Lawsuit against Mortenson dismissed
HELENA – A federal judge on Monday dismissed a civil lawsuit against author Greg Mortenson, calling claims “flimsy and speculative” that the humanitarian and his publisher lied in his best-selling “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones Into Schools” books to boost sales.
The lawsuit by four people who bought Mortenson’s books claimed that they were cheated out of about $15 each because the books were labeled as nonfiction accounts of how Mortenson came to build schools in central Asia. They had asked U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon to order Mortenson and publisher Penguin Group (USA) to refund all the money collected from Mortenson’s book sales.
The readers from Montana, California and Illinois filed the lawsuit after “60 Minutes” and author Jon Krakauer reported last year that Mortenson fabricated parts of those books.
The plaintiffs said Mortenson, co-author David Oliver Relin, Penguin and Central Asia Institute were involved in a fraud and racketeering conspiracy to build Mortenson into a false hero to sell books and raise money for CAI, the charity Mortenson co-founded.
Haddon wrote in his ruling that their racketeering allegations “are fraught with shortcomings” and the plaintiffs’ “overly broad” claims that they bought the books because they were supposed to be true were not supported in the lawsuit.
No decision on change of bar hours
SEATTLE – Following objections from other cities, Seattle will have to wait a month to know if its efforts to extend bar hours beyond 2 a.m. can go forward.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and other city officials have wanted to make last call later, arguing that law enforcement is burdened by a mass of drunks tumbling out of nightclubs and bars in places like Pioneer Square and Belltown.
After Seattle presented its proposal, Washington state Liquor Control Board commissioners agreed to have four hearings in Vancouver, Kennewick, Spokane and Seattle to discuss the idea. Under current state law, bars can’t sell alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Man arrested in killing of his wife
WALLA WALLA – Sheriff’s deputies in Columbia County have arrested a 58-year-old man on investigation of second-degree murder in his wife’s death.
Suzanne Shuba was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday night in their home in Dayton, about 30 miles northeast of Walla Walla.
Joseph Shuba was booked into jail on Monday.
The Union-Bulletin says deputies found a .22-caliber handgun near the couple’s home.
Occupy, immigrants planning protests
SEATTLE – Occupy Seattle, immigrant rights groups and others will hold a series of rallies and marches today.
The planned May Day activities have led Mayor Mike McGinn to issue a warning that some of the protesters may be planning to use violence and disruptive behavior. McGinn said city officials have evidence of such plans.
Some rallies will be centered at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle, the plaza where Occupy Seattle led a camp-in that lasted a few weeks last fall and heightened tensions between police and demonstrators.
One of the immigrant rights groups – El Comiti Pro Reforma Migratoria Y Justicia Social – said they are working with other organizations to ensure no disrupting behavior takes place during their annual march.