In brief: Police investigating deadly car explosion
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Vancouver police who found a man dead after a car explosion say the blast appears to be an isolated case and no one else is in danger.
By late Tuesday night, police still hadn’t identified the man found after the explosion early Tuesday morning.
Special operations Sgt. Kathy McNicholas said in a statement that police weren’t looking for any persons of interest.
Bomb squad technicians in protective suits and others operating a bomb robot spent hours removing items and debris from the car.
Police Cmdr. Dave King told the Oregonian that officers were investigating “who this person is, what his actions were” and how that resulted in a death.
State appeals culvert timeline decision
OLYMPIA – Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is appealing a federal ruling ordering the state to fix culverts that block salmon passages.
The state on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the March 29 U.S. District Court ruling by Judge Ricardo S. Martinez that set up a timeline to fix hundreds of culverts around the state.
“The state remains committed to doing more to address fish passage barriers and will continue to do so as resources permit. The implications of the case, however, stretch beyond culverts. Issues of this magnitude deserve full and thoughtful appellate review,” said Attorney General Bob Ferguson in a statement. State officials have said the ruling could cost billions of dollars – money the state doesn’t have.
Bail set at $1 million in baby-freezer case
TACOMA – Bail has been set at $1 million for a 25-year-old Washington man accused of putting his 6-week-old daughter in a freezer for about an hour to stop her crying.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said doctors believe the baby will survive, but it’s too soon to know potential complications.
Tyler James Deutsch pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of child assault, criminal mistreatment and interfering with reporting of domestic violence. The prosecutor said Deutsch fell asleep after putting the child in the freezer Saturday, then awoke and was removing the baby when the child’s mother returned. He’s accused of taking the phone away when the mother tried to call for help from their trailer in Roy, Wash. The mother took the child and got neighbors to call police.
Scientists downgrade volcano threat level
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Scientists have downgraded the threat level of Alaska’s Pavlof Volcano.
The Alaska Volcano Observatory said it lowered the advisory level for Pavlof on Tuesday from orange to yellow, which means activity has decreased significantly but continues to be closely monitored.
Seattle police admit violating records act
SEATTLE – The Seattle Police Department acknowledged it broke public records laws when it withheld from the Seattle Times an internal memo about its response to riotous May Day demonstrations in 2012.
The department agreed to pay $20,000 to the newspaper and its attorneys to avoid a lawsuit over the issue, the Times reported Tuesday.
In a settlement signed by Interim Police Chief Jim Pugel, the department acknowledged it should have turned over the report or cited a valid exemption to the Washington state Public Records Act.
The Times filed a public-disclosure request for the memo in July. The internal report on the response led to an external review.
Department commanders “believed that the report was subject to the deliberative process exemption, and that premature disclosure would prejudice the independent review,” according to the police statement.
However, instead of informing the Times of that decision, as required by the Public Records Act, and giving the newspaper a chance to challenge the exemption in court, the department never officially acknowledged the memorandum existed, even though retiring Chief John Diaz talked about it in a story published in the Seattle Times on July 23.
Diaz acknowledged in April that he had ordered the memo withheld pending the release of the department’s own investigation report and an independent review by retired Los Angeles Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann.