Ballot supporters to be counted
The county elections office was instructed Monday by the Spokane City Council to start counting signatures on a ballot proposal.
Earlier this month, Spokane Citizens for a Living Wage turned in 3,871 signatures to the city clerk’s office to put a measure on the ballot requiring big-box retailers to increase wages. The group needs 2,915 valid signatures to require a vote in the November election.
The council could have put it on the ballot without asking that signatures be verified, but instead unanimously opted to have petitions checked.
Under the proposal, companies with 95,000 square feet of retail space would have to pay most workers 165 percent of the state’s minimum wage, or about $13 an hour. The requirement would drop to 135 percent for employers who provide health care benefits.
BREMERTON, Wash.
New attack sub arrives at port
Serenaded by a five-piece Navy band and greeted by balloon-toting children, a fast attack submarine arrived at its new base.
The nuclear-powered USS Seawolf was nudged into the pier by tugboats Sunday, the first of two fast attack subs to arrive at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton from Groton, Conn.
With a crew of 140, the 353-foot sub is the first to be based in Bremerton, although many others have visited the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for maintenance, overhauls and repairs.
Chief Petty Officer Arnulfo Salinas, winner of the traditional first kiss, was greeted by his wife Maryann, daughter Samantha, 11, and son Aaron, 19, all of whom last saw him in February.
“It’s always a thrill when he comes home,” Aaron Salinas said. “There are no goodbyes, just hug, hug, hug, ‘See you later.’ When he comes home, it’s a bigger hug.”
Also being transferred to Bremerton is the USS Connecticut under a decision to move 60 percent of the Navy’s firepower to the Pacific. The Connecticut was expected to leave Groton within days for a six-month deployment before arriving in Bremerton.
Capable of 35 knots, fast attack submarines are designed to seek and destroy enemy subs and surface ships, launch Tomahawk cruise missiles to hit shore targets and conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
BOISE
Baby ape at zoo raised by humans
A female baby gibbon whose mother dropped her to the floor in the days after her birth at the zoo here is thriving with the maternal attention of four human foster parents.
They’re hoping their little one will be a big attraction for guests and play a role in cementing the survival of her kind.
“Never, ever in my lifetime did I imagine I would be caring for an ape,” Corrine Pickett, one of the foster mothers who alternate bringing the white-handed gibbon baby home every night, told the Idaho Statesman.
The gibbon doesn’t have a name, though a naming contest is likely once the animal goes on public display. No date has been set.
Normally, Gibbons live in China, Malaysia, and Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, swinging high in the trees that allow them to travel swiftly through the rain forest canopy by swinging gracefully from branch to branch.
Zoo Boise has a pair of white-handed gibbons, a male and a female, who were rarely affectionate with each other.
That’s why it was a surprise earlier this year when the zoo veterinarian, Debbie Wiggins, confirmed the female was pregnant.
The baby gibbon was born April 19 and grew cold and weak because her mother wasn’t feeding her. Since then, there’s been an all-out effort to raise the animal, even as the zoo tries to preserve its status as a wild animal.
From staff and wire reports