In brief: Lawmakers vote to change WASL

Cutting back on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning has come down to an issue of money, not educational philosophy.

A bill passed Wednesday in the Senate would require state education officials to redesign the elementary and middle school reading, math and science tests to reduce the number of open-ended questions to reduce the cost of grading them.

The Legislature budgeted $22 million to administer the statewide test in 2009, but testing companies now estimate the cost could increase by $15 million to $25 million when a new contract begins this fall.

Reducing the number of open-ended questions would cut the cost of grading and administering the test by about $10 million, said Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, the Senate education committee chairwoman.

Showing work in math problems would be cut under the plan.

Reducing open-ended questions would not diminish results, said Judy Hartmann, an education policy analyst for Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The changes would also cut the time students spend taking the test.

Because the WASL is used as a graduation test in high school, state education officials recommended against shortening the 10th-grade tests.

Leaders in education committees from the Senate and the House will now work out their differences.

Grants Pass, Ore.

Marbled murrelet plan reversed

Going against Bush administration efforts to increase Northwest logging, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday dropped plans to slash protections for old-growth forests used as nesting trees by a threatened sea bird.

The agency reversed its proposal to cut by 94 percent the 3.9 million acres of critical habitat set aside in 1996 to help the marbled murrelet, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act. It cited uncertainties over plans to ramp up logging on federal lands in western Oregon, according to a notice in the Federal Register.

Signed by Lyle Laverty, a former director of Colorado state parks and appointed assistant secretary of Interior last October, the Federal Register notice carried a reference saying it had been authored by Fish and Wildlife staff at the Pacific Regional Office in Portland.

Kootenai County

Democrats seek commission seats

Two Democrats are running for Kootenai County Commission seats, saying they will work together to change how the county is managed.

A Democrat hasn’t run for the commission since 2002.

Lakes Middle School Vice Principal Steve Caires, 64, is vying for the seat held by commission Chairman Rick Currie, who first must face former Coeur d’Alene police Chief Tom Cronin in the May Republican primary.

Post Falls engineer Bruce Noble, 54, is running for Commissioner Todd Tondee’s seat. Tondee also has a Republican primary challenger: Realtor Tim Herzog.

Caires and Noble said Wednesday they agree on most issues and plan to help each other campaign. Their top issue is supporting a full-time county administrator to run the daily business of the county, leaving policy and legislative decisions to the commissioners. Three commissioners’ jobs should become part-time to help pay for the manager’s salary, they say.

Idaho Falls

Officials question response to mishap

Officials and emergency responders in eastern Idaho are questioning why they weren’t contacted immediately following a mishap with a radioactive isotope that sent one worker to a medical facility.

Meanwhile, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said the medical facility where the worker went for treatment, the hotel he was staying at, two vehicles and a grocery store have tested negative for traces of strontium-90.

The isotope is commonly used as a tracer in medical and agricultural studies. Exposure can increase risks of bone cancer and leukemia.

A portion of the building where Friday’s leak occurred, Building B at the Idaho Innovation Center, has been locked down and is being guarded to keep people out, said Lezlie Aller, of the DEQ.

“There was never a risk to the public,” Aller said. “The emergency phase is over, and they will start into the cleanup phase.”

A worker for the company inhaled an unknown amount of strontium-90 Friday while extracting radioactive material from a gauge and preparing the gauge for disposal.

Aller said the employee’s name has not been released. She declined to identify the grocery store and said she didn’t know the name of the hotel.

Bonneville County Commission Chairman Roger Christensen learned about the incident Saturday and said first responders could have been put at risk.

“It’s disappointing. We have a whole team set up to deal with things like this,” he said. Tacoma

Verdicts reached in ecoterror case

A federal jury in Tacoma has reached unanimous verdicts on at least some charges in the arson trial of a woman accused of an ecoterrorism fire at the University of Washington.

But the jurors also say they’re deadlocked on at least one count. U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess sent them home for the night and is expected to decide today whether to ask them to keep deliberating.

Briana Waters, a 32-year-old from Oakland, Calif., would face a mandatory minimum 35 years in prison if convicted on all counts. She’s accused of acting as the lookout in 2001 when the Earth Liberation Front burned the Center for Urban Horticulture. The building cost $7 million to replace. Waters testified she had nothing to do with the arson.