In brief: Nine injured in two-car I-5 wreck
DUPONT, Wash. – Nine people are hurt, including two critically injured young children, and one driver has been arrested after a two-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 near DuPont, Wash.
The State Patrol said the accident began in the southbound lanes Tuesday afternoon when a 20-year-old Federal Way man lost control of his Honda Civic and collided with a Ford SUV carrying nine people – including six children and two pregnant women.
Trooper Brandy Kessler said no one in the SUV was wearing a seat belt when it was hit from behind, struck a jersey barrier and rolled across the freeway. Two young children and one of the pregnant women were ejected. She said both of those children were critically injured while the others in the SUV suffered less serious injuries.
Kessler said the car driver has been arrested for investigation of vehicular assault.
Flows will double to aid sturgeon
BONNERS FERRY – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release water from Libby Dam this week to help sturgeon spawning in the Kootenai River.
Flows will double to peak at about 27,000 cubic feet per second on Thursday morning. People who live, work or recreate on the river should be aware of rapidly changing conditions, corps officials said.
The high flows will decrease gradually throughout the month. The flows mimic historic conditions in the Kootenai River and help move sturgeon into suitable upstream spawning habitat.
The river is expected to rise to 1,759 feet at Bonners Ferry during the high flows, which is below flood stage.
When the sturgeon operation is finished at the end of June, river flows will drop to 7,000 to 9,000 cubic feet per second for the summer.
Honking deemed not free speech
EVERETT – Being honked off doesn’t give you a right to honk on.
That’s the ruling from a Snohomish County Superior Court judge in the case of a woman who expressed her anger at a neighbor by leaning on her car horn at 6 a.m.
Helen Immelt, of Monroe, got in a dispute with the neighbor in 2006, after she learned that he had filed a complaint with their homeowners association about her chickens.
She responded by parking in front of his house at 5:50 a.m. the next day and leaning on her horn for 10 minutes straight. After he called the police, she returned for another round of honking. Immelt was cited for a noise violation and appealed to the superior court, saying her honking was free speech. But Judge Richard J. Thorpe ruled Monday, “Horn honking which is done to annoy or harass others is not speech.”