In brief: Tractor driver getting better after rollover
A man trapped under a small tractor Thursday at the Cheney wastewater treatment plant is recovering from surgery and his condition was improving Friday, city officials said.
Cory Janssen was moving equipment from the treatment plant to a building a half-mile away when the machine he was driving rolled and pinned him underneath. He is being treated at a Spokane hospital.
Janssen worked as a seasonal employee last year and returned for this season, according to City Administrator Arlene Fisher.
PORTLAND – The county prosecutor says former Vice President Al Gore won’t be prosecuted over allegations by a masseuse that he groped and assaulted her in his Portland hotel room in 2006.
District Attorney Michael Schrunk said in a statement Friday that the case has numerous problems and isn’t appropriate for a criminal prosecution.
Among the difficulties that Schrunk cited: Although she said she was terrified of him, the masseuse with red hair also said she called Gore after their encounter and told him to “dream of redheaded women.”
Schrunk also said she told the hotel that she appreciated the business referrals it had given her – and didn’t mention any problems with Gore just two nights earlier.
CASHMERE, Wash. – A fast-moving north-central Washington wildfire has prompted an evacuation order for at least 20 homes in a grassy canyon north of Cashmere.
The fire in Nahahum Canyon was reported Friday afternoon and had burned across about three-quarters of a square mile of grass, brush and trees within several hours.
Chelan County sheriff’s Lt. Kent Sisson said mandatory evacuation orders were given to residents about four miles up the canyon.
There were no reports of injuries. Sisson said shortly before 6 p.m. he was not aware of any buildings destroyed by the fire.
Later Friday night, Jim Duck of the Central Washington Interagency Communications Center said the fire was slowing.
Several aircraft and firefighters from local fire departments, the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington state Department of Natural Resources responded.
SEATTLE – Construction could begin this fall on interim measures to restore the Howard Hanson Dam on the Green River to full flood capacity.
The Army Corps of Engineers said Friday it plans to use $44 million in new federal money to improve drainage and prevent erosion.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said the money is part of a supplemental appropriations bill passed by Congress. The bill was signed into law Thursday by President Barack Obama.
A reservoir wall at the dam was weakened by heavy rains in January 2009, increasing the dangers of flooding in the heavily developed Green River Valley downstream.
OLYMPIA – Secretary of State Sam Reed is predicting that 38 percent of voters will turn in their primary ballots.
Reed’s office said Friday that ballots have been mailed out to nearly all of the state’s 3.6 million voters. A small percentage of voters in Pierce County aren’t signed up for absentee ballots and still vote at polling places.
Voters must have their ballots postmarked by the Aug. 17 primary election.
Reed says the average turnout of the last seven primaries in similar election years is 34 percent. He says the state will likely match 2006’s turnout of 38 percent.
Voters will weigh in on several races in Washington’s “top two” primary, including a U.S. Senate race, all of state’s U.S. House seats, state Supreme Court races and dozens of legislative seats.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – An environmental group hoping to block construction of a $3 billion gas pipeline from Wyoming to Oregon has filed suit.
The Tucson, Ariz.-based Center for Biological Diversity says the Ruby Pipeline would cut across “pristine and remote lands” and harm endangered fish.
The group sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court in San Francisco on Friday.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a notice to proceed for the project Friday.
BLM project manager Mark Mackiewicz said initial work probably will begin Monday.