In brief: Seattle police officer fired for arrest of man using golf club as cane

SEATTLE – Seattle police Chief Kathleen O’Toole has fired an officer involved in the arrest of a 69-year-old man who refused to drop a golf club he was carrying on a city sidewalk.

Officer Cynthia Whitlatch was served Tuesday with a termination notice for policy violations involving bias, abuse of police discretion and escalation of a situation involving William Wingate and a golf club he was using as a cane in July 2014.

O’Toole said in a Tuesday letter to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray that based on an investigation into the incident she is firing Whitlatch. O’Toole says the 2014 case should have been resolved without any confrontation.

Whitlatch had been reassigned to desk duty after the incident and after O’Toole learned that Whitlatch had made troubling Facebook comments regarding race.

Whitlatch is white; Wingate is black.

Remains discovered in missing girl case

BLAIRMORE, Alberta – Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigating the abduction of a 2-year-old girl said late Tuesday that they have found human remains.

Victims services officials made the announcement to a horrified crowd that had gathered in Blairmore, in southwestern Alberta, at a candlelight vigil for Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette.

Relatives, friends and strangers who had shown up to lend support in the search for the girl were overcome with grief, breaking down in tears as officials announced the Amber Alert had been canceled. The alert had been extended to British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Montana.

Hailey was abducted early Monday morning from the town of Blairmore by someone driving a speeding white van.

Her father, Terry Blanchette, 27, was found dead in their home and police believe his death was a homicide.

Police have a 22-year-old suspect in custody. Supt. Tony Hamori said the name of the man, a resident of Blairmore who was arrested there on Tuesday, would not be released until charges had been filed.

Terry Blanchette was described by friends and family as a devoted single father who shared custody of Hailey with his former girlfriend, Cheyenne Dunbar, who lives in Edmonton.

Hamori said Dunbar was cooperating with investigators.

Blairmore is 137 miles southwest of Calgary near the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia.

Motorist arrested in fatal scooter crash

SEATTLE – A 54-year-old driver has been arrested in connection with a fatal crash with a scooter.

Seattlepi.com reports that the driver of a Chrysler van struck 63-year-old Robert Price, who was riding a moped Friday in South Seattle.

Price was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and later died at the hospital.

Seattle police said the 54-year-old driver was intoxicated at the time of the crash. He has been booked into King County Jail for investigation of vehicular homicide. He is being held on $200,000 bail.

Water limits hit city of ‘Twilight’ fame

FORKS, Wash. – The small Washington city whose frequently dismal and rainy atmosphere served as the backdrop of the “Twilight” vampire romance novels is facing emergency water restrictions.

The Peninsula Daily News reported that the mayor of Forks said city wells had reached critical levels after a dry summer, and lawn-watering, home car-washing, and filling of swimming pools or hot tubs were now banned until further notice. Violations warrant fines of up to $500.

Forks is near the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula and adjacent to the Hoh Rain Forest. Stephanie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” series, has said she wanted to set her books someplace “ridiculously rainy” and picked Forks after finding it on a Google search.

Officials said it will take a least a couple weeks of steady rain to replenish the wells.

Cormorant killings resume to aid salmon

PORTLAND – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has resumed killing double-crested cormorants so the birds eat fewer juvenile salmon migrating down the Columbia River despite an ongoing legal battle with conservation groups.

The Oregonian reported that contracted workers shot 200 cormorants last week on East Sand Island as part of a program to reduce the size of North America’s biggest cormorant nesting colony by 57 percent over four years. The killings come after a nearly two-month break that allowed adult birds to take care of their hatchlings.

Since May the agency has killed 358 birds and oiled more than 5,000 nests to keep eggs from hatching.

Five conservation groups are challenging the killing in court. A U.S. District Court judge is expected to rule on the case in spring 2016.

Seattle population, tech hirings on rise

SEATTLE – Seattle is seeing another population boom as technology companies increase hiring in the area.

The Seattle Times reported that since Amazon consolidated operations in South Lake Union in 2010, U.S. Census Data shows Seattle has gained more than 14,500 people per year on average. From 2012 to 2013 Seattle was the fastest-growing big city in the country, adding about 18,000 residents.

Census data showed most new residents were moving to neighborhoods near Amazon, such as South Lake Union and Denny Triangle.

This most recent boom is nothing too new for the city, which saw modest population gains during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. Even before Microsoft, Seattle had a massive influx of residents right after the Klondike Gold Rush in the early 1900s.