Renton — Commuters are testing the HOT lane on Highway 167 between Auburn and Renton, as the state Transportation Department tries congestion pricing to control traffic.

Today is the first workday for the High Occupancy Toll lane that went into effect Saturday.

The department's project manager, Patty Rubstello, says the price for solo drivers to enter the car pool lane at 5 a.m. was 50 cents. But she says it could climb to $5 during the peak of the commute.

About 9,000 motorists signed up in advance with a prepaid account. A transponder in the car makes automatic deductions. Solo drivers caught in the HOT lane without a transponder get a $124 ticket.

If the four-year test is successful, the state will likely use congestion pricing on other highways.

— The Associated Press

Seattle

For WWII internees, UW degrees come after 66 years

The University of Washington is planning to issue honorary degrees to Japanese Americans who were students at the school, but were forced to leave campus in the months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

A ceremony to honor the former students is scheduled for May 18 at Kane Hall on the university's Seattle campus.

In the fall of 1941, about 450 Japanese Americans signed up to study at UW.

But Pearl Harbor was attacked in December that year, and in February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt gave the military broad powers over anyone considered a security threat.

The military banned Japanese Americans from the West Coast, forcing most of the Japanese American UW students into out-of-state internment camps.

Many of the surviving students, most of whom are now in their late 80s, tell The Seattle Times they are excited about finally being recognized as Huskies — although others remain ambivalent, or wonder what has taken the UW so long.

Some finished their degrees after the war — at the UW or elsewhere — while others never did.

— The Associated Press