State and NW News

Italian prosecutors: Knox hated murder victim

PERUGIA, Italy — An American student accused of murdering her British roommate in Italy had a growing hatred for the victim and killed her in retaliation during a drug-fueled sex game, a prosecutor said today in closing arguments at her murder trial. Lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini argued that Amanda Knox, together with her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito and a third man convicted in a separate trial last year, killed Meredith Kercher under “the fumes of drugs and possibly alcohol” and then tried to cover up their crime by staging a burglary.

DOT employee killed by falling tree limb

PORT ANGELES — An 11-year employee of the state Department of Transportation was killed Thursday after he was hit by a falling tree limb while working to clear a slide on Highway 101 near Indian Hill west of Port Angeles. Neal Richards, 42, of Forks, died in the accident.

Death at Boeing plant was suicide

KENT — The King County medical examiner’s office says the death of a man at a Boeing facility in Kent was a suicide. The death Wednesday had been reported as an industrial accident with machinery, but police called it suspicious.

State Patrol: Woman calls 911 to say she’s drunk

AUBURN — The Washington State Patrol says a 19-year-old Auburn woman called 911 to report that she pulled over to the side of a highway because she was “very drunk” and needed a lift from police. Trooper Dan McDonald says the teen told the dispatcher that she had been given alcohol at a party without her knowledge and her friends told her she could call 911 to have police pick her up and take her to a hospital to detox.

Window washer survives eight-floor fall

SEATTLE — A window washer fell eight stories outside a downtown Seattle building Thursday morning, but suffered only a broken finger and some bruising and soreness. Eduardo L. Castillo, 34, appeared to be in good shape and was talking as he was loaded into an ambulance shortly after the 11:20 a.m. fall, said Mike O’Donin, manager of the Broadacre Building at Second Avenue and Pine Street.

Biologists rescue fish after landslide

Time is running out for trapped trout, salmon

NILE — A gigantic landslide that buried a highway, uprooted homes and rerouted a river left hundreds of smaller victims: fish. The landslide that inundated the Naches River last month created a barrier of millions of cubic yards of silt, mud and rock that slowed — and likely confused — spawning salmon and hungry trout. Then workers opened a freshly dug river channel that stranded small fish in ponds and marshes.

Boeing worker killed in industrial accident

KENT — A man working at Boeing’s Kent plant was killed Wednesday afternoon in what authorities described as an industrial accident. Kent police and Boeing officials withheld details of the accident, but said a man had died as a result of a piece of machinery.

As lawsuits loom, Morning Star ranch moves assets

SPOKANE — Leaders of the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch have moved millions of dollars worth of assets to a nonprofit foundation in advance of the first trial over sexual abuse lawsuits against the home for troubled youth. Federal tax documents show the ranch in 2007 transferred more than $12 million in securities and other assets to the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch Foundation, an organization that supports youth sports and other charities.

Oregon cat dies of human-transmitted swine flu

CORVALLIS, Ore. — State health officials say a cat from the Linn County city of Lebanon died from the swine flu. Officials say the 10-year-old male apparently caught the virus from a human family member who had been sick.

State school chief asks for WASL delay

Randy Dorn, the state’s top school official, is so concerned about how few students are passing state tests in math and science that he’s proposing major changes in what will be expected of this year’s ninth-graders. First, Dorn wants to let them off the hook for passing state math and science tests before they can graduate in 2013, delaying the math requirement until 2015 and science until 2017.

Dolphins to help protect Navy base

BANGOR (AP) — The Navy says it has decided to use teams of security officers and specially trained bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to help protect Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. The Navy said Wednesday the system is designed to counter threats from swimmers or divers, and will be implemented in 2010.

Figure skating ... but hold the ice

From the ankle up, roller skater Kylee Berger looks like she could be on ice: flesh-colored tights, black Lycra skating dress, a lean frame. She excels at whipping herself into tight spins and recently nailed a triple flip. But Berger pushes off a rubber toe stop to get airborne. Her green-and-white wheels land with an inevitable clunk. In her practice space, disco balls glitter overhead, and there’s a bowling alley next door.

Snohomish High School students learn vet skills

SNOHOMISH — Learning science seems a little more relevant when there is a wagging tail and a pair of trusting eyes looking up from the examination table. That, anyway, is what several students in an advanced animal science class at Snohomish High School have concluded.

State toxicology lab gains accreditation

SEATTLE (AP) — More than a year after a panel of judges found the state’s toxicology lab engaged in “fraudulent and scientifically unacceptable” practices that compromised the prosecution of drunken-driving suspects, the State Patrol has announced new lab accreditation aimed at restoring confidence in the process. The State Patrol said Tuesday the Washington State Toxicology Lab recently earned accreditation from the American Society of Crime Lab Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board.

Bremerton students learn the Constitution

BREMERTON (AP) — Clutching the microphone, Rhys Kerr found himself in the hot seat Tuesday over the separation of church and state. A majority of Americans are Christian. So, Emalene Renna asked, could Congress enact a law requiring everyone to be a Christian?