Bothell woman killed in crash
A 60-year-old Bothell woman was killed Sunday night when her car was struck head-on in the 20400 block of Northeast Woodinville-Duvall Road east of Woodinville.
Authorities have not released the woman's name, pending an autopsy.
A 43-year-old Kirkland man is being held on suspicion of vehicular homicide, said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. For authorities to book a suspect on vehicular homicide, "elements have to either be [related] to drugs or alcohol or reckless driving," Urquhart said.
The suspect was eastbound in a 1997 Dodge pickup at 10:15 p.m. Sunday night when he crossed the centerline and hit the woman's vehicle, knocking it backward, Urquhart said.
Another driver traveling in the victim's lane then struck her 2000 Subaru Impreza but did not suffer injuries, he said. That driver was not held on charges, he said.
EdmondsATF investigating luxury condo fire
Fire investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have taken their first look inside what was to be a luxury condominium development in downtown Edmonds that burned down over the weekend.
Jeff Fulton, special agent in charge for the ATF's National Response Team investigating the fire, wasn't ready to say what may have caused the blaze, but he did say investigators will spend more time in the structure today.
Crews spent much of Monday securing the site so investigators could safely walk through the rubble, said ATF spokeswoman Julianne Marshall. Workers laid metal sheets across debris, while a crane was used to disassemble some parts of the building still standing.
The response team also collected videos and photos from people who saw the blaze, which started about 3 a.m. Saturday, Fulton said.
Shelton, Mason CountyProfessor's death ruled a suicide
Authorities have determined that an Olympic College professor whose body was found more than a month after he disappeared committed suicide.
The Mason County Coroner's Office said Bernd Richter, 53, of Arcadia, near Shelton, died of self-inflicted stab wounds and hypothermia. Search dogs discovered his body Saturday in an abandoned barn.
Richter taught Russian, German, English and American culture courses at the community college in Bremerton.
His wife reported him missing in mid-November after he didn't return home from a walk.
Man gets 7-year sentence in fraud
A former Monroe man who pleaded guilty to defrauding the government, banks, businesses and Internet auction customers of $1.1 million before fleeing to Greece was sentenced Monday to 7 ½ years in prison.
Evangelos Dimitrios Soukas, 27, was arrested at an airport in Cyprus in January and handed over to U.S. authorities. He pleaded not guilty in March but changed his plea in July, admitting to 39 counts of conspiracy, identity theft and tax charges.
Starting in 1999, Soukas routinely placed false advertisements for items such as laptop computers on Internet auction sites. The winning bidder typically received nothing after paying, though one received a box filled with Styrofoam and rocks.
Soukas also opened bank accounts in other people's names and filed fraudulent tax returns in his own name and others, prosecutors said. The IRS sent him checks totaling nearly $11,000.
State panel selects 5 quarter sketches
The state's Quarter Advisory Commission has chosen five sketches for the new Washington quarter and returned them to the U.S. Mint for more work.
The mint had sent 20 drawings to the state based on the finalists chosen by the commission from 1,500 essays submitted:
• A salmon, Mount Rainier and an apple within an outline of Washington state.
• An apple within the outline of Washington state.
• An outline of Washington state with Mount Rainier centered.
• A salmon breaching the water with Mount Rainier as a backdrop.
When the mint sends the sketches back, the commission will come up with five finalists and, in April, will post them online for a public vote.
Gov. Christine Gregoire will make the final decision.
The new quarter, the 42nd in a series commemorating the states of the Union, is to be released in spring 2007.
Attorney gets 2 months in jail
A Seattle attorney found guilty of cursing at and striking a Snohomish County courthouse marshal was sentenced Monday to two months in jail.
In September 2004, Christopher Bartow was confronted by Marshal George Willoth because Bartow had repeatedly interrupted a court commissioner during a hearing, according to court papers. The attorney cursed at Willoth and struck him in the head, charging documents said. Willoth used pepper spray to subdue Bartow.
In addition to jail time, Bartow, 40, was ordered to complete an anger-management course.
LynnwoodFather, 29, held in child's injuries
The father of a 10-month-old child is under investigation after the child was found to have head trauma Sunday, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
The 29-year-old man was watching the child at a home north of Lynnwood in the 2700 block of Lincoln Way Sunday. When the mother came home, the father left, and that's when the mother found the child's head injuries, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
The child was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and when the father returned home later that day, Snohomish County sheriff's deputies were waiting for him, the release said.
The man was taken into custody Sunday, and the investigation in ongoing.
Seattle
Burn ban canceled as weather changes
A burn ban that had been in effect for King, Pierce and Snohomish counties was canceled Monday.
A weather pattern that caused poor air quality has passed, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.
2 men arrested in Schuck's burglary
Two men were arrested Monday morning on suspicion of burglarizing a Schuck's auto-parts store in Kirkland.
One suspect, 36, was hospitalized for exposure after he hid from police in the woods for several hours. A 47-year-old man also was arrested.
Police responding to an alarm followed the men's truck after they drove from the store in the 12600 block of Totem Lake Boulevard about 2:15 a.m. Police followed the truck north on Interstate 405 and eventually to Mukilteo, where the men got out and ran.
Police found property from the store in the back of the truck.
The store had been burglarized less than a day earlier; this was the third burglary of a Kirkland auto-parts store in the past month.
TacomaMan fatally shot sitting in front room
A 22-year-old Tacoma man was killed early Monday by a bullet shot through the front window of his house, Tacoma police said.
Just after 3 a.m., neighbors and someone in the residence in the 3500 block of East L Street called 911 to report that someone was shooting at the house, said police spokesman Mark Fulghum. As far as detectives can tell, only one bullet entered the house through a window, striking the man who was sitting in a chair in the front room, he said. Police don't know if the shooter drove by the house or walked up to the residence. Detectives are also trying to determine if the man or someone else who lives in the home was intentionally targeted, Fulghum said. No one else was injured.
Snowboard injury was in closed area
A man in his early 20s who suffered a critical head injury Sunday afternoon was snowboarding off a 150-foot drop known as International Cliff, a spot at the Alpental Ski Area that's permanently closed to skiers and boarders.
Signs are posted warning of the dangers of International Cliff, said Summit at Snoqualmie spokeswoman Emily Duplessis. The man, who friends said was an experienced snowboarder, was found moments after his fall by a member of the Alpental Ski Patrol, who happened to be at the bottom of the cliff, Duplessis said. Also, two trauma doctors who are volunteer patrollers were on shift that day and able to "perform CPR all the way down the mountain" until the man could be loaded into an ambulance and then into a helicopter that took him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, she said.
The man is approximately 21 years old and was at Alpental with his brother and three friends, Duplessis said. When he was found, he was unconscious from a head injury, but he woke up sometime Sunday night; although he is still in critical condition, he seems to have stabilized, she said.
Times staff and news services