Local News

Oregon police have filed charges against the driver who allegedly struck and killed a Seattle man who was dribbling a soccer ball to Brazil.

Lincoln City Police Chief Keith Killian said the driver, Scott Hiatt, was arrested Monday and charged with criminally negligent homicide, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Hiatt, 51, of Neskowin, a small city on the Oregon coast, has had criminal problems in the past.

The Seattle man, 42-year-old Richard Swanson, was walking on a coastal highway just outside of Lincoln City when he was hit from behind on the morning of May 14.

Swanson had set off two weeks earlier from Seattle Center on a trip to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup — determined to dribble a soccer ball the whole way.

The federal agency that works on solving homelessness has written a letter to Mayor Mike McGinn supporting the end of Nickelsville. A seven-member majority of the Seattle City Council on Monday ordered the mayor to clear Nickelsville by Sept. 1. They pledged to help the more than 100 residents of the encampment find shelter, but said the encampment could not stay at its location on West Marginal Way.

The mayor and Councilmember Nick Licata were pursuing a new location for Nickelsville, and at a meeting Wednesday, some members of the council still indicated a willingness to consider supporting an encampment in the city.

The federal government has never supported encampments. But while that’s not new, their letter offers support to the council as it makes a politically challenging decision.

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Seattle City Council members are the target of a protest planned for this afternoon by leaders of Nickelsville, a homeless encampment the City Council announced this week it will shut down in September after two years on city property.

In a letter to council members, Nickelsville residents wrote that the letter council members wrote to Mayor Mike McGinn “pretty much talked about us like some dogs in a kennel.”

“Humans have a basic right to stay together and safe,” they wrote. “In Seattle the majority of the City Council has chosen to ignore and disrespect that basic right … Please understand that Nickelsville is sticking together.”

It’s likely more than 100 homeless people will turn out for today’s 2 p.m. housing committee meeting and a planned “die-in” on the steps on City Hall at 2:30 p.m. As we detailed in a story last week, many of the protesters at events like this are told they must participate or risk being kicked out of their encampment. (more…)

Seven Seattle City Council members today plan to deliver a letter to Mayor Mike McGinn asking that the Nickelsville homeless encampment be closed by Sept. 1

The council members plan to authorize up to $500,000 from the city’s general fund to pay for housing and services for the residents, and the letter asks that the mayor directs the city’s Department of Human Services to provide “immediate targeted outreach and engagement services to Nickelsville along with immediate provision of shelter, housing and other services.”

Council members are in discussion with Union Gospel Mission to provide the housing, a source said.

“No one wants to simply displace campers,” the letter reads. “We can provide a route to safe, decent and supportive housing to anyone and everyone at Nickelsville.”

The letter has not been signed by Councilmembers Mike O’Brien or Nick Licata. Licata has been working with the mayor to find a new location for Nickelsville.

The U.S. Coast Guard spent four hours early Monday searching for a 60-year-old man who apparently blacked out while taking his 8-foot boat home from a funeral. Rescuers took him to the hospital because he was slightly disoriented when they found him at 5:50 a.m. Monday.

According to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Jordan Akiyama, the man attended a funeral at Manchester Pier, in Kitsap County Sunday night and decided to take his 8-foot boat to his camping spot on Blake Island. Witnesses said he seemed intoxicated when he left. Several hours later, his wife called the Blake Island State Park ranger to report that he hadn’t turned up.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent out a boat and a helicopter to search for the man for several hours. They spotted him off Restoration Point, Bainbridge Island, just before 6 a.m. He told rescuers he thought he had blacked out.

Police say burglars may have intentionally set fire to a North Seattle home after breaking into it Sunday evening.

Neighbors of the home in the 11000 block of 20th Avenue Northeast noticed smoke coming from the home and called 911 just after 9 p.m. The fire department determined the fire probably started in a back bedroom closet.

The front door was open with its window broken out. When police officers got there, they determined that someone had first tried to open the basement door to the house. It is unknown whether anything was taken, and the arson bomb squad and CSI are investigating.

A man has died and a woman is in the hospital after their boat capsized in Tulalip Bay north of Everett Friday night.

At about 10:45 p.m., someone called 911 to report that they could hear people screaming for help in the water, said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Littlejohn, of the U.S. Coast Guard. Tulalip Fire and Rescue went to the area near Priest Point on the Tulalip Reservation and found a 50-year-old woman, who was wearing a life jacket, but hypothermic and in shock.

She said she had been in a boat with her boyfriend when it overturned.

Rescuers searched the area and found the man, who had died, at 4:15 a.m. He was about two miles north of the area where the woman was found, at Mission Beach. He wasn’t wearing a life jacket.

Law enforcement are investigating and hope to learn more from the woman about what happened.

King County voters will consider in August raising property taxes to fund county and city parks and the Woodland Park Zoo. The existing parks levies expire at the end of the year.

The Metropolitan King County Council voted Monday to send voters a six-year property tax levy lid lift of 18.77 cents per $1,000 of assessed value – about $56 per year for the owner of a home valued at $300,000. If approved, the proceeds from the levy would go toward funding the maintenance and operation of King County’s 200 parks, 175 miles of regional trails and 26,000 acres of open space. Levy funds would also be used to expand the regional trails system, connecting South King County to the system. Some of the money would support local city parks and the Woodland Park Zoo.

Two council members, Kathy Lambert and Reagan Dunn, voted against the levy. Lambert said that, while she supports parks, she worries the amount of the levy will preclude smaller taxing districts, like fire and water districts, from raising their property taxes. The state limits the amount property taxes can be raised.

The 26,000-acre King County Parks system includes Marymoor Park, Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center and the Sammamish River Trail.

The Port of Seattle Commission has added Stephanie Bowman, 44, a former manager of federal government affairs for the Port of Tacoma.

Bowman was selected from seven finalists to fill the seat vacated by Rob Holland, who resigned last month. She was a candidate in 2012 for the state House of Representatives, running in the same race as Holland. Both lost in the primary.

Bowman, who worked at the Port of Tacoma from 2006-2011, is currently the executive director for the Washington Asset Building Coalition. About 35 people applied for the Port’s two open positions. Courtney Gregoire was selected last month to fill the position left vacant by Gael Tarleton.

Both Bowman and Gregoire will appear on the 2013 ballot.

Commission President Tom Albro said in a statement that Bowman “has the background and skills to be an outstanding member of our commission and asset to the port. Her in-depth knowledge of port issues will enable her to hit the ground running.”

Fireworks illuminate Lake Union at a 2011 Fourth of July celebration. (Photo by Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

In an announcement that should end all fireworks announcements for at least the next three years, Seattle city leaders said today the 2013 show will light the skies over Lake Union as usual July 4. Mayor Mike McGinn, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Seafair raised enough money to ensure the show is safe for at least three years, and likely more, said Chamber President Maud Daudon.

Seattle’s fireworks show has faced an annual funding crisis for the past several years, since Chase Bank stopped sponsoring the show in 2010. Earlier this month, producer One Reel announced it hadn’t raised enough money, and so began the annual scramble to save the show and accompanying Gas Works Park party.

Seafair agreed to add the fireworks to its three-week summer festival. Microsoft, Amazon and DoubleDown Interactive will be the “presenting sponsors” of the show, and other major sponsors include Starbucks, Wells Fargo and Tom Douglas Restaurants. KIRO 7 will broadcast the show, and the community can contribute.

“I love the fireworks. My family loves the fireworks,” McGinn said at a news conference this morning, recounting how his family, like thousands of others in the region, plots Independence Day plans far in advance, planning where to watch and who to spend the evening with.

The 20-minute show will be a little different — “artistic and patriotic” instead of just “artistic,” said Seafair CEO Beth Knox — but comparable in quality. Knox would not say how much it cost, except that it is less than the $500,000 One Reel was trying to raise.