Local News

Washington state has selected one consulting firm to advise the Liquor Control Board on all four parts of its new marijuana law, according to Medical Marijuana Business Daily.

According to the trade publication, Botec Analysis Corp., based in Massachusetts, has received the initial go-ahead to provide consulting services in each of the four major areas identified by the state: product and industry knowledge, product quality standards and testing, product usage and consumption validation, and product regulation. The state considered hiring different consultants to advise it on the various areas.

State officials would not confirm the selection, which will be official pending final approval and is expected to be announced Tuesday.

A federal judge ordered a Jefferson County man to repay the U.S. Forest Service $84,000 for stealing as many as 100 trees from Olympic National Forest.

Reid Johnston previously had been sentenced to a year in federal prison in one of the largest timber-theft prosecutions in Washington history. After a lengthy restitution hearing on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Bryan came up with the figure, taking into account both the market value of the timber, as well as the ecological value of the stolen trees.

At least one of the trees was an old-growth fir, six feet in diameter. Others included intricately patterned maple that often is used to make musical instruments.

The Tacoma Art Museum will donate a few works from a Chinese robe and jade collection to an appropriate local institution, and continue to auction off the rest of the collection, donated by the Young family in the 1970s.

An agreement reached between TAM and the family was announced today, settling a public dispute.

“We regret that the conversation between us, the museum and the community too the direction that it did,” Al Young said in a statement.

TAM will auction the rest of the collection next week, and will use some of the money to purchase works by Chinese American artists, while giving the Young family credit for the donation.

“We are pleased that this all has been resolved, and are happy that the Young family will continue to be a part of the Tacoma Art Museum,” said director Stephanie A. Stebich in a statement.

King County Executive Dow Constantine wants voters in August to approve a six-year, $360 million levy for park and trail maintenance, and expansion. The levy would replace two others that expire at the end of the year.

If approved, the measure would fund maintenance and operation of the county’s 200 parks, 175 miles of trails and 26,000 acres of open space, according to a news release issued today. It also would help buy or protect another 2,700 acres of open space, fund planning and design work for new trails and repair 14 trail bridges and trestles.

It would cost the owner of a $340,000 home about $64 a year.

The Metropolitan King County Council will decide whether and when to place the measure on the ballot.

Mayor Mike McGinn, right, is briefed by Seattle Police Deputy Chief Nick Metz on Monday morning. (Ken Lambert/Seattle Times)

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn this morning said he’s already planning for another gun buyback, after an event Saturday brought in 716 firearms and resulted in two-hour lines and a traffic jam.

“We would love to do this again,” he said at a morning news conference, and is already working to firm up a date and location sometime in the next few weeks.

McGinn also called on the state and federal governments to prevent the unregulated private sale of guns, which happened on sidewalks around Saturday’s event.

He said it wasn’t clear the city had the authority to shut down the private sale of guns.

“We had a gun bazaar break out on the streets of Seattle at a gun buyback event,” McGinn said.

Still, Deputy Seattle Police Chief Nick Metz said most people who came to sell their guns did so to the police.

“A large majority chose to stand in line, to get less money than they might have in order to make sure that weapon would not be used in a crime.”

Metz said the police researched gun buybacks in other cities, including a recent one in Los Angeles, and found that they collected an average of 100 guns per hour. Seattle police took in more than 700 in about three hours, he said, swamping the staff on hand.

“This was an overwhelming response,” Metz said.

Among the weapons sold to the city in exchange for gift cards of from $50 to $200 were four guns confirmed by police as stolen, dozens considered assault-style weapons and a military-grade missile launcher that is not legal in civilian hands, Metz said.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said that dozens of homes in the region are safer because unwanted guns are no longer lying around. Any one of those, he said, might otherwise have been “used in an argument between brothers, a dispute between neighbors, or taken by an angry teenager and brought to a school. ”

He said that just because the city and county don’t have the legal authority to regulate gun possession or sales,  “That should not stop us from doing those things we have in our control.”

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, seated at left, and King County Executive Dow Constantine , seated at right, sign agreement to build $490 million sports and entertainment center in Sodo, during a press conference. (Photo by Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times)

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle native Chris Hansen today signed an agreement to move forward on building a professional basketball and hockey arena in Sodo, the biggest step toward Hansen’s goal of returning the Sonics to town.

The city and county councils approved the agreement with votes Monday.

“It’s a great day,” said Hansen, signing the documents at the  Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club in South Seattle in front of about 100 people.

With the agreement signed, the window is open for legal challenges, and the local Longshoremen’s Union has said it will sue to block the construction in Sodo out of fear for maritime industry jobs.

Hansen also is now free to begin shopping for a National Basketball Association team.

See more photos in our photo gallery.

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
King County Councilmember Joe McDermott, left, and City Councilmember Tim Burgess hold a press conference after the City Council vote on Monday, which was 7-2 in favor of the arena.

The Seattle City Council and Metropolitan King County Council this afternoon approved an agreement to use up to $200 million in public funds to help build a basketball and hockey arena in Sodo that would return the Sonics to town.

The agreement with investor and Seattle native Chris Hansen means Hansen can now begin shopping for a National Basketball Association team, and begin an environmental review of the site that will determine what mitigation is needed for traffic and other concerns.

The county council unanimously approved the revised Memorandum of Understanding, and the city council shortly after approved it 7-2.

ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Kenneth Knutsen, left, Dawn Welch and Jason Billingsley react just before the King County Council unanimously voted to approve the agreement for the new sports arena in Seattle on Monday.

City Council member Tim Burgess said the councils had strengthened the agreement sent to them by Mayor Mike McGinn and County Executive Dow Constantine by requiring a full state environmental review that includes an analysis of alternate sites, creating a transortation fund to protect freight mobility in Sodo and an economic impact study.

“The steps we’re taking will ensure transportation corridors remains open and accessible,” Burgess said.

County Councilman Joe McDermott said the signing of the MOU sets off a review process that will require further public comment and council approval.

“The MOU makes it abundantly clear there will be no final decision until after an environmental review,” McDermott said.

The Sadako sculpture has once again been vandalized, her arm was broken off. The sculpture also was vandalized nine years ago when someone sawed off the other arm. Sculptor Daryl Smith was able to recast another arm back then. (Photo by Alan Berner / The Seattle Times)

Seattle Times photographer Alan Berner went to Peace Park near the north end of the University Bridge Wednesday, and saw that the Sadako Sasaki statue there was missing an arm.

It was the second time the statue of Sadako  — who was 12 when she died of leukemia a decade after an atomic bomb fell on her home in Hiroshima in 1945 — had been vandalized; the other arm was sawed off and thrown into the ship canal in 2003, according to the city.

Berner reported the vandalism to the city’s parks department, which issued a news release asking anyone with information to call police.

But in the office, Berner wondered aloud whether the arm might have been tossed down a hill into a wooded area just below the park. He called the parks department to ask if anyone had looked, then went back to the park.

Berner returned a short time later toting the arm, which was returned to the city this afternoon.

Sadako has become a symbol for peace and of young, innocent victims of war. The statue is often visited by schoolchildren, who decorate it with origami cranes.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn wants to hire 10 new police officers, invest in new video equipment for police cars and buy a gunshot-locator system — and has included more than $1 million toward those goals in his proposed 2013-14 budget.

“By hiring new officers and giving them new tools, we can help protect public safety in Seattle,” McGinn said in a statement. “Public safety is a top priority for the community and it’s a top priority for me.”

The mayor’s budget also includes $5 million annually to implement the 20/20 plan and the settlement agreements with the Department of Justice, though the full scope of 20/20 plan costs aren’t yet known, according to the mayor’s news release.

The city wants to install up to 52 mobile gunshot locator units, with each having a minimum 600-foot radius range and the ability to pinpoint a gunshot to within a 50-foot radius. The units also can stream video and determine the caliber of weapon that was fired with a 90 percent accuracy rate.

Hiring 10 new officers would bring the department’s total to 1,310.

McGinn will announce complete details of his proposed budget next week.

Parents of a Gig Harbor middle school student whose bullying was captured on video last year asked the Peninsula School Board last night to take the matter more seriously, according to The News Tribune.

Randy and Karla Kinney told board members that teacher John Rosi’s discipline — reassignment and 10 days suspension without pay at the time — wasn’t severe enough, the newspaper reported. Video that came to light last week showed students carrying their son around by his arms and legs, trapping him beneath overturned chairs and more. At times, Rosi joined in. The videos showed that the behavior continued for at least 15 minutes.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is now investigating, and Rosi has been placed on leave.