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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A Tri-Cities florist has declined state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's offer to settle a discrimination case involving flowers for a gay wedding. Barronelle Stutzman on Friday sent a letter to Ferguson rejecting his offer to settle the case by paying a $2,000 fine and agreeing to sell flowers to people planning gay weddings. Stutzman says in a press release that she continues to believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman. The 70-year-old Stutzman has earlier said she plans to appeal a judge's ruling that she broke a Washington state anti-discrimination law by...

SNOQUALMIE PASS — For sure, Warren Miller, who for decades annually produced a ski movie eagerly anticipated by his fans, would have passed on filming here this winter. Snow levels are near a record-level disaster: possibly the lowest since the state began keeping annual counts 66 years ago. Consider these numbers: The record for lowest annual snowfall at Snoqualmie is 191 inches, in the 1976-77 season. Hyak, a resort at the pass, ended up filing for bankruptcy. Its attorney said in a Feb. 5, 1977, Seattle Times story, “The Hyak ski area has been open one day this year, and...

Staff of the Washington Health Benefits Exchange, which manages the state’s Wahealthplanfinder health-insurance exchange, told its board today that it had significantly improved the processing of account invoices and payments to insurance carriers. Richard Onizuka, CEO of the exchange told board members that of the accounts processed in December, those with carrier-payment problems were down to 1.7 percent, and those with invoicing problems were 1.5 percent. “We are seeing some improvement,” Onizuka said. “It still means that too many people are being affected.” “It seems enormously high to me,” new board member Mark Stensager said. “And it’s a trend that...

WALLA WALLA, WA - A hotel pool in Walla Walla will be closed for a while after a FedEx truck crash Friday afternoon. Police say the employee was on her last delivery for the day when she crashed through the windows of the building at the Holiday Inn Express on West Pine Street. The truck stopped just before taking a nose dive into the pool. The driver wasn't seriously injured. The Holiday Inn Express is now waiting for a structural engineer to come out and assess the damage. No word when the pool will reopen.

OLYMPIA — Gun rights supporters rallied on steps of the Washington Capitol on Thursday, admitting they were caught off guard by Initiative 594 while vowing to change and repeal the voter-passed initiative on gun background checks. One legislator, Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, urged outright disobedience of the law, which requires criminal background checks for those purchasing firearms at gun shows and on-line. “We will not comply: We will ask our sheriffs and prosecutors not to comply as well,” said Shea. Shea was a visitor last year to the compound of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who has refused to pay...

A top U.S. cardinal at the Vatican, recently demoted by Pope Francis, has decried what he calls a “feminized” Catholic Church and blames altar girls serving at Mass in part for its inability to recruit more priests. “Young boys don’t want to do things with girls. It’s just natural: I think that has contributed to a loss of priestly vocations,” Cardinal Raymond Burke said in an interview. “It requires a certain manly discipline to serve as an altar boy in service at the side of priests, and most priests have their first deep experience with liturgy as altar boys,” Burke...

The owner of a Richland flower shop being sued over her refusal to provide services for a same-sex wedding can face claims in her personal capacity, a Benton County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. Barronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers are being sued by the state Attorney General’s office and a same-sex couple. Stutzman, a Christian, declined to provide services for the couple’s wedding because of her religious beliefs. Her attorneys argued the claims against her personally should be dropped, describing them as unprecedented and unjust. Attorneys for the state and the couple argued Stutzman can be held personally liable...

(They have slightly changed the title in the online edition to: "Avian flu found in second Benton County backyard flock") Veterinarians covered in white protective gear herded hundreds of chickens, ducks and other birds into blue trash-can sized barrels Tuesday in rural Richland. The vets picked up most of the birds and carefully placed them into the carbon dioxide-filled cans to kill them. State and federal employees had to use nets to capture some of the poultry and waterfowl, which had been exposed to a highly contagious strain of avian influenza. It’s deadly to birds, but humans can’t catch it....

This is a .pdf format document. Full Title: Reversing the Medicaid Fee Bump: How Much Could Medicaid Fees For Primary Care Fall in 2015?

AVENTURA, Fl; Although a growing number of states have approved post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana use, new research shows that the drug may actually worsen symptoms and increase violent behavior. A large observational study of more 2000 participants who were admitted to specialized Veterans Administration treatment programs for PTSD showed that those who never used marijuana had significantly lower symptom severity 4 months later than those who continued or started use after treatment. Veterans who were using marijuana at treatment admission but quit after discharge ("stoppers") also had significantly lower levels of PTSD symptoms...

The earthquake and tsunami that devastated a large part of Japan almost four years ago is still causing trouble, not only for Japan, of course, but also for the Northwest coastline. The biggest threat isn’t radioactive particles from the Fukushima power plant meltdown, though some has recently shown up on this side of the Pacific, but potential invasive species hitching a ride on debris that’s been out in the ocean these few years. Now with seasonal winds shifting around and pushing what tsunami debris is still in the ocean — 5 million tons of debris washed into the water and...

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant said Thursday that even though she spent five hours in jail the previous night, after a protest outside Alaska Airlines headquarters in SeaTac, her push to raise the minimum wage for airport workers to $15 will continue. Speaking from her office, Sawant said “last night’s action was really inspiring for everybody.” “We have to keep up the pressure,” Sawant said. “We’ve seen how big business has been on the offensive against workers rights. We need to defend our victories and fight for $15 an hour for all workers.” Sawant was booked into the South Correctional...

KENNEWICK, WA- Measure 91, approving recreational marijuana use in Oregon, has lawmakers developing rules and regulations. Many wonder if Oregon will adopt similar policies as Washington. Both Liquor Control Boards have set rules for both I-502 in Washington and Measure 91 in Oregon that will take effect on July 1st of next year, but there are a few big differences between the states. NBC Right Now spoke with both boards Tuesday to simplify the details. In Washington and Oregon you can have up to 1 ounce of usable marijuana in your possession. In Oregon you can have up to 8...

Almost no one will dispute that when a baby is born, breast milk is the best nutrition a mother can provide. All mammals nurse their young, and breast milk benefits a newborn infant in ways above and beyond nutrition. ... More and more evidence is surfacing, however, that milk consumption may not only be unhelpful, it might also be detrimental. ... But if you believe the advertising of the dairy industry, and the recommendations of many scientific bodies, they are missing out on some fantastic benefits to milk consumption: that milk is good for bones, contains calcium and vitamin D,...

PROSSER, WA- Fireweed Farm made history Saturday after they hosted the first marijuana auction in the state. Nearly 500 pounds of marijuana were auctioned off Saturday to approved producers, retailers, and processors. Those bidders came from all over to get in on the marijuana action. There is a first time for everything, and many did not know what to expect. “I expected nothing to be quite honest with you and everything at the same time,” said Jack Ron, marijuana grower. Nearly 100 producers, processors, and retailers from Spokane, Vancouver, Bellingham, and other areas around the state, bid on marijuana from...

The ward boy fractures his arm, while his colleague sustains serious injuries, including a punctured urinary bladder and severe internal bleeding. Two employees of the Tata Memorial Hospital's treatment and research centre in Khargar in Navi Mumbai suffered grievous injuries on Saturday evening when one of them walked into the centre's MRI room holding an oxygen cylinder, activating the machine's monstrous magnetic field. The two employees - one a technician and the other a ward boy - were pulled to the machine like a toy magnet pulls a pin and remained stuck to it for nearly four hours before an...

Is the Affordable Care Act Working? After a year fully in place, the Affordable Care Act has largely succeeded in delivering on President Obama’s main promises, an analysis by a team of reporters and data researchers shows. But it has also fallen short in some ways and given rise to a powerful conservative backlash.

Bulb shines brightest right before it goes...poof!

Twenty-five minutes after Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, two air ambulances hovered near the campus, prepared to transport the critically wounded to the region’s highest-rated trauma hospital. After the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting, an empty Airlift NW helicopter leaves Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett at 12:30 p.m. But at 1:35 p.m. the crew was called back to transport one of the victims to Harborview. Firefighters, medics and hospital staff move one of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School shooting victims from an ambulance into Everett’s Providence Regional Medical Center on Friday. Twenty-five minutes after Friday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School,...

PORTLAND — The National Weather Service says dangerous sneaker waves are possible this weekend on the coast of Oregon and Southwest Washington. Waves as high as 18 feet could unexpectedly reach farther up the beach than expected or knock people off jetties and rocks. The weather service says people at the beach shouldn’t turn their back on the surf. end nothing follows 0 Comments | More in General news, Weather Beat | Topics: National Weather Service, Oregon, sneaker waves