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A Clark County judge today dismissed all charges against a Vancouver homeowner who shot and killed an alleged car prowler in January 2013. Superior Court Judge Dan Stahnke dismissed a second-degree murder charge against Sean H. Doucette at the request of prosecutors. “This has had a very damaging impact on his life,” Doucette’s attorney, Steven Thayer, said Wednesday. “He had to go to considerable expense to defend himself and to redeem himself, and essentially, he had to prove his innocence, which he has done.” Doucette shot and killed Iosif Dumitrash, 19, of Portland just before 4 a.m. Jan. 29, 2013,...

LAKE STEVENS — Police said two masked, armed men allegedly entered a garage of a home in the Lake Stevens area, confronted the homeowner and his friend there and allegedly attempted to rob them. But the friend was able to pull a gun out of his car and opened fire, hitting one of the suspects and prompting the other one to flee, police said. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting took place at a home in the 7000 block of 126th Drive NE. “It is believed that two men, the homeowner and a male acquaintance, were in the...

Clark County, Washington, is strongly considering joining the group of local governments that have reformed their work rules to allow employees to exercise their second amendment rights.  Many states do not restrict citizens from exercising their rights to bear arms in public buildings, so it makes little sense to restrict employees from being able to carry as well.  From the Columbian: Commissioners Tom Mielke and David Madore on Wednesday requested that Chris Horne, the county's chief civil deputy prosecutor, investigate what revisions could be made to the county's workplace violence policy to allow employees to carry concealed firearms. Commissioner...

While maybe a half-million people will line Seattle’s streets today celebrating the Seahawks Super Bowl win, a “webinar” offered by the Progressive Majority Action Fund will provide tips to gun control proponents, including those in the Pacific Northwest, on how to push their anti-gun agenda. The 90-minute webinar – an online seminar – begins at noon Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern. It is being described as “a lively and interactive discussion about how to argue for gun legislation” led by Bernie Horn, “one of the lead lobbyists for the passage of the Brady Law and the federal ban on assault weapons.”The Progressive...

There were naked photographs in the bathtub, sexual text messages and furtive kisses exchanged during a Lincoln High School assembly. Those are among the accusations leveled against Meredith Powell, a 24-year-old math teacher who pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes for alleged inappropriate conduct with three students.

When former Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords appears today in Olympia to testify in favor of Initiative 594, the 18-page gun control measure being sold as a “universal background check” requirement, only one question should be respectfully asked: How would adoption of this measure have prevented the kind of thing that happened in Tucson in January 2011? That's the incident in which Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman who killed six people and wounded 12 others, including the former congresswoman. She will be accompanied today by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly.The question is a fair one. There...

It happened around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night at a home in the 6900 block of Puget Beach Rd. NE, near Olympia. Thurston County sheriff’s deputies say a couple arrived home to find a male burglar in their house. A confrontation ensued and the homeowner shot the suspect in the leg.

Tears stained Elena Calderon’s cheeks Thursday as she stepped up to speak at Eastern Washington University during a student-organized rally in support of immigrants’ right to compete for state financial aid. “I’m an undocumented student,” the emotional 23-year-old said. “It’s hard to come out and say that. I’m always afraid I’m putting myself and my family at risk.” The graduate student, grateful for the opportunity to pursue the American dream, spoke to nearly 100 Eastern Washington University students, faculty and community leaders to encourage state lawmakers to pass the DREAM Act, which despite sharing a name with federal legislation only...

The Seattle Times is running a poll about two initiatives that will be on the ballot in the next Washington State election.  Instead of two questions that the voters will face, the poll asks three, summed up thus: Do you think background checks should apply to: All gun sales, as proposed in I-594Only for sales by licensed dealers, as proposed in I-591No one. Americans have a right to bear arms. Period.  It is very interesting that it is the third option that is  currently getting more than half the votes: 610 votes, 50.88 percent. The first option, essentially for ending...

Billy Willingham, 51, reportedly called 9-1-1 and said he had just shot someone in the leg. When law enforcement arrived at the scene, they located a 41-year-old man lying on the ground with a single gunshot wound to his leg. (snip) The victim refused to leave despite being told to leave, Willingham said. He reportedly told the victim "he better leave or he would shoot him." The victim reportedly again refused to leave and Willingham shot him one time.

Oaks/Valley Forge, PA – Jewel, a dominant American Foxhound on the dog show circuit all year, won The National Dog Show Presented by Purina during the annual Kennel Club of Philadelphia cluster at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. GCH Kiarry’s Pandora’s Box (aka Jewel) was selected by Best in Show Judge Randy E. Garren from among the seven canines emerging from the judging of over 1,500 dogs at the tradition-rich, all-breed show. The three year-old bitch is also the first winner in the 12-year history of The National Dog Show to come from the Hound Group. Every other group has...

The clerk recognized that the gun the suspects were using was a fake, so he reached down and brought his own gun up, telling the would be robbers that his gun was “bigger”. The suspects ran out of the store, and quickly left in their getaway car.

The long-standing, and wholly illegal, ban on guns in Seattle’s public libraries comes to an end next week, according to Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat, who reports today that the rule change was a long time coming, more than a year after a Second Amendment Foundation legal victory defending state preemption was allowed to stand by the State Supreme Court. This policy change is as late as an overdue book, and Times readers are having some fun with it.In recognition of this announcement, SAF and this column will donate an autographed copy of Washington Times Senior Editor Emily Miller’s recently-released...

NEAR GIG HARBOR, Wash. — Detectives say a homeowner shot an intruder in the back as the man entered his house near Gig Harbor. The shooting happened in the 5700 block of Ray Nash Dr. Northwest around 5 p.m. on Thursday. The homeowner told investigators he confronted a man in his driveway and told him to leave. The man didn’t respond. Instead, he kept walking toward the house. The man’s wife and children were inside the house. Police say the man kept going and went in the front door; the homeowner fired one shot and hit the man in the...

It's called the largest single experiment in getting kids more active in Snohomish County. The Gear Up & Go program involves handing out nearly 7,000 watch-sized electronic devices to fifth-graders at 15 school districts throughout the county. The devices will measure the activity levels of participating students throughout the school year. --SNIP-- Students can check in on their progress at computers programmed to keep a running tab on their activity. --SNIP-- The information gathered in the project will allow data to be collected and mapped in a number of ways. --SNIP-- Other information will be overlaid on the maps, such...

A sculpture in memory of Olympia activist Rachel Corrie will be dedicated Wednesday in the Activities Building at The Evergreen State College. The Olympian reports ( http://bit.ly/16sYebN ) the bronze and steel representation of a dove on the tip of a pyramid is called "Reflecting on Peace and Justice." Corrie was killed in 2003 in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli military bulldozer as she attempted to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home.

Enrollments in health care plans through Washington state's new health care exchange continue to increase, but it turns out a majority of the enrollees so far won't be paying for their plans. "The Medicaid newly eligible population accounts for a little more than half of the 25,000 that we've seen," Michael Marchand, with the new Washington Health Care Exchange, tells KIRO Radio's Dave Ross. A Medicaid expansion under Obamacare raised the income threshold for those eligible. "So that's the new population that's part of the expansion that the state undertook," says Marchand. "It's quite possible that those people may have...

Politicians are trading rhetoric and needy mothers are frightened by the prospect of a continuing shutdown of the federal government that threatens the funding for a crucial nutrition program. "This federal shutdown lends itself to hyperbole, but this is no exaggeration, they are literally taking the food out of babies' mouths," says King County Executive Dow Constantine. Constantine stood with a nursing mother of three children at a White Center health clinic to call on Congress to end the shutdown. Crystal Reugger's husband is on furlough and the family depends on the federally-funded nutrition program known as WIC. But WIC...

Three black soldiers arrested for stabbing white comrade to death 'called him a cracker' - so why are police now so sure it was NOT a hate crime? Police today said the stabbing death of a white Army soldier allegedly at the hands of a group of African American comrades was not a hate crime - despite witnesses claiming they called him a 'cracker' during the confrontation. Tevin Geike, 20, was left for dead in a parking lot near his base in Lakewood, Washington, in the early hours of Saturday morning and three soldiers have been arrested over the killing....

Olympia, Wash - The new gun control group, Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility (WAGR) has delivered the first batch of signatures to Olympia on October 4th, 2013. While the number of signatures being delivered were not released, Washington State required 246,372 signatures for a measure to be put on the ballot. The group has until January 3rd 2014 to gather signatures. If the signatures are gathered by that time there are three different things that can happen with the initiative. It can go to the legislature for a vote, and if passed become law. The legislature can opt not to...