Local coverage you can count on. This is local news at 11 on Cap ABC, where the forecast comes first.
Still quite a few flurries across the northwest tonight, especially around Ellensburg. Take a look at the digital Dolphinet picture.
You'll see they're fairly scattered and fairly light, but it's going to continue into tomorrow.
Mostly cloudy skies, scattered snow, or sleet showers are likely, with temperatures in the 40s.
And boy, I'll have a cold forecast for you in just a bit. Deb?
All right. Thank you, Corina. And thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Deb Nelson.
Tonight's top story, a police chase in Grandview turns deadly.
Grandview police and Benton County deputies were following Gerardo Martinez for an alleged hit-and-run just before 11 o'clock last night.
Police were chasing Martinez down Wine Country Road when Martinez left the roadway and hit a power pole.
The car rolled back onto the road and then hit a Grandview police car.
Martinez was not wearing a seatbelt and he died at the scene. The Grandview police officer was not injured.
The Washington State Patrol is investigating the accident tonight.
In top stories northwest, a Seattle father is behind bars tonight after his young daughter was found dead.
The girl, age 11 or 12, was found shot to death in a home in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Police found the father wandering barefoot in nearby Interlochen Park.
Detectives say they have no motive, but they are treating it like a homicide and not an accident.
The FBI says it's got some good leads in the whereabouts of two missing Oregon city girls.
Agents have talked to people who knew and did not know 13-year-old Miranda Gaddis and 12-year-old Ashley Pond.
Miranda vanished March 8th while on her way to a school bus stop.
Her friend Ashley Pond, who lived just a few doors away, disappeared in January while on the same way to the same bus stop.
The FBI thinks the same person abducted both girls.
Now that the legislature is done with their work, construction crews can start theirs.
The 74-year-old State Capitol building will close for two and a half years while it gets a facelift.
The reconstruction will cost $91 million.
90% of the costs will come from trust funds raised by selling state timber.
In more local news tonight, the League of Women Voters in Benton and Franklin Counties debated the issue
of changing county government to a charter system.
In a charter system, county residents are elected to write a new structure of county government.
That charter is then voted on by residents.
Former Benton County Commissioner Sandy Strawn says the county is growing and the government should change with it.
Changes could include adding county commissioners or another administrative layer.
Valora Loveland says constituents want more efficient, less expensive, and more responsive governments.
Whatever the outcome, both sides say that if the benefit is a discussion,
if it stimulates more interest and participation in county government.
The Tri-County Partners of Habitat for Humanity are set to build three more houses in April,
and they're looking for some volunteers.
Habitat builds homes for poor families living in severely substandard housing.
This trailer, rather, is used to house a family of six until Habitat volunteers built a brand new home last year.
Volunteer coordinator Misha Willis says the trailer shows people how valuable volunteers are.
Whether it be on the construction site, on different committees, family selection, family partnering,
all the way down to where people who like to cook, and so they bring lunches to our volunteers.
So all sorts of different things they can do.
And if you'd like to help, just give the Habitat for Humanity office in your area a call.
In Top Stories USA and Avalanche in Utah buries two skiers.
It happened near the Brighton Ski Resort.
The bodies were dug out of the snow late this afternoon.
The two were part of a group of eight people skiing and snowboarding on an un-groomed area of the mountain.
No one in the group wore avalanche beacons, but one did have a cell phone and called 911.
In the skies above the Pacific Ocean, another successful test for the missile defense probe system.
A dummy warhead was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The interceptor rocket was launched from a small island in the Pacific.
The Pentagon says the rocket smashed into the dummy warhead 140 miles over the Pacific just like it was supposed to.
This is the sixth and fourth successful test of the anti-missile defense program.
Bagpipers played God bless America as participants and spectators at New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade
remembered the victims of September 11th.
The parade carried special significance in a city that lost scores of Irish-American firefighters,
police officers, port authority employees, and financial professionals.
Among those in attendance, President Bush.
In Top Stories World, a ceasefire in the Middle East could be on the horizon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will meet with Palestinian leaders tomorrow,
and they are expected to declare a ceasefire.
The surprise announcement came after U.S. Envoy Anthony Zini met with Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today.
The move would stop nearly 18 months of violent fighting. Hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis have been killed.
They could call for a ceasefire, but who knows if it will work.
Tonight there's heavy fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.
This is in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Early reports say that the Israeli forces were attempting to shell sniper positions in the city.
And in Afghanistan, eight U.S. soldiers are awarded the Purple Heart.
The medal is given to soldiers who are wounded in battle.
The eight servicemen were hurt during Operation Anaconda.
The biggest ground battle of the Afghan war began on March 2,
nearly on top of an al-Qaeda stronghold in the eastern Afghan mountains.
Twenty-eight of the 86 American soldiers were hurt, but thankfully none killed.
Coalition forces continue to go cave by cave in search of enemy holdouts.
Our region's asparagus farmers may have a late crop, we'll tell you why.
And hundreds of kids visited a popular playground, but they didn't come to play.
I'll explain when we come back. This is local coverage you can count on.
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