You're watching K&DO Channel 23 Yakima and this is K&DO News 23 Late Edition.
Good evening, I'm Mark Johnson.
Thanks for joining us.
After more than seven hours of testimony and debate, the Yakima City Council decided not
to decide on the White Hollow annexation issue, at least for another three weeks.
Today's City Council meeting was held at the Capitol Theater to help accommodate the large
crowd.
Last week's Council decision to reduce the West Valley annexation area, now known as
White Hollow, upset many West Valley residents because the action would delay the West Valley
incorporation process.
The City claims they have the right to use outside utility agreements for the annexation,
but residents in the area say they don't want the proposed issue and they want to be able
to vote on it.
Now, if you want to go through with your annexation program, that's not what I'm ejecting to,
but I'm ejecting to doing it in a way that you've set forth to do it during the last
two weeks.
It's a sham deal.
It's a deal to stop the people from having a right to a padlock since before the outside
utility agreements ever existed.
This is a right that the people of the state of Washington had for decades.
If passed, the annexation would make petitions for the proposed new city of West Valley null
and void because of changes in the boundary line.
After lengthy discussion and a brief executive session, the council voted to extend today's
hearing for three weeks.
They also agreed not to file the outside utility agreements as long as the West Valley residents
hold off on putting the West Valley incorporation on the ballot or from forming a sewer district.
The council asked the residents to appoint a representative that will meet with the city
and possibly a moderator.
West Valley representatives say they'll meet tomorrow night to decide on their next plan
of action.
A decision today in the relocation of the Union Gospel Mission, late this afternoon,
hearing examiner Phil Lamb approved the mission's application to relocate to North 1st Street.
His appeal decision isn't final though, and appeal can still be made to the Yakima City
Council.
Well, the murder trial accusing a local woman of killing and dismembering her mother was
delayed today.
In Superior Court this morning, accused murderer Christine Varnes was given a new trial date.
The trial was originally scheduled for November 16th.
In order to give attorneys more time to prepare, it will now begin February 8th.
Varnes is accused of drowning her mother in a bathtub, cutting her into pieces, and then
hiding her in a storage locker.
The man accused of stabbing a 12-year-old girl because she had no money was formally
charged today.
In Superior Court this morning, Carl Streeter was charged with first-degree assault of a
child and first-degree robbery.
Streeter is accused of stabbing the Grandview girl after discovering she had no money in
her purse.
The young girl is recovering at home after surgery to repair a damaged testin.
Streeter's trial date is set for December 7th.
Child killer Wesley Ann Dodds.
Alan Dodds' lawyer is asking for an execution date.
They told the Supreme Court yesterday they will not seek reconsideration of the October
8th ruling.
The Supreme Court says Dodd can now bypass the appeal system to await his execution.
Dodd was sentenced to the death penalty two years ago for killing three boys in the Vancouver
area.
Two county commissioner candidates faced off today in a local issue such as annexation,
small business, and education.
The District 1 candidates told the Rotary Club that the power of the commissioners is
limited.
They do say that with the help of the community, a lot can be accomplished.
Republican Jim Lewis says that Yakima is third in the state in annexation.
He adds that growth is a positive thing as long as it has direction.
Rep.
John H. R. Rafferty, Jr.
of the Department of Public and Social Education needs some attention.
He says business and education leaders need to work on children's best interest.
The audience responded with just two questions about local employment figures.
Both candidates say they want to work with public, private business sectors and to make
our unemployment rate the lowest in the state.
I look at growth management as the ability of local entities to protect that rural lifestyle
and to protect private property rights.
If that's not what growth management is all about, then it needs to be changed.
Republican candidates pledged their support to small businesses owners today at the Yakima
Airport.
Fourth congressional candidate, Doc Hastings, and Senate hopeful Rod Chandler, spoke of
their experiences as small business owners.
Chandler shook hands with business owners before announcing the results of a new poll,
which shows him only two percentage points behind Patty Murray.
And Congressman Sid Morrison made a brief appearance at the same luncheon.
The former gubernatorial candidate has endorsed both Hastings and Chandler for Congress.
Morrison told the group of small business owners they should vote for Republican candidates
because they have more pro-business attitude than Democrats do.
Well, we're certainly in the home stretch of the political campaign season, which means
you can expect a flood of political TV ads in the next two weeks.
Negative ads mostly.
KNDO's Jeff Tyree reports on their effectiveness.
For an average of $80 or as much as $300 in prime time, many politicians will spend their
precious 30 seconds telling us why we shouldn't vote for their opponent.
My opponent, Rod Chandler, passed just one bill during 10 years in Congress.
Patty Murray on jobs?
Risky.
Well, here's the true record of Doc Hastings' votes to increase our taxes.
He voted to increase our taxes.
Tired of all the squabbling?
The name calling, like, he's a taxer?
No, he's a taxer.
Or, she's not for jobs.
But I am.
Hankins missed hundreds of votes.
Endure them.
The ads will keep on coming.
And you may as well respect them, says one professor of politics, Gary Bullert.
He says negative TV ads serve a legitimate purpose.
In every race, character and trustworthiness and integrity are important questions to ask.
And you really judge them based upon their performance in office, primarily.
The reason why character comes into play is that we don't know what issues are going to
be three or four years from now.
We look at a person based upon their past performance and say, could this individual
be trusted with power?
The negative TV campaign ads can raise some good issues for voters.
The danger here is if they cross the line.
And that means by spreading untrue or malicious allegations against their opponents.
The good news is Bullert says the politicians who use these kind of smear tactics typically
lose out in the end.
Of course, there are many ads that don't criticize.
And one that promises not to be negative.
He says this while his opponent takes the middle of the road route, the route many politicians
take, not openly criticizing his opponent, but promising not to do what he loosely implies
his opponent has done.
But of course, that's not for me to judge.
Like Bullert says, each voter will have to decide if what they hear is accurate and fair.
All you really need to know is Lane Braid did more for us in two years than his opponent
did in 10.
Whoever said being a voter was easy?
Guess we'll have to put up with a couple more weeks of that sort of thing.
Well, Earth First protesters created a log jam at the Port of Tacoma today.
They were demonstrating against the export of raw timber.
Reporter Jim Foreman has the details.
Some 50 members of the environmental group Earth First scattered themselves throughout
log loading operations here at the Port of Tacoma.
They were able to bring work to a temporary stop.
What Earth First is saying here is that they believe the logs on these trucks shouldn't
be put on ships and sent overseas.
They should be hauled to mills here in the states to give Americans jobs.
If it does have to be done, the jobs need to be here.
But we need to find some better alternatives than just cutting down all these trees.
The protesters climbed this big crane to unfurl their banners and they went aboard this freighter
that is half full with timber and eventually will set to sea bound for Asia.
Just urging them to stay off the logs primarily because we're concerned about their safety.
Authorities took a relaxed posture this morning but were very concerned about safety.
Climbing a ship's ladder carrying a sign isn't the smartest thing.
Neither is playing chicken with a 118 ton log stacker.
According to United Nations figures, Washington leads the world in exporting raw logs.
And while some timber lobbies and the protesters claim exporting logs steals jobs, these long
shoremen say it gives them jobs.
This is a dog-eat-dog rule.
We've got to make money somehow.
I'm not saying cut everything down but I'm also saying that these guys aren't right either.
After several hours the group which had been threatened with arrest decided to leave without
creating any more serious trouble.
Hopefully be able to work things out.
When we come back, Ross Perich previews this week's hometown rivalry between Ike and Davis.
Sand meteorologist Michael Point will have our current weather conditions and our extended
weather forecast.
Team K&DO News 23, a complete wrap-up of the area's news, weather and sports.
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Michael Appoint's weathercast has been approved by the American Meteorological Society.
Well, we had sort of a gloomy day outside.
Hope you didn't have to break out your umbrella too soon.
We'll hopefully check in with Michael Appoint and see what's going on in the weather forecast
for tomorrow.
Mike?
Well Mark, so far we've picked up about 12 one hundredths of an inch of rain.
The rain is kind of falling off and on.
So you can see right now if you look outside some of the rain is falling and some of it's
not.
It's just hard to tell.
Here's a view from outside and puts the current conditions over top.
And we have mostly cloudy skies right now.
Right now we're also seeing some scattered showers.
It may be raining at your house right now, but it won't be later because we have a system
moving through.
The percentage of relative humidity with a 54 degree temperature.
Our winds are from the southeast at six miles an hour.
Our pressure is holding steady.
The high temperature today is 62 after a morning low of 40 degrees.
Well, look at the satellite picture.
There's a big cold front moving through the area.
Not bringing a lot of cold air with it, but there's enough moisture for that cold front
to activate some rain showers over the central part of the state.
And it's all moving to the northeast as you can see with the clouds.
And they're all moving at a good pace right now, about 30 miles an hour.
And behind these clouds out over the ocean, we have clear skies.
And that means by tomorrow afternoon, we should see mostly sunny skies.
Temperature's a little bit cooler in the 60s rather than in the 70s.
Our regional radar will show you where the rain is falling.
Little heavier amounts just to the south and east of us.
But this is all moving off more to the east than it is to the northeast.
And about 15 miles an hour.
So people, let's say in the Tri-Cities out toward Walla Walla, can be expecting some
rain showers later on in the evening.
But all in all, I think we'll see some showers on and off I think before much of midnight
hour.
But by tomorrow morning, we should have partly cloudy skies and things should be fairly dry
here around the city.
Temperatures, well, we're at 54 degrees, 52 up in Wenatchee.
Kind of mild out over the Tri-Cities, 62 degrees.
Already down to 49 in Spokane, 10 degrees warmer in Walla Walla and Pendleton, 57 from
Seattle.
And Portland has partly cloudy skies at the temperature reading of 58 degrees.
Now, by tomorrow, you'll see that this weather system will be making its way over the northern
rocky.
So it looks like Montana will see some rain down through portions of Idaho and northwestern
Wyoming.
We'll see all the rain activity that we're seeing right now.
That big area of high pressure out over the coast, that's what's going to move into our
area as we go toward tomorrow and definitely on Thursday.
So it looks like it'll be very nice with sunny skies and high pressure right overhead.
Our winds shouldn't be a real problem.
Meanwhile, it should be very hot for the people in the central plains with high pressure dominating
down in the southwest.
High pressure will also associate with a little dome.
So they're going to be seeing a little heat wave with temperatures in the 80s and maybe
even the 90s down in Texas.
So that'll be an Indian summer for them because if you remember last week, they had their
first frost and that's what will equal your Indian summer.
High pressure out over the lake, so things shouldn't be too bad for the folks up there.
All in all, I think our day tomorrow will be not too bad.
Here's a forecast.
A few rain showers lingering on.
Otherwise, it'll be mostly cloudy.
42 degrees, four and overnight low, about 44 in Ellensburg, 43 in the lower valley.
Our winds will be light.
Tomorrow we'll have partly cloudy skies and 65 degrees for a high, about 59 in Ellensburg,
65 in the lower valley.
Our winds once again will be very light.
And looking at the next few days for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, mostly sunny skies as
high pressure begins to build in.
65 degrees on Thursday, sunny skies on Friday, 75 and then on Saturday, mostly sunny and
74 degrees.
Looks like if we see any more rain tonight, Mark, it'll just be on and off and very light
and form.
We'll be up a few more tenths of an inch.
But all in all, by tomorrow morning, everything should be dry here in our area.
Now back to you.
Thanks, Mike.
Sounds like a pretty good idea.
Keep the high pressure coming if you can.
When we return, a look at a growing problem here in the valley.
Not enough room for what we want to throw away.
And the use of gas alternatives is on its way here in the Northwest.
We'll show you what you'll be feeding your car.
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Tonight on Jay's show, Goldie Hawn is in attendance, Michael Schickless is in attendance and BD and
Cici Weinitzer in attendance.
A simple here will suffice.
And on Dave's show, it's Miller time with Dennis Miller and Penelope Ann Miller plus
a lesson in craft.
If you have stuff you want to send us, please know COD.
Well a proposal for a state income tax that would provide healthcare for everyone is approved
today.
The Washington Healthcare Commission proposal calls for a flat rate income tax of less than
1%.
The commission's director says if the public won't accept the tax, the panel would then
recommend imposing a sales tax on services.
The goal of the tax is to cover all uninsured people within the next five years.
Well recycling has become a very important part of our protecting our environment and
as we head into the next century, it will be even more important.
That's because our landfills are filling up and running out of room.
King Indio's Rocker Retuccio reports the Yakima City and County officials are trying to plan
ahead.
One ton of garbage, that's how much each person in Yakima County produces every year.
Most of it goes here to the Terrace Heights landfill.
We figure right now that this landfill is good for maybe another 15 years or so and
then it's going to be completely filled up.
That means we'll soon need a new landfill, but opening another dump isn't always easy
to do.
Instead, county officials are looking at other ways to solve our garbage problem.
You're talking about possibly curbside recycling come in, you're talking about some yard waste
collection programs that's going to take effect, you're going to look at some home composting
incentives to encourage people to do that.
City and county officials say we can solve our garbage problem by cutting down the amount
of trash that goes to the dump.
That means recycling and waste reduction.
We can eliminate things such as aluminum, newspaper, glass, at least clear glass.