Local Digest
Woman identified as victim of fire

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Nathan Trauernicht, a spokesman with the Marysville Fire District, said Havlick and her husband had escaped the fire at their Lake Ki home. But when firefighters arrived at 3:36 a.m., Havlick had gone back inside.

Neither Havlick nor her dog survived the fire.

Brenda Larsen of the Snohomish County Fire Marshal's Office said investigators believe an electrical problem under the deck of the manufactured home started the blaze.

Everett

FBI will assist probe of grocery-store arson

The FBI will help Everett police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigate the arson Friday that destroyed a Pakistani-owned grocery store.

Everett police said they had not determined whether the fire was a hate crime. However, FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said yesterday agents are usually brought in to help other agencies when it appears that a crime may be "based on race or religious orientation."

Firefighters found an obscenity directed toward Arabs on a wall and a large white cross spray-painted on a refrigerator in the back of the Continental Spices Cash & Carry, 315 E. Casino Road.

Firefighters also found a gas can inside the store. An assistant fire marshal said the store — which specializes in Pakistani, Indian and Middle Eastern groceries — sustained about $50,000 worth of damage.

Samia El-Moslimany, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Seattle, said she has asked the FBI to investigate the fire as a possible hate crime.
 
Cle Elum, Kittitas County

Car goes over cliff, killing newlyweds

A newlywed couple died on their honeymoon after their vehicle plummeted 300 feet over a cliff into the Cle Elum River in Central Washington.

Zack West, 22, and Adrienne West, 23, were camping near the Salmon la Sac and Fish Lake campgrounds when their car rolled off a cliff along a U.S. Forest Service road while they were turning around, said Kittitas County Undersheriff Clay Myers.

Friends following the couple went to a nearby ranger station and called for help shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday.

Lt. Anne Leanos, spokeswoman for the Navy's Northwest region in Seattle, could not confirm that West was in the Navy or give his hometown, but said a 3rd class petty officer attached to the USS Emory S. Land had died in a car crash July 11.

Seattle

Sebastian Burns seeks new attorney and trial

Convicted triple murderer Sebastian Burns is expected to claim at a hearing today that he didn't have good legal defense in his murder trial and is expected to ask for a new attorney.

The hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge Charles Mertel, who presided over the six-month trial of Burns and his co-defendant Atif Rafay. Rafay and Burns were both convicted of three counts of aggravated first-degree murder in May for the bludgeoning deaths of Rafay's parents and sister in their Bellevue home 10 years ago.

The court document in which Burns requested new attorneys was sealed yesterday, and Burns' defense attorneys throughout the trial, Jeffrey Robinson and Song Richardson, could not be reached for comment.

Seattle

Council votes to put family levy on ballot

The City Council unanimously voted yesterday to put a $116 million Families and Education levy on the Sept. 14 ballot. The levy had been recommended last week by the council, meeting as the committee of the whole.

The levy request is $13 million more than Mayor Greg Nickels' recommendation of $103 million, which was $34 million higher than the current levy. If approved, the levy will cost the average property owner about $65 a year.

Seattle

Local NAACP wins national honor

The Seattle-King County branch of the NAACP has been singled out for its voter-mobilization and other community efforts by the national civil-rights organization. Group officials, meeting this week at the organization's annual convention in Philadelphia, will present the 2004 Thalheimer Award to Seattle branch representatives.

The award, which salutes the country's most outstanding branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is the first such honor for the Seattle organization.

Seattle Times staff and news services