Local Digest
Food service to return to Vashon Island ferry

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A Vashon Island restaurant, Sound Foods, will provide food service through June 15 as part of a pilot project. It is the first onboard food service to resume since Sodexho ended its concessions contract last year.

Ferry food will include a variety of sandwiches, soups and salads, as well as hot dogs, popcorn and pastries, Sound Foods co-owner Bill Dorn said. Drinks will likely include Washington wines.

Nader rally today to draw protesters

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader will hold a campaign rally today at Seattle Center.

An anti-Nader group has announced plans to protest his visit. Some Democrats blame Nader for siphoning off votes from Al Gore in 2000, costing him the election.

The Nader rally is at 1 p.m. at Seattle Center's Rainier Room, in the northwest corner of Seattle Center, near First Avenue North and West Republican Street. Nader also is to sign copies of his book, "Crashing the Party."

Natural-gas pipeline in Alaska advances

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fiscal incentives for an Alaska natural-gas pipeline — including expedited permit approval and loan guarantees worth up to $18 billion — were tucked into a 2005 military-construction-funding bill the U.S. House approved yesterday.

The legislation goes to the Senate as early as today.

Autistic boy's parents win $3.7 million in suit
 
YAKIMA — Jurors have awarded $3.7 million to the parents of a 6-year-old autistic boy who drowned in a canal.

The verdict Thursday capped a trial that exposed institutional shortcomings in the way staff members at Sunnyside's Washington Elementary responded to Joshua Hui's escape from a special-education classroom Sept. 11, 2001.

By a vote of 9-2, the minimum for a verdict in favor of the parents, John and Fen Hui, the jury ruled that school officials waited too long — perhaps as long as 45 minutes — to notify police that Joshua could not be found. His body was spotted about 90 minutes later in an irrigation canal.

TV station to pull charter schools ads

A television station has said it will pull advertisements sponsored by supporters of charter schools following a complaint by the League of Women Voters.

The League complained to KCPQ-TV because the ad cited a dropout rate of 30 percent, without explaining it covers four years. The League said the one-year dropout rate is 6.7 percent. It also criticized the ads for citing a "minority" dropout rate of 50 percent, because that figure excludes Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Approve Referendum 55 campaign, however, said it stands by its figures and accused the League, which opposes charter schools, of trying to hide the truth. A yes vote on R-55 would uphold a state law allowing charter schools, while a no vote would repeal it.

Times staff and news services