Port Gamble, Kitsap County

Cleanup efforts were halted yesterday on a fuel spill on Puget Sound near Port Gamble Bay, but Coast Guard investigators continued looking for clues to why a tugboat sank there.

Between 100 and 200 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the sunken boat Monday, sending a slick across Hood Canal and forcing a temporary closure of nearby shellfish beds.

The state Department of Health yesterday said the leak didn't pose a problem for shellfish, and reopened areas to oyster and geoduck clam harvesting.

Private contractors plugged the tugboat's fuel tank to prevent a further spill, and work is under way to pump remaining fuel out of the boat, said state Department of Ecology spokeswoman Caitlin Cormier.

Seattle

Sims' primary foe supports Irons

Karen Rispoli, who won 20 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary for King County executive, isn't backing the party's nominee, incumbent Ron Sims.

Rispoli, a life and leadership coach from Seattle, yesterday threw her support to Republican nominee David Irons, a county councilman for six years. "I'm an active, lifelong Democrat. But I ran against Ron Sims because I could not in good conscience support him," she said in a news release issued by the Irons campaign.

Irons, Sims and Green Party candidate Gentry Lange will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

GOP challenges more registrations

The King County Republican Party yesterday challenged the registrations of 1,850 voters who party officials say are registered twice.

Added to the first challenges submitted Monday, yesterday's submission brings the total number of voters under scrutiny to 2,600. Lori Soleto, head of the Republican effort to clean up the voter rolls, said she expects to challenge more alleged double registrations in the coming week.

King County Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said officials are consulting with the county prosecutor's office on how to review the registrations and remove duplicates.

The Republican Party claims officials have left elections vulnerable to voter fraud by failing to find thousands of duplicate registrations.

Mukilteo

School bus hits Mariner student

A student from Mariner High School in Mukilteo was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after she was hit by a school bus on her way to school yesterday morning.

The 17-year-old girl was crossing the street in a crosswalk on her bike in front of Voyager Middle School at 7 a.m. when a school bus trying to make a turn hit her, said Rich Niebusch, spokesman for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.

The bus, full of students, was on its way to Mariner High School. It had stopped in the Voyager parking lot to conduct an emergency-evacuation drill, Mukilteo School District spokesman Andrew Muntz said in a news release.

It appeared the girl had broken both legs, Niebusch said. Her name was not released.

The driver of the bus was interviewed by sheriff's deputies, and the district placed him on administrative leave, according to the release.

King County

Absentee ballots to be sent this week

Most absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 election will be mailed out this week, and voters have until Election Day to turn them in.

Registered voters can request an absentee ballot at www.metrokc.gov/elections or 206-296-8683 until Nov. 2. They have until Nov. 7 to request a ballot in person at the King County elections office at 500 Fourth Ave. in Seattle.

Monday is the last day to register to vote in the election, and voters must register in person.

Election officials will be on hand Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the county elections office in Seattle, and from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday on the second level of Bellevue Square, next to the Aveda cosmetics store, to help people register.

Mountlake Terrace

Councilwoman rejects call to quit

Mountlake Terrace City Councilwoman Angela Amundson has refused a council request that she resign.

The council voted 5-2 Monday, with Amundson and Doug Wittinger opposed, to ask Mayor Jerry Smith to request her resignation. Smith then asked; she declined.

Three residents had just complained about Amundson to the council.

Two of them accused Amundson of ripping up a campaign sign belonging to Michael Jones, her opponent in the Nov. 8 election.

However, photographs given to the council by resident Harold Ketzenbarger show an undamaged Jones sign on the ground surrounded by pieces of a shredded Amundson sign.

Ketzenbarger filed a police report Oct. 10 concerning the alleged Sept. 17 incident. Amundson yesterday called the allegation "sabotage" on the part of her political enemies and accused her council foes of "showboating."

Edmonds police are handling the investigation to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Times staff and news services