Council seeks ban on transgender bias

Seattle

Five members of the King County Council introduced legislation Thursday that would ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

The ordinance sponsored by all five members of the council's Democratic majority matches language protecting transgendered persons in the gay-rights law passed in January by the Legislature.

Professional initiative sponsor Tim Eyman has filed an initiative that would overturn the state gay-rights law.

The new ordinance would forbid discrimination based on "gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior, or expression," that may or may not be "traditionally associated" with one's sex assigned at birth.

Kent

Man sought in 4 robberies

Police are searching for a man suspected of robbing at least four businesses in Kent and Auburn over the past week.

Kent police say the man used a large, black handgun to rob the Rite Aid Pharmacy on 104th Avenue Southeast in Kent on Saturday, a Shell Station and a Baskin Robbins in Auburn on Sunday and a Bank of America branch on Monday.

Anyone with information can call Kent police, 253-856-5800, or Crime Stoppers, 1-800-274-6313.

Renton

Man electrocuted replacing lines

A 24-year-old man was electrocuted Wednesday night while he and a co-worker were replacing power lines along Rainier Avenue South in Renton.

Anthony Haener of Grangeville, Idaho, and his 41-year-old co-worker were in an underground vault when Haener touched live wires, said Renton fire Lt. Larry Welch. The co-worker suffered burns to his hand, but got a blanket from his truck and used it to lift the younger man out of the vault in the 700 block of Rainier Avenue South, Welch said.

A flagger called 911, but medics were unable to revive Haener.

The 41-year-old man was taken to Valley Medical Center to be treated for burns. The men worked for Potelco, a subcontractor for Puget Sound Energy.

Sedro-Woolley

Worker drowns on Clear Lake/p

A small boat carrying two U.S. Agriculture Department workers and a dog capsized Thursday on Clear Lake and one of the men drowned, the Skagit County Sheriff's Office said.

The 37-year-old victim, from Maryland, was not immediately identified.

A 33-year-old man and the Labrador retriever swam to safety.

The men, assigned to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the dog were in a 10-foot boat when it capsized in high winds.

The sheriff's office said the two men were wearing chest waders but not life jackets.

Los Angeles

Decision expected on trawling ban

Federal fishery regulators are expected to decide next week whether to impose a permanent ban on trawl fishing in nearly 300,000 square miles off the West Coast, a compromise reached by environmentalists and the fishing industry.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which regulates West Coast fishing including Washington, chose a plan in June that would ban bottom trawling in about 80 percent of the federal waters off the Pacific Coast, including the deep ocean below about 4,200 feet.

The practice also would be banned in dozens of shallower areas believed to be critical habitat for groundfish such as rockfish, ling cod and Dover sole.

The National Marine Fisheries Service may decide on the new regulations by Wednesday, said Steve Copps, a senior policy analyst. The agency rarely goes against the council's recommendations, he said.

Spokesman Brian Gorman in Seattle said Fisheries Service Director Bill Hogarth had not yet decided whether to implement the ban, but environmentalists and an industry representative expect the council's recommendation to be approved.

"Protecting the habitat is something that also protects the fisheries that provide for our economy and for our families," said Susan Murray, the environmental group Oceana's associate director for the Pacific.

Pete Leipzig, executive director of the Eureka, Calif.-based Fisherman's Marketing Association, said people generally don't fish in the protected areas, but that the new regulations would protect them in the future.

He said the program was "designed to minimize the impact on fishing while maximizing the amount of real estate that would be protected from fishing."

82-year-old suspect ruled incompetent

An 82-year-old man charged with knifing and nearly killing his wife of 60 years, an attack their daughters blame on antidepressant medication, has been found incompetent to stand trial.

Instead, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Strophy ordered Wednesday that Eric Attwood of Yelm be returned to Western State Hospital for further evaluation.

The judge also granted Margaret Attwood, 79, permission to visit her husband. Relatives say the Attwoods' health has deteriorated since they were separated for the first time since they were married.

Attwood is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Relatives and investigators say there was no history of violence, and the daughters think the attack was triggered by Wellbutrin, a drug Attwood was given by his doctor 10 days earlier.

17-year-old sought in theft of car

Marysville police were searching Thursday for a 17-year-old girl who reportedly stole a car with a 3-month-old boy inside.

The boy's father had left the car running in the family's driveway in the 800 block of Ash Avenue about 5:45 p.m. to run into the house, said Marysville police Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux. When he returned, he saw a girl he knew driving the car across his yard.

About 25 minutes later, an officer found the car parked outside the Strawberry Lanes bowling alley about a quarter-mile away. The baby was uninjured, Lamoureux said.

Panel votes to keep potatoes on plates

The Idaho Senate Transportation Committee voted for potatoes Thursday — and against a bill that would have let drivers delete the phrase "Famous Potatoes" from their standard-issue license plates.

The conversation about the plates landed in the transportation committee after Sen. Hal Bunderson, R-Meridian, introduced a bill that would have given drivers the option of having no mention of potatoes on their plates. He said the state is no longer based on farming, and the potato slogan is outdated.

Potato supporters told the panel that removing the potatoes would harm not only the state's potato industry but other agriculture, Idaho's history and the very self-image of its people.

Idaho potatoes have had a hard time of it lately. First came the low-carb diet craze, then the tuber was omitted from the Idaho quarter-design choices the governor sent to the U.S. Treasury last year, said Frank Muir, president and chief executive officer of the Idaho Potato Commission.

"In other states, they're passionate; they're not embarrassed by their agricultural roots," Muir said.

Times staff and news services