Car crash kills infant in mom's lap

A 9-month-old Renton girl who was sitting on her mother's lap was killed Wednesday night in a car crash after their car was hit by another driver who ran a stop sign.

Around 9:30 p.m., a 29-year-old Renton man driving a Camaro in the Renton Highlands neighborhood ran a stop sign and broadsided a Honda Civic, said police spokeswoman Penny Bartley.

According to the King County Medical Examiner's Office, Dayana Delpilar died from blunt-force injuries to her head and body.

In the Civic were the 24-year-old driver, his 2-year-old son, his sister-in-law and her 9-month-old daughter, Bartley said. Dayana was thrown from the car and later died at Harborview Medical Center, she said. A baby seat was in the Civic.

The woman and boy suffered life-threatening injuries and remain at Harborview; the Camaro's driver was being treated for minor injuries and was to be booked into the King County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide once he was released from the hospital. The driver of the Civic was treated at Harborview and released, Bartley said.

Ferry company: Extend suspension

Aqua Express, the private ferry company that provided passenger service from Kingston to Seattle, has asked the state Utilities and Transportation Committee to extend its service suspension.

Last September, Aqua Express asked the state committee to suspend its service until July 1 to give the company time to figure out how to make the ferry route economically viable. The company wants to extend that until January.

Aqua Express cited high fuel costs and low ridership as the reason for stopping service. Only about 300 passengers a day were riding the ferry. Aqua Express was formed by Clipper Navigation, Argosy Cruises, Nichols Brothers Boat Builders and Tom Tougas, who runs a boat-tour company in Alaska.

The Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle broke ground Thursday on the Northwest African American Museum and residential complex, which will be housed in the old Colman School near the Interstate 90 lid.

Democratic senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Mayor Greg Nickels were among the 200 invited officials and museum donors who attended the event.

The $20 million project, scheduled to open next year, will cover 17,000 square feet of the ground floor of the red-brick school with displays tracing the region's black population from the arrival of pioneers from the South in the 1840s to the evolution of local black neighborhoods such as the Central District. Apartments are to fill the renovated upper two floors of the building.

Urban League Chairman Paul Chiles said the event marks a major step in the struggle to create a black-history museum in Seattle, a campaign that started in the 1980s when a group of activists occupied the school to promote the idea.

The Urban League took control of the school in 2003, pushing the project forward, but some activists disagree with aspects of the planned mixed-use development.

Hearings to address discipline practices

The 10-member blue-ribbon panel examining procedures followed by the King County Sheriff's Office in disciplining employees accused of misconduct will host three public hearings this month.

Panel members are seeking public comment about ways to improve accountability and whether a body should be created to review misconduct and disciplinary processes, according to a news release issued Thursday.

The hearings will be June 12 in Renton, June 15 in Kenmore and June 22 in Issaquah.

For locations, driving directions or additional information, visit www.metrokc.gov/sheriff/sheriff/blueribbon/ or call 206-324-8760.

Seattle

Panel meetings broke law, suit says

Community activist Chris Clifford has sued Seattle Public Schools and its citizens school-closure committee, alleging that the district and committee violated state open-meetings laws.

The Community Advisory Committee on School Facilities and Programs issued its final report Tuesday and disbanded. But over Memorial Day weekend, the 14 volunteer members had closed their final meetings to the public. School-district attorneys argued last week that the board was advisory and not subject to the open-meetings act. District spokeswoman Patti Spencer said Thursday that the district doesn't believe state law was violated.

In his lawsuit filed Thursday in King County Superior Court, Clifford argued that the committee was the first step in a larger decision-making process and therefore its discussions should have been public.

Clifford filed a similar lawsuit against the city of Seattle five years ago and won. In that suit, he argued that city task-force meetings about Mardi Gras law enforcement and racial profiling should be public.

Aluminum mills get millions from BPA

Aluminum mills in Washington, Oregon and Montana will get millions of dollars from the Bonneville Power Administration to buy cheap electricity over the next five years, the federal power marketing agency said Thursday.

The deal also provides electricity for Port Townsend Paper Co. in Washington state, the BPA said.

Mike Hansen, a BPA spokesman, said the deal will improve chances that the aluminum smelters, battered by high electricity prices, will operate in the future.

Beginning this fall, BPA will provide $59 million per year to the aluminum companies that will allow them to buy up to a daily average of 560 megawatts of electricity for a year on the open market. The BPA for decades provided electricity directly to the aluminum companies but now wants to save its power for other customers, such as public-utility districts.

Companies must use the money to make aluminum, not to buy and resell power, Hansen said.

The BPA is a quasi-governmental agency that markets power from the region's many federal hydroelectric dams.

Boeing employees evacuated for hour

A couple thousand Boeing employees were evacuated for about an hour Thursday morning when 30 gallons of hydraulic fluid spilled in the Everett factory where 777s are built.

About 10 people who were close to the spill were treated for eye irritation and later returned to work, said Boeing spokeswoman Debbie Heathers. Nobody was taken to the hospital.

The cause of the 9:30 a.m. spill is under investigation, Heathers said.

Seattle

Joint meeting held on transit, roads

Elected officials in charge of Sound Transit and highway planning held their first joint meeting Thursday, declaring they will work together to write a pair of multi-billion-dollar ballot measures for 2007.

"I do think this is a historic occasion," said Shawn Bunney, a Pierce County councilman who chairs the Regional Transportation Investment District, which is choosing the highway projects.

The highway proposals were estimated at $7 billion as of January, while Sound Transit still needs to reduce a wish list of 62 projects that includes light-rail extensions and park-and-ride garages.

The Legislature has required that separate measures for transit and roads must each pass, or both fail.

Seattle Times staff and news services