Alaska flight delayed after jetway scrape

SeaTac

An Alaska Airlines flight to California was delayed more than three hours Saturday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport when a jetway used to board the plane rose 6 to 12 inches and scraped the body of the aircraft, an airline spokesman said.

The device damaged the paint and left a shallow crease in the skin of the MD-80, and maintenance personnel decided to take the plane out of operation, said airline spokesman Paul McElroy. There were no injuries.

The 60 passengers who had boarded left the aircraft to wait for another plane, he said. The damaged plane was taken to a maintenance hangar.

Alaska did not have a spare plane at the airport at the time, but when a Boeing 737-400 became available a few hours later, the 120 passengers on Flight 464 proceeded to Ontario, Calif. They arrived at their destination about three hours and 20 minutes late, McElroy said.

The airline and the Port of Seattle are working to determine what caused the jetway to rise, McElroy said.

Alaska has had a flurry of problems since May 2005 involving its baggage-handling contractor, Menzies Aviation. Both companies announced changes to improve safety. Saturday's jetway incident did not involve Menzies personnel.

Downtown shooting leaves 1 dead, 1 hurt

An 18-year-old Tacoma man was shot and killed and a teenage girl wounded in downtown Tacoma early Saturday during an exchange of gunfire that police believe was gang-related.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office identified the man who died at the scene as Rhaczio Simms. The shootings were reported shortly before 1:30 a.m., said Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum.

The girl, 16, thought to be a bystander, was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the back that was not believed to be life-threatening. The hospital, citing federal privacy rules, declined to provide information about her condition.

Fulghum said handguns were drawn and gunfire was exchanged after members of two gangs encountered each other near Eighth Street and Pacific Avenue.

Detectives are investigating, but no arrests had been made by Saturday afternoon.

Tacoma

Police face claims from abuse victims

Children sexually abused by their foster father filed multimillion-dollar claims against police departments in Seattle and Tacoma, saying both failed to immediately report the abuse to the state.

Each of the eight children's claims, precursors to a lawsuit, ranges between $2.5 million and $4 million.

Representatives from Seattle and Tacoma police departments said they are prohibited from commenting on pending litigation. They have 60 days to respond to the claims.

Prosecutors said Ronald Young posted pornographic pictures of his foster children, ages 5 to 12, on the Internet.

The photos were traced to Washington state in September 2003 by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which notified Seattle police, Tacoma lawyer Jack Connelly said.

Investigators in Seattle were legally obligated to notify state Child Protective Services within 24 hours, he said, but instead they determined that the man was from Pierce County and sent the information to police in Tacoma. Officers there said they didn't receive the information until three months later, Connelly said.

Young was arrested in March 2004.

He pleaded guilty in April 2005 to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of second-degree child rape and one count of possessing child pornography. He was sentenced in Pierce County Superior Court to 26 years in prison.

Last year, some of the children sued the state and Young, contending the state Department of Social and Health Services failed to adequately screen Young or monitor his home when he became a foster parent. That trial is set for October.

Navy to start sonar use this weekend

The Navy said it will use active sonar during warfare exercises off Hawaii as early as this weekend, after reaching an agreement with environmentalists who claimed it poses a threat to whales and other sea life.

The settlement reached Friday prevents the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during its Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercises. It also imposes a variety of methods to watch for and report the presence of marine mammals.

Navy officials have said the value of training to detect stealthy submarines would have been severely diminished without the sonar, which bounces sound off objects in the ocean.

The Navy hadn't been allowed to activate the sonar under a temporary restraining order issued Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in Los Angeles. She lifted the order after the settlement was reached between the environmentalists, the Navy and several federal agencies.

Environmentalists claim whales have stranded themselves on beaches after being exposed to high-intensity midfrequency sonar. In some cases, whales bled around the brain and in the ears.

The gathering of more than 40 ships, some 19,000 troops, 160 aircraft and six submarines runs through July 28.

Suit filed to block sale in bear habitat

A proposed timber sale in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests will damage key habitat for endangered grizzly bears, a conservation group contended in a lawsuit against the federal government.

The lawsuit by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies seeks to block the sale of 15 million board feet of timber on 1,242 acres in the Selkirk Mountains of northeastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

A tiny population of an estimated 40 grizzly bears lives in the Selkirks.

"Grizzly bears are dying each year, as this small population struggles for survival," said Michael Garrity, director of the alliance. "The federal government needs to stop these money-losing timber sales in critical grizzly bear secure habitat."

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Spokane, and named the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service as defendants.

Gail West, a spokeswoman for the Panhandle National Forests, said agency policy is not to comment on lawsuits.

"This timber sale is important for the community's economic stability," she said.

The timber sale, in the Bonners Ferry Ranger District, will include three years of helicopter logging in "core" grizzly bear habitat, the alliance said.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1999 reclassified the Selkirk population of grizzlies from threatened to endangered.

Garrity estimated the government will lose $1.5 million administering the timber sale.

Seattle Times staff and The Associated Press