Man arrested in dog beating

Police arrested a man Wednesday night accused of beating a dog and fracturing its skull.

Henry A. Sadowski was arrested with Tabitha L. Sadowski, who was questioned about the beating but held on an outstanding warrant for another crime.

Another suspect in the case, Thomas A. Brundige, turned himself in earlier in the day. Henry Sadowski and Brundige were booked on animal-cruelty charges. Brundige was also booked on an outstanding felony warrant and will be taken to the King County Jail. All three were named in warrants charging them with the attack on the dog.

The black Lab mix, named Buddy, is recovering from injuries in the care of King County Animal Control.

Firefighters gaining on pair of wildfires

Fire crews made progress against a pair of wildfires that have consumed 75,770 acres in north-central Washington's remote Chewuch Valley.

The Tripod and Spur Peak fires were 20 percent trailed, about double the amount from Wednesday, firefighters said.

The blazes grew by only about 1,000 acres Wednesday night and have burned some 117 square miles of national forest land northeast of Winthrop. The fires burned together Tuesday and began spreading into the Loomis State Forest this week.

No homes were in imminent danger, although Winthrop-area residents were asked to be on the alert in case conditions change, said Randy Shepard of the U.S. Forest Service.

Both the Tripod and Spur Peak fires were caused by lightning strikes in July.

The state Department of Health has restricted the practice of a Maple Valley osteopathic physician who prescribed strong narcotic pain relievers to a 24-year-old patient who subsequently died.

Under the restriction, Dr. Dale E. Alsager, 62, may not prescribe most controlled substances, pending a hearing before the Board of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery.

The state alleges that Alsager committed unprofessional conduct by prescribing many strong medications with a "predictable potential for overdose" to the patient, who died in September. The state also alleges Alsager's care of seven chronic-pain patients was substandard.

State restricts shellfish harvesting

The state Department of Health has ordered all Puget Sound beaches from Three Tree Point in Burien to the Pierce County line closed to all shellfish harvesting because the biotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning has been detected there.

The toxins are not destroyed by cooking and can kill people who eat them.

To check statewide shellfish closures, look online: www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/sf/biotoxin.htm.

More money OK'd for light-rail work

Sound Transit will spend an additional $4.3 million on engineers and inspectors, in an attempt to keep construction delays from getting out of control in Seattle's Rainier Valley.

Light-rail work along a four-mile stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Way South is now expected to take until October 2007 — six months beyond the April 2007 contract deadline. Progress has been slowed by contaminated soils, water and sewer pipes, among other things.

On Thursday, the transit board increased the $8.3 million oversight budget with the Carter & Burgess firm to $12.6 million, to supervise the valley construction. The entire 14-mile rail route, from downtown to Sea-Tac, is to open in 2009.

Seattle Times staff and news services