One woman killed, one hurt in accident

One woman was killed and another injured in a two-vehicle crash at 132nd Avenue Southeast and Southeast 208th Street in Kent's East Hill neighborhood about 10 p.m. Saturday.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene after her vehicle was broadsided by another.

The driver of the other vehicle suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital.

The women's identities were not released. The King County Sheriff's Office is investigating the crash.

Olympia

Guard task force to help Border Patrol

Members of the Washington National Guard have been called on to help in the federal effort to increase security at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to The Herald of Everett.

"An official request has been received," said Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a National Guard public-affairs officer. "We are in the process of putting together a task force."

Several hundred guardsmen are expected to deploy to Arizona later this month and to be in the area "through the month of September," he said.

Details on how many will go and what they'll do are expected next week, Clayton said, noting that none will be involved in direct policing duties such as arresting those crossing the border illegally.

Guardsmen will instead help in building fences, installing vehicle barriers and monitoring surveillance equipment.

Last month, 16 members of the 141st Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane left to build a field hospital in Nogales, Ariz., and 17 Washington Air National Guard members with the 252nd Combat Communications Groups from Camp Murray deployed to set up a radio-communications network.

In May, President Bush said he would seek to send 6,000 National Guard members in the next two years to assist officers in four Southwest states abutting Mexico. Soldiers would be used until additional Border Patrol officers are hired.

Astoria, Ore.

Helicopter crash off coast claims 3

A helicopter that took off from Vancouver, Wash., Sunday morning crashed in foggy weather off the Oregon Coast, killing two men and one woman.

The dead were part of a crew retracing the path of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

The Coast Guard received a call at about 8:20 a.m. from a helicopter pilot who reported he had lost communications and visual contact with a companion helicopter due to land in Astoria, said Coast Guard Lt. Brooks Crawford.

The two helicopters had been flying in tandem as part of the Flight of Discovery project, in which a team of volunteers flies the river corridors and overland routes of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Coast Guard officials were withholding the names of the victims until they could notify the next of kin, Crawford said.

Times staff and news services