Woman, 18, hurt critically in fall from moving car

An 18-year-old Vashon Island woman was critically injured Thursday after she fell from the roof of a moving car on which she was dancing, police said.

She was with two 17-year-old friends at Paradise Ridge Park near Southwest 220th Avenue on Vashon Island when the accident happened around 5 p.m., according to the King County Sheriff's Office

The woman had been dancing on the roof of the car when the 17-year-old male driver took off.

As the driver approached the exit gate, the woman tumbled off the car and struck the pavement, police said.

She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center and is listed in critical condition, according to a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

The driver was taken into custody but was not booked into the juvenile-detention center, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

Mount Rainier

Park to reopen after flood damage

Mount Rainier National Park will reopen to the public May 5 with speeches, a talk about the floods that forced the park to close in November and a chance for people to get their hands dirty helping with repairs.

The gate at the Nisqually entrance, near the town of Ashford in the park's southwest corner, is scheduled to swing open at 9:15 a.m., after an address by Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton.

Volunteers will be doing work on the Trail of the Shadows and the nearby Longmire Campground, and anyone can join in.

At 1 p.m., a talk about the flood damage and its aftermath is scheduled at the Jackson Visitor Center, at Paradise recreation area.

The National Park Inn at Longmire and the visitor center will both be open.

The road from the Nisqually entrance to Paradise, the most heavily used in the park, will be the first to open since the flood.

Some roads are scheduled to open, or partially open, in the coming months, while others will remain closed this year.

State suspends counselor's license

The state Health Department has suspended the license of a Seattle registered counselor who allegedly had sex with a patient and helped the woman, who had alcohol and drug issues, to get booze and marijuana.

The Health Department said the credentials of Nanette Croteau, 44, could be revoked for up to 20 years, though she is not working as a counselor or a chemical-dependency professional, and her credentials have expired.

Croteau was fired in August by Therapeutic Health Services, a Seattle nonprofit treatment center for people with mental illnesses and substance abuse problems.

The state said Croteau was supervising the woman for her substance-abuse treatment when she obtained controlled substances from the woman for her own use, gave the patient money to buy and use marijuana and alcohol in her presence, gave her gifts including a computer, and took her home to have sex.

The state said the patient was "extremely vulnerable" and was on probation at the time.

Seattle

$2 million given for center project

The Legislature's commitment of $2 million toward a new High Point Neighborhood Center brings the $10 million project closer to fruition.

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2008 on the 18,500-square-foot education, employment and cultural center that would be the centerpiece of the redeveloped mixed-income community in West Seattle.

Neighborhood House, a nonprofit agency that assists immigrants, refugees and low-income people, would run the center.

The state money — coming on top of funding from the Seattle Housing Authority, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft Corporation and other private and public sources — brings the project to within about $2.5 million of its goal.

Seattle

Library director gets 1 percent raise

King County Library System Director Bill Ptacek, whose reorganization of libraries into administrative "clusters" last year angered many employees and patrons, will receive a 1 percent raise effective July 1.

His new salary of $154,444 is the midpoint of the salaries of the chiefs in Seattle and Multnomah County, Ore., library systems — a benchmark used by King County for several years, Trustee Richard Eadie said Thursday.

The board of trustees announced Ptacek's raise after an executive session at its regular meeting Tuesday.

Eadie, a King County Superior Court judge who has been a library trustee for five years, said Ptacek has done a good job of addressing employee unhappiness over the reorganization of libraries into clusters.

"It was a bad start for that project. Unfortunately, it's digging out of a hole. I think he's made a good response to that," Eadie said.

Eadie also said Ptacek has been instrumental in making King County's library system one of the nation's best and largest since he took the helm in 1989. Ptacek did not receive a raise last year.

Seattle

Man sentenced in credit-card fraud

A Renton man who used credit-card data stolen from emergency-room patients to shop online was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday to 30 months in prison.

Lennie Hennings, 46, must also pay $18,098 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Throughout 2004, Hennings purchased goods and gift certificates online with stolen data passed to him by his sister, Yvon Hennings.

Yvon Hennings worked at MedData, a medical-billing company. She stole credit-card data from at least 30 people who had paid for emergency-room services at Stevens Hospital. Yvon Hennings was sentenced in January to four months in prison and four months of home detention.

Juneau, Alaska

Regent facing charges resigns

University of Alaska Regent Jim Hayes, facing felony fraud charges, has resigned.

Hayes sent a resignation letter to Gov. Sarah Palin. His decision was announced Friday on the floors of the Alaska House and Senate. Palin said she had accepted his resignation, effective immediately.

Hayes did not return messages left by The Associated Press. "My decision to resign has not come easily," Hayes said in his resignation letter, provided to The AP by Palin's office. "I have great respect for the university and its vital mission of educating Alaska's youth. I do not wish to be a distraction to that effort or to the work of other regents."

Hayes, a former Fairbanks mayor, was indicted earlier this year on charges that he misused $450,000 in federal funds associated with LOVE Social Services Center Inc., a Fairbanks nonprofit run by his wife, Chris. Jim Hayes served on the center's board of directors.

They were accused of using the money to pay for construction of a church where he is the pastor.

The government funds meant for low-income youth also was used to buy a plasma TV for the couple's home, pay for a family wedding reception and cover personal bills, court documents say.

A grand jury returned an indictment against the couple in January, charging Chris Hayes with 92 counts and Jim Hayes with 23 counts. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Seattle Times staff and news services