Seattle student dies in Chile hiking accident

Santiago, Chile

A Seattle University student on an exchange program in Chile fell off a cliff during a day hike and has been found dead.

Michaela Farnum, 20, of Seattle, got separated from a group of friends during the hike Friday about 40 miles northwest of Santiago, said her brother, Jonathan Farnum, of Issaquah.

Her friends searched for her, but when they couldn't find her, they notified park rangers, who discovered her body and notified the family Saturday morning.

Michaela Farnum was a junior studying international business and Spanish. She went to Chile last month to take classes and improve her Spanish.

Her father, Peter Farnum, left for Chile when the family received word that Michaela was missing.

Her mother, Kathleen Sanford, of Woodinville, said family and friends had gathered at her house to mourn their loss.

Bellingham

Missing woman found by searchers

Searchers found a Bellingham woman Saturday night who had been missing since Wednesday, police said.

Carinna Kuhns-Duffield, 33, was taken to a hospital, said Bellingham police Sgt. Robert Vanderyacht.

She was found about 6 p.m. near where her car was found Friday, but no other details were available, he said.

U.S. Forest Service rangers found Kuhns-Duffield's car about 17 miles off Highway 20 near Marblemount, Skagit County.

Bellingham police said it appeared her car went off the road and got stuck on rocks.

Search teams from Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties had been looking for Kuhns-Duffield, who disappeared Wednesday afternoon when she left her house to visit her sister in Stanwood.

Her family said she had a fever when she disappeared and may have become disoriented.

Renton

Man killed in head-on crash

A 23-year-old man was killed early Saturday when the car he was driving crashed head-on into a pickup on Southeast 128th Street in east Renton.

The man was driving a sedan westbound on 128th Street about 12:50 a.m. near Lake Kathleen Road Southeast when the car drifted into the eastbound lane and hit the truck, according to the King County Sheriff's Office.

The sedan driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

No details were available about the status of the truck's driver. The cause is under investigation.

Olympia

Leader named to education panel

Former state Treasurer Dan Grimm, a longtime legislative budget leader, will head a new state Task Force on Basic Education Funding.

The 14-member panel was created by Gov. Christine Gregoire and the 2007 Legislature to develop a stable and adequate financing system for state aid to education. Preliminary ideas are expected next year, but a final report isn't due until 2009.

Gregoire appointed Grimm as chairman and named four other members. Republican and Democratic legislators also will serve on the commission, along with state schools chief Terry Bergeson.

Grimm is well-known in Olympia circles and has himself been touted as a candidate for state schools superintendent. He said recently that he's not a candidate. Bergeson, a three-term incumbent, has not announced her plans.

Gregoire also appointed Cheryl Chow, chairwoman of the Seattle School Board; Bette Hyde, superintendent of the Bremerton School District who also served as an adviser to the Washington Learns education-reform panel; Jim Kowalkowski, superintendent of the Davenport School District and executive director of the Rural Education Center at Washington State University; and Laurie Dolan, the governor's executive policy director and a longtime employee of the Spokane schools.

Tacoma

Teen ruled fit to face murder trial

A Pierce County judge has ruled that a teenager accused of killing a classmate at Foss High School in January is mentally fit to stand trial.

Douglas S. Chanthabouly's attorneys still plan to present a mental-health defense for their client, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Samnang Kok.

The 17-year-old Kok was shot Jan. 3.

Oakland, Calif.

Some Amtrak service to resume

Limited Amtrak Cascades service between Eugene, Ore., and Seattle will resume Monday with the use of substitute railcars, after being suspended during the weekend, Amtrak has announced.

The service was halted after a routine mechanical inspection of Talgo railcars used in the operation found cracks in the suspension support system.

"Amtrak is sending additional train equipment from throughout the railroad's network in order to resume limited train service," said Kurt Laird, Amtrak's district superintendent.

Eugene, Ore.

10th eco-terrorism defendant sentenced

Ten people have now been sentenced to prison for their roles in the largest eco-terrorism case in U.S. history.

The conspiracy involved 20 arsons spanning five years and five Western states, including a 2001 fire at the University of Washington Horticulture Center.

The underground cell proclaimed they were members of the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. Prison sentences ranged from 13 years to 37 months.

The group, hoping to affect the conduct of government, private businesses and the civil population, caused at least $40 million in damage to property.

Three defendants, Joseph Dibee, Rebecca Rubin and Josephine Sunshine Overaker, are still international fugitives.

The last sentencing, of Kendal Tankersley, 30, was Friday. Tankersley got 41 months.

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Unruly passengers make count tough

Partying passengers on a Northern Idaho cruise boat on Lake Coeur d'Alene were so uncooperative that it was impossible to get an accurate head count after a report one of them might have fallen overboard, police said.

While divers searched, some 300 passengers sang "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and yelled "c'mon already" as police held them on a dock in a final effort to get a head count. One man leaped into the water and was handcuffed but not arrested, the Coeur d'Alene Press reported.

A bartender aboard The Coeur d'Alene Resort cruise boat reported that at 9:30 p.m. Thursday he heard a splash and saw something white in the water.

Three sheriff's department boats with six divers responded, along with firefighters from several agencies.

While divers searched, officers on the boat attempted to count passengers, but the crowd was uncooperative and intoxicated.

"We had ... almost a mutiny," passenger Emily Sloyer told the newspaper.

Seattle Times staff and news services

Information in this article, originally published August 5, 2007, was corrected August 5, 2007. An item in the Pacific Northwest digest said searchers found a missing Bellingham woman, Carinna Kuhns-Duffield, at 8 p.m. Saturday. She was found at 6 p.m.