Man shot to death on Seattle street

Seattle

Man shot to death on Seattle street

Seattle police are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred early Saturday morning in the 1200 block of Pine Street.

Police said a 27-year-old man was shot in the chest and died at a hospital.

The gunman fled, and police said they have little information about him.

Seattle

Snow in forecast for next few days

Snow is expected to fall in the Seattle area through Monday and into Tuesday.

According to the National Weather Service, snow could be mixed with rain today, and the snow could be heavier north of Everett.

"We're going to have winter weather to deal with over the next couple of days," a Weather Service spokesman said.

The cold kept South King County fire departments busy Saturday when roads turned icy. From roughly 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Valley Regional Fire Authority responded to 21 accidents related to the sudden icy conditions that developed when moisture moved into the area. Fire departments from Kent, Federal Way and East Pierce County assisted. No serious injuries were reported.

Seattle

Education funding is topic of meeting

A Monday night meeting at Seattle Public Schools headquarters will focus on state funding for education.

School district Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and School Board President Cheryl Chow will talk about education funding and how it affects local students. Chow, a member of the state's Basic Education Funding Task Force, will discuss her experience.

After their remarks, Paola Maranan, executive director of the Children's Alliance, will discuss efforts to improve education funding in Washington.

The meeting, sponsored by the Seattle Council PTSA, aims to prepare people to speak to legislators about the need for more education funding.

The event is open to the public. There will be time for refreshments and networking beginning at 6:30 p.m.; presentations start at 7 p.m. at the John Stanford Center, 2445 Third Ave. S., Seattle. Information: president@seattlecouncilptsa.org or 206-364-7430.

Spokane

State will revoke ill-gotten licenses

Washington's Department of Licensing is taking steps to revoke the commercial-driver licenses it granted to almost 100 truck and school-bus drivers through a Spokane-based operation allegedly involved in a mail-fraud conspiracy, Director Liz Luce said Friday.

The drivers, mostly from other states, used mail-drop addresses in Spokane, didn't meet state residency requirements and were part of a scheme involving cheating and paying bribes to a third-party test evaluator, Jim McDevitt, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said at a news conference with Luce.

The state licensing director credited the FBI with breaking up CDL Consulting, which McDevitt described as a "driver's-license mill" that primarily targeted Bosnian immigrants living elsewhere.

Two Spokane men were arrested Thursday, and five other suspects are being sought on mail-fraud and conspiracy charges.

David Gomez, a regional supervisor with the FBI, said the investigation involving his agency, the state Department of Licensing and the Washington State Patrol "was a textbook case of working together to close a loophole."

The individuals who got their commercial driver licenses, or CDLs, from the Spokane driving school returned to other states where they were relicensed under reciprocal agreements with Washington.

The licensing director said state budget cutbacks in the 1990s caused the department to lose employees, forcing the agency to hire outside contractors as testers for CDL applicants.

Applicants can no longer choose their own testers, and state licensing personnel are now doing 60 percent of the test-evaluation work, Luce said.

Interpreters helping CDL applicants with written tests also are more closely screened, she said, after the investigation revealed that interpreters were not only reading the questions but also providing answers.

Portland

Sacagawea statue stolen, recovered

A statue of Sacagawea and her baby son that was stolen earlier this month has been found at a scrap-metal dealer in Bend.

The 5 ½-foot statue of Sacagawea — the Shoshone guide who accompanied explorers Lewis and Clark — was taken from Fort Clatsop National Memorial Park near Astoria last weekend.

On Tuesday, a Bend scrap-metal dealer notified police about suspicious metal his business had just received. Police identified the metal as the missing statue.

The following day, police found someone had tried to sell the statue at a scrap-metal yard in the Portland area as well.

Three people were arrested for the theft. Each faces a charge of aggravated first-degree theft by receiving.

Seattle Times staff and The Associated Press