Man fatally shot on thoroughfare in Tukwila

Tukwila

A 24-year-old man died Thursday morning after he was shot in Tukwila late Wednesday.

Mike Murphy, spokesman for Tukwila police, said the man was shot while driving along the 11600 block of Pacific Highway South. A suspected gunman fled after the shooting.

Marty Grisham, battalion chief for the Tukwila Fire Department, said the department responded at 9:10 p.m. and took the unconscious man to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Tukwila police are asking that anyone with information call 911.

Bremerton

Windows broken at "elite" banks

Police and FBI agents are investigating four incidents at Bremerton banks on Thursday in which vandals broke windows by throwing pieces of concrete wrapped in identical notes saying banks are part of an "elite upper class."

Police said they have not made an arrest but have surveillance video of a suspect vehicle and of a masked person throwing one of the concrete chunks.

The vandalism was discovered shortly after 4 a.m. when police responded to burglar alarms at two of the banks. They discovered the windows broken by concrete wrapped in pieces of paper with a printed message, police said.

The message read in part:

"Here is your brick back, recognize it? You should.

"It is part of the wall that you, as one of the elite upper class, have helped to build between the minority ruling class, and the majority working class throughout history. By flaunting your decadence, you have made yourself a target."

FBI agents said they had not heard of any similar incidents in other locations.

SeaTac

Reward increased for missing man

A reward for information about the whereabouts of a missing SeaTac man has been increased from $5,000 to $15,000.

Nicholas Francisco, 28, disappeared Feb. 13 after leaving his job at a Queen Anne advertising agency. He called home from his office and told his wife, Christine, that he planned to run an errand, according to a family friend.

Francisco's family said they maintain hope that he will return home.

King County sheriff's investigators have searched Francisco's abandoned Toyota as well as his financial records but haven't found anything to indicate where he has gone or why, said sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart. Detectives tried to use his cellphone to track him, but Urquhart said it appears to be either dead or turned off.

Francisco is about 6 feet tall and was last seen wearing a light-blue-and-white button-down shirt, a plain black jacket and bluejeans.

The missing man's family has set up the Nicholas Francisco Family Fund at Washington Mutual to assist his wife, who is pregnant, and their children, 4-year-old Zea and 2-year-old Noah, said his sister-in-law, Janel Fox, of Seattle.

Everett

Asarco agrees to pay up to $38 million

Asarco LLC, the bankrupt copper miner owned by Grupo Mexico SAB, agreed to pay as much as $38 million to settle allegations it polluted groundwater near Everett, the company said.

Asarco agreed to grant the Washington Department of Ecology and the Port of Everett a $38 million, unsecured claim as part of its bankruptcy case in Corpus Christi, Texas, the company said Thursday in court filings.

The compromise ends a dispute in which the two agencies claimed they were owed more than $135 million in cleanup costs associated with a smelter plant the company once owned on 687 acres near Everett.

The settlement must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Richard S. Schmidt in Corpus Christi.

Seattle

Port commissioner to pay ethics fine

Seattle Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton has agreed to pay a $2,000 ethics fine for using her work computer at the University of Washington to send campaign-related e-mail last year.

In a settlement with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board earlier this month, Tarleton admitted she sent about 47 e-mails from her UW computer announcing or dealing with her campaign. Several of the e-mails asked recipients to contribute to her campaign, vote for her or serve as advisers.

State employees are prohibited from using public equipment for political campaigns. Tarleton is a special assistant for global strategies at the UW.

A first-time candidate who campaigned on ethics and open government, Tarleton said last year she misunderstood the state rules. When a reporter brought the illegal e-mails to her attention, she contacted the state ethics board and lodged a complaint against herself.

Seattle Times staff and news services