Council backs Boeing contract bid

The Metropolitan King County Council called on the Air Force Monday to reverse its award of an air-refueling tanker contract — initially worth $40 billion — to Europe-based Airbus over local manufacturer Boeing.

Councilmember Dow Constantine, prime sponsor of the motion, said in a statement the federal government should not "follow the example of corporations who have exported U.S. jobs overseas."

He called the competition a missed opportunity to support American workers "and the sagging American economy."

Constantine's motion passed unanimously. Boeing had proposed to build the tanker using the commercial 767 airframe, which is assembled in Everett.

Seattle

Man, 23, ID'd in fatal collision

The driver of a Porsche convertible who was killed in a head-on collision on Westlake Avenue North over the weekend has been identified by the King County Medical Examiner's Office as 23-year-old Jesse R. Eisenberg, of Seattle.

According to police, Eisenberg was driving southbound in the 2500 block of Westlake Avenue North around 5 p.m. Sunday when his car collided with a Ford Taurus.

A spokeswoman with the Seattle Fire Department said that a passenger in the Porsche was hospitalized with critical injuries and that the driver of the Taurus was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Tacoma

Court to consider special-ed funds

The state Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments today in a lawsuit over whether the state adequately funds special-education programs.

The 12 districts named in the lawsuit, filed in 2004, are: Bellingham, Bethel, Burlington-Edison, Everett, Federal Way, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Puyallup, Riverside and Spokane.

An additional 70 districts, including Seattle, have joined a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Tacoma School District.

In March 2007, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee upheld Washington's system of financing special education but threw out a cap on the number of special-needs students that the state would fund in each district.

The plaintiffs have argued that the state underfunds special-education programs by more than $130 million, and local property taxes must be used to fill that gap, shortchanging other students and violating the state's constitutional requirement to finance an "ample" basic education for all.

Washington, D.C.

Federal protection sought for kokanee

Lake Sammamish kokanee, which spend most of their lives in the lake before spawning in nearby streams, might win protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that the fish's situation appears serious enough to warrant a closer look — a prelude to federal protections.

The city of Issaquah, King County, the Snoqualmie Tribe and environmental groups had petitioned the service to protect the landlocked salmon. Two of three kokanee runs in the lake are thought to have gone extinct already.

The service next could determine that the fish doesn't need federal protection, that it does, or that it is at risk but takes a back seat to animals in more urgent need of protection.

To submit comments, go to www.regulations.gov.

Seattle Times staff and news services