Seattle's high tops 91-degrees, ties 1995 record

The high temperature in Seattle reached 91 Saturday, tying the record set in 1995, according to the National Weather Service.

Today's forecast calls for a high of 90. The record for today is 93, set in 1987.

While the first day of summer was June 20, in Seattle most folks know the season doesn't begin for practical purposes until after Independence Day.

And, in fact, a typical weather pattern is expected to return with the workweek.

Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg said there is a chance of thundershowers this evening.

On Monday, high temperatures will be in the upper 70s to mid-80s, and then will cool into the low to mid-70s Tuesday through Friday, the Fourth of July.

Tracyton, Kitsap County

Boating accident severs woman's leg

A Seattle woman's leg was severed in a boating accident Saturday afternoon on Dyes Inlet on the Kitsap Peninsula.

The 45-year-old woman and her husband had taken their boat to Tracyton, between Silverdale and Bremerton, to visit family.

They tied the 20-foot boat to a buoy moored in Dyes Inlet, said Deputy Scott Wilson of the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.

At about 2:20 p.m., the husband brought the boat close to shore.

The wife, standing in about 2 feet of water, passed items along to her husband.

When she was finished, she went to climb into the boat, stepping onto a swimmer's step.

But her foot slipped, striking the rotating propeller. The propeller severed her right leg below the knee, Wilson said.

She was taken to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle; her condition was not immediately available.

Seattle

Janitors OK deal; strike averted

Unionized janitors in King County voted overwhelmingly Saturday to accept a new contract, averting a strike that could have affected a variety of downtown businesses in Seattle and Bellevue.

A strike appeared to be a possibility, but employers offered two key concessions on the eve of the vote, said Travis Thomas, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 6.

Under the ratified contract, newly hired janitors outside Seattle will have to wait only six months instead of a year before employers pay for health insurance, Thomas said.

The employers also agreed to an annual raise of 50 cents per hour instead of 40 cents for janitors outside Seattle, Thomas said.

The contract will cover four years. For janitors in Seattle, the average pay over the contract's life will increase from $11.50 an hour to $13.65 an hour, Thomas said.

The local represents about 2,800 janitors in King County.

Seattle

200,000 expected for Pride Parade

More than 200,000 people are expected in downtown Seattle for the Official Seattle Pride Parade, which begins at 11 a.m. today at Union Street and Fourth Avenue.

The parade will proceed north on Fourth to Denny Way. Fourth Avenue will be closed to vehicle traffic for the parade, which is expected to last about two and a half hours. The parade ends at Seattle Center, where Seattle PrideFest begins.

The free event includes DJs, musicians, comics, and appearances by Mayor Greg Nickels and Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Thurston County

Body identified as accident victim

The body discovered in the Nisqually River on Friday was Bryan Pierce, one of the victims of a June 12 boating accident.

Pierce, 32, of Puyallup, drowned, the Thurston County Coroner's Office determined after an autopsy Saturday.

His body was found about a mile from where a boat carrying five people capsized. Pierce was one of three who disappeared into the fast-moving water.

The body of Sean McCartney, 5, was found the day of the accident. Cameron McCartney, 9, is still missing.

Vincent Farler, the boat's driver, has been charged with three counts of homicide by watercraft.

Erin McCartney, the children's mother, also survived.

Puyallup

Motorcyclist hits guardrail, dies

A 20-year-old man died Friday night after he lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into the guardrail on Highway 512 near Puyallup, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Rogelio Sapunto, of Tacoma, was speeding when he crashed the 2004 Suzuki GSXR 60 around 8 p.m. Sapunto, who was wearing a helmet, died at the scene.

Kirkland

Worker rescued after 30-foot fall

Kirkland firefighters rescued a man who was seriously injured after falling more than 30 feet Friday morning at a construction site in the 9300 block of Northeast Juanita Drive.

The man, who has not been identified, suffered serious injuries to his head and back, and he was in the Harborview intensive-care unit in stable condition, said Kirkland Firefighter Joe Rexach.

The man was painting a stairwell shaft at a sewage pump station that's being remodeled when he fell into the shaft at around 9:45 a.m.

A co-worker stabilized him until firefighters responded and hoisting the victim out of the shaft.

Issaquah

Head-on collision kills 1, injures 2

At least one person died and two others were injured in a head-on collision Friday night on Highway 18 near Tiger Mountain Summit.

Just before 10 p.m., a woman driving a sedan crossed the center line and hit a newer Volkswagen Beetle driven by a 27-year-old woman, said Trooper Clifford Pratt, of the Washington State Patrol.

The State Patrol did not have details on the identities of the person killed or those injured.

The driver of the sedan was treated at a hospital for a broken ankle and then arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, said Pratt.

A passenger in the sedan suffered a serious head injury. The driver of the Beetle had to be cut out of her car, he said.

Both directions of Highway 18 between Issaquah-Hobart Road and Interstate 90 were blocked for several hours after the accident, according to the Washington state Department of Transportation.

Seattle

Garage dispute escalates into melee

A dispute over who would be the first to exit a downtown Seattle parking garage early Saturday morning escalated into a 50-person melee and ended with one woman beaten, another stabbed and a man arrested for assault, according to police.

Seattle police and firefighters responded to a parking garage near O'Asian Kitchen, a restaurant in the 800 block of Fifth Avenue, shortly after 2 a.m., said Renee Witt, police department spokeswoman.

Two groups, one of men and one of women, had left the restaurant and got into an argument about who would be first to exit the lot, Witt said.

The women, in one car, got in front.

One of the men got out of another car and started an argument with the women.

The man pulled one of the women out of the car and "began stomping on her," Witt said.

At that point, onlookers became involved, and the scene turned into a "free-for-all, a huge melee," Witt said. Responding officers estimated 50 people were involved.

One of the men stabbed one of the women in the abdomen.

The woman, in her 20s, was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, Witt said.

A man was arrested and booked into King County Jail for investigation of assault.

Seattle

Woman sentenced to 5 years for fraud

A 26-year-old Federal Way woman has been sentenced in federal court to five years in prison for bank fraud, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated identity theft.

Alicia Kathleen Cruz pleaded guilty on May 19.

U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly sentenced Cruz on Friday in Seattle, saying, "There is no question you affected many people's lives."

According to case records, Cruz had multiple arrests and committed fraud multiple times between August and December 2007, using other people's personal information.

The judge ordered Cruz to pay $33,117 in restitution.

Colfax, Whitman County

Ex-fugitive denied jail-time credit

Lawyers for a man who fled to Ireland to avoid prosecution for a 2001 drunken-driving crash that killed three college students have lost again in their effort to get Fred Russell credit for time served in an Irish prison following his arrest there.

Russell spent 384 days in Cloverhill Prison near Dublin while fighting extradition back to the United States. That effort failed, and Russell was convicted last fall of three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault.

The chain reaction collision took place on Highway 270 — the winding road between the college towns of Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.

Russell's lawyers asked Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier to reconsider a previous ruling that denied Russell credit for the Irish prison time.

But Frazier denied the request Friday in a teleconference hearing.

Russell was sentenced to the maximum 14 years, three months and is serving his time at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.

Tacoma

Man convicted in 1988 slaying

A Tacoma man has been convicted by a Pierce County jury of killing a single mother who disappeared in October 1988 and was found dead three months later.

Jurors deliberated all week before finding Daniel Ralph Maples guilty on Friday of second-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Christine Blais.

The 50-year-old Maples showed no emotion when Superior Court Judge Thomas Larkin announced the verdict. The judge set sentencing for July 18.

It was the second time Maples was tried in Blais' death.

In March, the first jury deadlocked, with eight of the 12 jurors voting to acquit him.

Blais and Maples had worked a shift at a Tacoma Tideflats shipyard before Blais disappeared.

Prosecutors were unable to present evidence as to exactly how Blais died because her body was too decomposed to determine a cause of death.

Their case got a boost during the second trial when a co-worker who didn't testify the first time told jurors he saw Maples in Blais' car the night she disappeared.

Blais' daughter, Jessie Calixto, says she's relieved Maples will be off the streets. She was 8 when her mother disappeared.

Seattle Times staff and news services