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thomst writes "A week ago, Rob McKenna, the Attorney General of Washington State, filed suit against DirecTV, alleging 16 counts of unfair, deceptive, and unethical business practices. The charges include failure to disclose important contract information (such as early termination fees, 'service maintenance' fees, and rebate terms), misrepresentation, 'negative option' billing, 'unconscionable enforcement of contract to which there has been no mutual consent,' failure to honor promotional offers, and 'imposing charges when no service has been provided.' The complaint is available online (PDF). MSNBC's Bob Sullivan states that McKenna's office received 375 complaints against DirecTV in the 11.5 months before...

SILVERDALE, Wash. – This is one 21st birthday to forget. A 21-year-old man stationed at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor has been arrested after getting into multiple altercations on what one of his friends told law enforcement was the man's 21st birthday. The man was kicked out of the Old Town Bistro early Saturday morning, the first in a series of events. The Kitsap Sun reports about 12:15 a.m. a witness said the man approached him and started a conversation. The man said he was in the Marines, while the witness replied he was in the Navy. The suspect shook his hand...

EATONVILLE, Wash. -- A Pierce County sheriff's deputy and a sergeant were seriously wounded in a shooting near Eatonville on Monday night. Sheriff spokesman Ed Troyer said the two were responding to a domestic violence call at a cabin in the 34300 block of Tanwax Court East at the time. Investigators said a man, his brother and his 15-year-old daughter were at the cabin when some sort of trouble broke out, prompting the call. "When our two deputies arrived, they were invited in to the house by one of the brothers," Troyer said. Investigators said a man, his brother and...

Two Deputies in Critical Condition After Gunbattle That Left Suspect Dead Tim King Salem-News.com Domestic violence call results in two deputies shot. (EATONVILLE, Wash.) - Two deputies were ambushed Monday in a community still reeling from the loss of four police officers in a recent deadly shooting; Pierce County, Washington officials report that two of their deputies responding to a report of an unwanted guest in a home in the Eatonville area were shot. Officials there say it happened at approximately 8:48 p.m. "The initial call for assistance came from a man who was fighting with his brother. The officers...

Two Pierce County Sheriff's deputies responding to a domestic violence call tonight were involved in a shooting. The shooting happened at about 9 p.m. Officers from multiple agencies are responding. The suspect was also shot, according to police radio traffic.

RUSH: Waterloo, Iowa. Ann, I'm glad you waited. You're next on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Hello. RUSH: Hi. CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for taking my call. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I had a really rough couple of weeks trying to get some good night's sleep. I'm not talking about the bed, I'm just talking about looking and hearing and reading all the stuff going on, health care, all of these socialistic moves, the lying, I mean I wish people would just quit being so politically correct and start calling Obama what he is. He is a liar.

THE health-care dance in Washington, D.C., has gone on long enough. Congress needs to focus on the economy and set health care aside. This is a change of position for us. This page supported Barack Obama for president, enthusiastically. We have supported the health-care effort until now. We still support universal coverage as a social goal. But the longer the fight goes on, the more it feels that the timing is all wrong. The economy is wounded. Employers are hurting. The time to think about loading employers with new burdens is when they are strong. Not now. . . ....

18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well...

US Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) proposed reinstating the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that split commercial and investment banking to rein in Wall Street firms in response to the financial crisis. McCain and Cantwell join other lawmakers in Congress proposing to reinstate the 1933 law, repealed a decade ago by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that led to a rise in conglomerates including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America active in retail banking, insurance and proprietary trading. Legislation to reinstate the ban was introduced yesterday in the House. Under the Senate legislation, financial firms operating commercial banks and investment...

SEATTLE - Record low temperatures in Washington last week are resulting in something of a record in insurance claims. Seattle's PEMCO Insurance says claims of nearly $4.3 million rank the cold temperatures from Dec. 7 through 13 among Washington's top six severe cold weather events of the past 25 years. "And when I say it's the sixth most severe, that's based on gross claims dollars paid out - in other words, severe enough that people are filing a lot of claims with PEMCO," said company spokesman Jon Osterberg.

As predicted earlier in this column, gun prohibitionists are using the murder of a Seattle police officer, and a couple of other slayings, to launch a new effort to ban the sale of semiautomatic firearms in Washington State, and require current owners to register their firearms. I forecast this development in a Nov. 3 column that addressed the cowardly slaying of Seattle Officer. Timothy Brenton on Halloween as he sat in his patrol car in the Central District with trainee Britt Sweeney, who was able to return fire. The irony is that Brenton, as I wrote in a Nov. 10...

KINGSTON, Wash. - His is the typical boyhood bedroom: Spider-Man doll. Race car bed. Game Boy. But there is one toy here little A.J. Norton loves more than anything: a stuffed brown bear named Bruno that A.J, has had for four of his six years. "He's like a best friend," says A.J. "We want to stay with each other forever and stuff." But when A.J. learned of the deaths of four Lakewood police officers last month, and the nine children they left behind, he felt the need to do something for them. "I wanted to make more people feel happy,"...

Senator wants to ban semi-automatic weapons      By HEATHER BOSCH KIRO Radio  Expect to hear a lot about gun control when the legislature reconvenes in January. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles is among those who want to ban the sale of military-style, semi-automatic weapons. "These are guns that I don't see have any function in our society." Kohl-Welles said she was prompted to act after the murder of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton. "He was believed to be killed by a semi-automatic assault weapon. Of course, we also had the killing of several other police officers not by assault weapons....

This is a quick look at the 5 main candidates currently running for the United States Senate against Patty Murray. I say main candidates because, Wayne Glover a trucker , and Rod Rieger have created websites but neither have gained any traction. This is the race that will be at the top of the ticket in Washington and so far the GOP has struggled to come up with a credible candidate. I am currently undecided in this race, but wanted to lay out the negatives and positives of each candidate as I saw them. I will do a post in...

Note: Photos included. Last updated 8:37 p.m. PT “Monfort, accused cop killer, pleads not guilty” KOMO-TV SNIPPET: “Investigators said DNA evidence found at the scene of Brenton’s slaying and the earlier arson at a police maintenance yard were a match to Monfort. His DNA was found on identical American flag bandannas dropped at both scenes as “calling cards,” according to court documents. In addition, a rifle found in Monfort’s apartment is an identical ballistic match to the weapon used to kill Brenton and wound his partner, Britt Sweeney, according to investigators. Prosecutors accused Monfort of placing bombs at the scene...

University of Utah scientists say seismic images of the plumbing feeding the Yellowstone supervolcano show a magma plume much larger than previously thought. Scientists say they've imaged a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup. A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future...

..."With the legislature's failure to pass your climate change bill, you directed us to prepare an executive order (EO) that accomplishes what the bill would have authorized and more. Attached is the proposed EO. Generally, we have crafted an EO that tracks your climate change bill but we propose adding several significant directives that make the EO more significant, more attractive to those interested in making progress on climate change and more controversial for those not so inclined."...

A Seattle court declared Naveed Haq guilty Tuesday for the 2006 shooting spree at a Seattle Jewish center. He as sentenced to life in prison on the eight counts of murder and harassment he was convicted on. Haq killed one person and injured five, one critically, in the shooting spree at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle in July 2006.

SNIPPET: "A King County jury this morning found Naveed Haq guilty of eight counts, including aggravated first-degree murder, in the 2006 shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle." SNIPPET: "Haq opened fire in the federation offices on July 28, 2006, killing employee Pamela Waechter, 58, and wounding Cheryl Stumbo, Carol Goldman, Dayna Klein, Christina Rexroad and Layla Bush..."

Kelso, Wash., police say a man used his compound bow to interrupt an apparent break-in at a nearby vacant home, wounding a fleeing man in the buttocks. Police say the Kelso man grabbed his hunting bow late Sunday night and chased a suspected prowler for more than three blocks. When the fleeing man refused to stop, the bowhunter shot him with a broadhead arrow. A 32-year-old Longview man later sought treatment at St. John Medical Center for an arrow wound to the left buttock. Doctors removed the arrow tip and the man was listed in satisfactory condition Monday. Kelso Police...

Boeing set for first flight of 787 Photo 8:13am EST By Bill Rigby SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co is set to make the first test flight of its 787 Dreamliner on Tuesday, almost two and a half years after the new, fuel-efficient plane, which is key to the company's financial future, was supposed to leave the ground. The lightweight carbon and titanium plane, promising to save airlines million of dollars in fuel and maintenance costs, has been hampered by a shortage of bolts, faulty design and a two-month strike, and it still has a long way to go before it...

The Puget Sound Business Journal for months has asked the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), the federal agency that regulated Washington Mutual, to release internal communications between WaMu's regulators. The newspaper made its requests under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the decades-old law that requires federal agencies to disclose public documents. Of particular interest were internal emails, which could help explain why regulators seized the bank in September 2008 even though WaMu appeared to meet regulatory standards for operating banks, despite its burden of bad loans. (You can read the second installment of our six-month investigation about that decision...

A man says a three-month-old kitten apparently hitched a cold, 200-kilometre ride in the wheel well of his SUV. Marc Lichty left Olympia, Washington, after finishing a day of work on Wednesday. He heard meowing when he stopped at a rest stop along the way home but couldn't see a cat, KPTV-TV reported. When he reached his home in Tualatin, Oregon, he heard the meowing again and grabbed a flashlight. Sure enough, he says, "the cat was up underneath in the spare tire spot." Daughter Jenna helped coax the passenger out with a bit of salmon. Lichty says he can't...

SEATTLE - Police say an 18-foot-tall totem pole stolen from a West Seattle park has been found about 200 miles away in Oregon. The Seattle Times reports a 69-year-old West Seattle man led investigators to the pole. Police say he apparently had a crew with a crane help move the totem, but it's unclear if the crew knew the man didn't have permission to take the landmark.

Hundreds of police officers and other customers lined up early Saturday for the reopening of the Washington state coffee shop where four officers were shot and killed two weeks ago. Bagpipers played as the Forza Coffee shop opened its doors at 8:14 a.m., the hour on Nov. 29 when Maurice Clemmons ambushed Lakewood Police Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards. Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar was the first customer. He hugged patrons who turned out to reclaim the shop from tragedy. Some waited up to three hours in line. "It's just so heartwarming," Farrar...

Boeing said Thursday evening that the first flight of its 787-8 long-range jet is set for 10 a.m., Dec. 15 in Everett, Wash. The first of six test airplanes, ZA001, is due to take off from Payne Field next to the airplane's final assembly factory north of Seattle. Chief Pilot Michael H. Carriker and copilot Randall Neville will conduct low- and high-speed taxi tests that take the airplane to the threshold of flight in preparation for Tuesday's events. Once airborne, Carriker and Neville are not expected to return ZA001 to Everett. They will land at Boeing Field in Seattle, headquarters...

Amanda Knox has hit out at American criticism of the Italian judicial system and said she received a fair trial. The 22-year-old from Seattle - sentenced to 26 years for the sex murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21 - was speaking to Italian MP Walter Verini from her cell at Capanne jail, near Perugia. Knox, known by her internet nickname of Foxy Knoxy, said her rights were respected, adding: 'It was a fair trial. I am not happy with the verdict but my lawyers are appealing it. 'I have faith in the Italian justice system. I have heard about...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic Rep. Brian Baird said Wednesday he will not seek re-election next year so he can spend more time with his family and pursue other ways to serve. The six-term congressman who represents southwest Washington said the job has been the highest honor and greatest responsibility of his life. Baird, 53, of Vancouver, serves on the House science and transportation committees. While his 3rd District seat is considered competitive, he easily won re-election in 2008 and was not considered in jeopardy this cycle. "I find it is increasingly difficult to spend the time I need with my...

The City of Richland, WA, has de-facto admitted to knowing and willful violations of the U.S. Constitution, the Washington State Constitution and the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) in the matter of an illegal ordinance and sign, referring thereto, claiming authority of the City to completely ban firearms possession in a Public place, the Howard Amon Park in Richland, WA. The sign read "Weapons prohibited, including paintball guns." Both the State Legislatures pre-emption in the RCW and McKennas Opinion AGO 2008 # 8 show that this Ordinance was clearly illegal, pre-empted and repealed. RCW 9.41 is the relevant section and...

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird announced Wednesday he will not seek a seventh term in Congress next year. "Serving our country and representing the people of Southwest Washington in Congress has been the highest honor and greatest responsibility of my life," the Vancouver Democrat said in a statement. "Since the time I first announced I would seek election in November of 1995, I have done my utmost to work hard, tell the truth, listen, and do what was right for our nation. I am proud of the record of achievements for our district and I am incredibly grateful to the voters...

Gov. Chris Gregoire released a state budget today that would gut core services to the poor and suspend programs such as all-day kindergarten as a way to close a projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Major cuts include a sharp reduction in financial aid for college students and eliminating state-subsidized insurance for thousands of low-income workers, as well as aid to people who can't work because of disabilities. The governor is required by law to draft a budget that is balanced using existing revenue. That doesn't mean Gregoire has to support such a budget. And she made it clear today she...

Just had to say so. Wow!! Its on every channel up here in Everett,WA. WOW!

Thousands participated Tuesday in a procession to the memorial for four murdered Washington state police officers, which about 20,000 mourners were expected to attend.Pierce County officials said 2,000 police and fire vehicles from more than 150 agencies joined the procession to the Tacoma Dome service for the victims of a coffee shop shooting.===Watch live on Fox===

Boeing plans to make all the parts for the 787 Dreamliner currently produced in the Puget Sound region at a second location so that the second final assembly line being set up in North Charleston, S.C., can operate independently.Local Boeing workers have long complained that only the vertical tail fin of the 787 Dreamliner is built in the Puget Sound region. But now even that small claim to uniqueness is going to be shared, as Boeing continues to turn the screws on the Machinists union after their two-month strike in 2008. The company said Monday it plans to use suppliers...

The current treatment of young-age creationists in the scientific community and society at large is unfair and unwise. Scientists and philosophers of science, including old-age creationists and naturalists, should respect youngage creationists as legitimate contributors to science. Young-age creationists offer to the current origins science establishment a competing rational viewpoint that will augment fruitful scientific investigation through increased accountability for scientists, introduction of original hypotheses and general epistemic improvement...

The Tacoma News Tribune ran the comic strip "Jump Start" this Friday featuring a cop being shot less than a week after the cold-blooded murder of four Lakewood, WA police officers. The News Tribune pulled the strip today, but will begin running it again Monday. There was also a police shooting in Rochester, NY, where two officers were shot. Story here: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20091204/NEWS01/91204017/JumpStart-cartoon-sparks-controversy-in-Rochester I would say the news media just doesn't get it.

Gov. Chris Gregoire today directed state Corrections Chief Eldon Vail not to accept any new parolees from Arkansas until matters arising from the Maurice Clemmons case have been addressed and resolved. Glenn Kuper, a spokesman for the governor, said Gregoire was taking the unusual step because she wants "to make sure that the system is appropriate to protect Washington residents."

Last April, a Department of Corrections officer was watching a television news story about a series of armed robberies around Puget Sound when he saw a Pierce County Crime Stoppers sketch that bore a striking similarity to a man he'd once monitored — Maurice Clemmons. The officer passed on the tip to Clemmons' current supervising officer, who called Crime Stoppers. Yet, somehow, the tip didn't filter down to all the detectives working the cases. A Crime Stoppers operator told the officer that they had "received too many tips/leads already," according to the second DOC officer's notes. Crime Stoppers "refused to...

The fatal shooting of four police officers in Washington state this week has set off angry finger-pointing between Washington and Arkansas over why the suspect in the killings — a man convicted of at least five felonies in Arkansas and charged with at least eight more in Washington this year alone — was not behind bars. Much of the attention so far has focused on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s (R) decision to commute the sentence of the suspect, Maurice Clemmons, nine years ago. Clemmons — who was killed by a Seattle police officer on Tuesday (Dec. 1) after a...

TACOMA, Wash. — Authorities have charged four people with aiding the man accused of killing four Washington state police officers and plan on indicting two more in what investigators call a network of friends and relatives that helped Maurice Clemmons avoid capture. Rickey Hinton, 47, pleaded not guilty Thursday at his arraignment to three counts of first-degree rendering criminal assistance. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frederick Flemming ordered him held on $2 million bail. Court documents accuse Hinton, Clemmons' half brother, of lying to police Sunday when they stopped him for questioning near the property owned by Clemmons where Hinton...

San Francisco » The Mormon church and Boy Scouts of America were named as defendants in lawsuits Monday claiming childhood sexual abuse by youth leaders decades ago. Alleged victims filed suits against both organizations in San Francisco and Seattle, and against the church alone in Portland, Ore. The plaintiffs are all represented by Portland attorney Kelly Clark, who has brought similar suits against the church and the Boy Scouts in the past. In the suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, three brothers claim the church ignored their complaints about being molested by their Silicon Valley Boy Scout and Mormon...

Washington state will not accept any more parolees from Arkansas. The governor's order stems from the belief that Arkansas could have kept the Lakewood cop killer Maurice Clemmons behind bars. Despite a 108-year sentence in Arkansas, Clemmons was on parole. Former Governor Mike Huckabee granted that parole, and is still defending himself for it. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire says under a national agreement, Arkansas should've taken Clemmons back last May when he got himself in trouble again. And don't blame the local courts for the Lakewood tragedy, the governor said. Corrections chief Eldon Vail told Arkansas he'll reject any more...

Maurice Clemmons threatened to kill more than just cops Maurice Clemmons threatened to kill more than just cops in the days before he massacred four Lakewood police officers at a coffee shop in Parkland. Schoolchildren and others also were on his list of targets, according to court records filed Wednesday. A witness told Pierce County sheriff’s detectives that Clemmons told friends and family gathered for Thanksgiving dinner at his aunt’s home in Pacific that he planned to kill “cops, children at a school” and “as many people as he could in an intersection,” according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors....

Maurice Clemmons, the man authorities are convinced fatally shot four Lakewood, WA police officers Sunday morning in a coffee shop in the Parkland area south of Tacoma, evidently left two handguns at the scene of the crime, one of them (as predicted here yesterday) checked out to have been stolen in Seattle. That was one of many revelations in court documents filed yesterday against acquaintances of the now-deceased cop-killer, who are facing some major criminal troubles of their own. The fact that a stolen handgun was left at the scene came as no surprise to gun rights advocates who have...

LITTLE ROCK — An alleged accomplice of Maurice Clemmons, suspected of slaying four Washington state police officers before being gunned down himself, served prison time with Clemmons in Arkansas and is a wanted man in his home state. Washington authorities filed rendering criminal assistance charges today against Darcus D. Allen, the alleged getaway driver for Clemmons, who police say shot to death four police officers early Sunday at a Parkland, Wash., coffee shop. A lone police officer shot Clemmons to death early Tuesday in Seattle while investigating a stolen vehicle. Authorities today pressed charges against others accused of aiding Clemmons’...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Gov. Chris Gregoire said the state won't accept any more parolees from Arkansas until she's assured of a better system for sending them back. "If Arkansas doesn't like it, then sue me," she said. "You know, I don't care. My job is to protect the people of the State of Washington first and foremost." http://www.komonews.com/news/local/78347152.html

Destiny Hinton, the niece of the man police say killed four officers at a Lakewood coffee shop, told KIRO/7 the family wants a memorial where her uncle was shot to death in the 4400 block of South Kenyon Street. Hinton's father and Clemmons half-brother, Rickey Hinton, is jailed in Pierce County. Police say he helped the cop killer escape.

I just heard on AM radio news: Clemmons was getting help to elude police from "other militants".

SNIPPET: "Seattle police officer Benjamin L. Kelly is being hailed as a hero for his actions early Tuesday morning, in which he single-handedly shot and killed Maurice Clemmons, the man wanted in Sunday's killings of four Pierce County officers. After an intense, two-day manhunt for Clemmons, Kelly had stopped to check out a stolen car parked on the side of a road in Rainier Valley. Clemmons was outside the car. Kelly recognized him from police bulletins and ordered him to put up his hands, police said. When he refused, Kelly shot Clemmons." SNIPPET: "The pistol found on Clemmons matched the...

When Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of killing four Lakewood police officers, walked free from a Pierce County jail last week, it wasn't for lack of effort on the part of Washington officials to keep him behind bars.Documents released Tuesday show that a wide variety of state and local officials — everyone from prosecutors to sheriff's deputies to corrections officers — viewed Clemmons as a dangerous man, and wanted desperately to keep him in custody.But Washington officials encountered resistance from an unlikely source — their correctional colleagues in Arkansas. The acrimony has since become so intense, according to Pierce...