Free Republic

RICHLAND, WA - Swimming in certain public areas in the City of Richland could soon get you up to a year in jail. It sure is one way to get people's attention when enforcing restricted swimming areas in the city. Swimming is already banned in many areas around public docks used by boats, but this new law would make swimming in one of these areas a gross misdemeanor. That would include possibly serving one year behind bars or thousands of dollars in fines. Parks and Public Facilities director Joe Schiessl tells NBC Right Now there would be a community education...

A fresh cash infusion of $250,00 from ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and wife Connie has swelled the pro-Initiative 594 Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility warchest to $3.4 million. The Ballmers gave $125,000 apiece, swelling their total contributions to $600,000. The pro-594 campaign reports more than $1.1 million in cash on hand, according to its filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission. The alliance was formed, largely by faith leaders, after the December 2012, massacre of 20 first graders in Newtown, Connecticut. After the Washington Legislature failed to act, supporters collected signatures to put on the ballot a statewide initiative that...

The pistils, or white strands that mark the blooming of marijuana flowers, have turned amber, the color of money to the pot farmers inside a Sodo warehouse. It’s time for the first harvest of “West Seattle Kush” by AuricAG, one of the pioneering legal pot growers in Washington state. The team of local guys isn’t popping Champagne yet. Drying, curing and crucial lab tests are to come — and probably more of the unanticipated problems that have stressed the AuricAG team in their race to market. They’ve worked Father’s Day, Fourth of July, and close to 130 days straight. Finances...

An Amazon.com employee from out of town was the operator of a drone that buzzed the Seattle Space Needle this week, police said. Witnesses told police they saw the craft fly back into a fifth-floor room of a nearby hotel. Police contacted the man and he admitted operating the drone equipped with a camera Tuesday. He told authorities he wanted to try out the craft he recently purchased at a hobby shop. Police had received reports that the drone had crashed into the landmark of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair, but they saw no evidence of that.

While record-setting wildfires engulfed Central Washington, budding marijuana businesses in the area suffered from scorched plants unfit for production, pop-up fires on farms and road closures that slowed deliveries to retailers. A 15,000-acre wildfire encroached on the Columbia River Cannabis farm in Douglas County earlier this month and burned its 5-week-old medical-marijuana plants that were eventually to be used to start growing in the recreational market. Columbia River Cannabis in Douglas County was finally close to getting a marijuana-producer license after nine months. That is, until a 15,000-acre wildfire encroached on its farm July 10 and burned its 5-week-old medical-marijuana...

This is maybe somewhat misnamed, but does have an interesting collection of slideshows with commentary. Click the link above or Seattle-PI Pot Blog

With the state set to license a handful of recreational-marijuana stores Monday, retailers have been hustling to set up shop while growers and processors are racing to package pot so it’s ready to deliver Tuesday, when the first stores are expected to open. Aaron Nelson, the general manager of 2020 Solutions in Bellingham, said his store has already passed inspection by the state Liquor Control Board and hopes to open its doors Tuesday at 8 a.m., the earliest hour allowed under state law. Nelson expects to have enough marijuana for at least 1,000 people Tuesday, but said 2020 Solutions might...

Greenshields and Sewell envision their product selling for roughly $3,000 per pound. They believe their pot will be as good as anybody’s. But they want to be in the business long-term and establish a well-regarded brand. They don’t want to be seen as gouging the first customers just because they can. After retailer markup and before sales tax, Sewell hopes consumers can buy an eighth of an ounce of AuricAG weed for $60. Top-shelf eighths sell in medical marijuana dispensaries for roughly $40. But dispensaries don’t pay the stiff state excise taxes that the recreational system will — 25 percent...

Soccer star Hope Solo pleaded not guilty to domestic violence charges this afternoon in Kirkland Municipal Court. City prosecutors asked for a bail of $5,000 and no-contact order between Solo and the alleged victims. However, Kirkland Municipal Court Judge Michael J. Lambo allowed Solo to be released on her own recognizance after her attorney, Todd Maybrown, argued that she had no prior arrests and was not a flight risk. The judge also ordered Solo to not consume alcohol as a condition of her release. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Aug. 11. Among those seated in court was Jerramy Stevens,...

Full Title: Safety in steel: Hanford workers' health monitored in room made from battleship RICHLAND -- For 25 years, the hull of the battleship USS Indiana has helped protect the health of Hanford workers. Before that, it played a role in saving the life of Hanford's Atomic Man, Harold McCluskey, who took in life-threatening amounts of radioactive material in a Hanford accident. The pre-Atomic Age steel from the battleship's hull now is at work in a low, nondescript building in Richland on the corner of Goethals and Knight streets, with a small sign labeling it the In Vivo Radiobioassay and...

Yes, Washington marijuana growers will have product ready for sale in the first week of July in time for the first wave of 20-30 stores receiving state licenses. Exactly which day those first stores will open, how much you’ll be able to buy and how much it will cost the consumer is still mostly an open question, but there will be legal weed on store shelves. But expect it to sell out fast. “There’s just no way it’s not going to sell out,” said Attila Soos, the owner of Verdavanti, one of the largest growers licensed so far. He will...

Government-hired survey teams will soon ask hundreds of Washington state motorists to answer questions and provide samples of breath, saliva and blood — all to give safety and police agencies a clearer sense of how many people drive impaired. The roadside surveys are voluntary, and participants will be paid up to $60, under the federally funded project this summer. National officials are collaborating with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, which is hurrying to gather data before retail marijuana gains a foothold. That way, officials have a baseline from which to measure any safety effects of legalization, said commission spokeswoman Jonna...

Inside a windowless Sodo warehouse teeming with 1,143 pot plants, one of the state’s pioneering marijuana producers waited anxiously to “snap the lights.” To growers, that means putting the leafy stalks on a 12-hour cycle under the lights. The suddenly shorter “days” signal to the plants that fall is coming — in early June. “That’s when we play Mother Nature,” said Steve Elliott, an owner of one of Washington’s first licensed pot growers, AuricAG. “It puts the plants into hyper-drive.” To propagate the species, the all-female plants then start to flower, secreting resins, sticky with pot’s psychoactive chemicals, to attract...

Charges for some of the most common inpatient procedures surged at hospitals across the country in 2012 from a year earlier, some at more than four times the national rate of inflation, according to data released by Medicare officials on Monday. While it has long been known that hospitals bill Medicare widely varying amounts — sometimes many multiples of what Medicare typically reimburses — for the same procedure, an analysis of the data by The New York Times shows how much the price of some procedures rose in just one year’s time. Experts in the health care world differ over...

There is no chance of survival for six missing Mount Rainier climbers, officials say. The two guides and four clients from Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International were last heard from at 6 p.m. Wednesday by satellite phone. Six climbers were killed in a 3,300-foot fall along the steep north slope of Mount Rainier, officials said Saturday, in the worst disaster on the mountain in more than three decades. Searchers found tents and clothes, mixed with rock and ice, in a debris field along the Carbon Glacier at 9,500 feet, according to the National Park Service. The group’s climbing route, to Liberty...

Seattle broke its record for rainfall from February through July last Sunday — with more than two months to spare, according to the National Weather Service. As of Sunday, 22.87 inches of rain had fallen at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport since Feb. 1, surpassing the record set in 1972 when 22.81 inches of rain fell from Feb. 1 to July 31, weather-service meteorologist Josh Smith said Tuesday. Fifteen inches is the average rainfall from February through July at the airport, which is where Seattle’s official weather data are recorded. “Basically, we are well ahead of normal rainfall for February to July,” Smith...

The majority party and its leader Narenda Modi have ridden the wave of religious fanaticism. Minorities are appealing to the legacy of democracy and pluralism India is officially in the hands of the Hindu right wing. The Catholic Church and other religious minorities are concerned but they are grinning and bearing it, grasping onto the old and deep-rooted legacy of democratic values and pluralism that characterizes the Indian nation. Their concerns stem from the contiguity of India’s leaders with groups of Hindu fanatics. This is the landscape that has been emerging in the Indian sub-continent since the official general election...

If you live in Jackson, Miss., Obamacare is giving you a raw deal. A 27-year-old in Jackson pays $336 a month for the second-cheapest silver health plan on Mississippi’s s federally run insurance marketplace. That is more than twice as much as the $154 a 27-year-old in Nashville would pay for the same type of policy, and the $138 for a similar person in Tucson. Across all 34 insurance marketplaces run by the federal government, the average is $287, about 25 percent cheaper. The reason for the higher prices in some markets? Paltry competition, say Leemore Dafny and Christopher Ody...

A gunman fired more than 50 times early Friday morning in a Rainier Beach neighborhood. Font Police say gunmen with a high-powered rifle and two pistols sprayed more than 50 rounds in a Rainier Beach neighborhood late Thursday night. No one was injured, but five businesses, and five vehicles were hit. Reports of the shooting came in after 11 p.m. Thursday. That shooting came just days after police investigated a similar shooting just a block away. Like Thursday night's shooting, two pistols and a high-powered rifle were used. Up to 60 shots may have been fired. Police said patrols are...

BARCELONA, Spain — A team from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) just back from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, reports that there appears to be no change in either the virulence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) or its transmissibility. The "dramatic" spike in the number of MERS-CoV cases reported in the past 3 weeks is related to a seasonal increase in primary cases, combined with a "huge spillover and amplification" of secondary cases caused by in-hospital transmission to healthcare workers and other patients, said Denis Coulombier, MD, head of the unit for surveillance and response support...