Washington | featured news

LONGVIEW — For some, knitting is a hobby. For the women of Somerset Retirement Home, it is a labor of love.
Every Tuesday, women from all over Longview and neighboring cities meet around a table at the assisted living center cluttered with colorful mounds of yarn, knitting needles and round looms. They call themselves the “knitting gals.” They are a group of about 10 women — and counting — who knit hats, blankets, socks and more for local communities in need of warm attire for fall and winter.

SPOKANE — Spokane International Airport is reporting business as usual despite a record number of Transportation Security Administration workers calling in sick nationally due to the partial government shutdown.
Unless the shutdown comes to an end, this Friday will mark the second paycheck missed by 800,000 government workers.
The Spokesman-Review reports the number of TSA sickouts nationally reached 10 percent on Sunday.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is rejecting an appeal from a former Seattle-area football coach who lost his job because he refused to stop praying on the field.
But four conservative justices say Tuesday that they are interested in former Bremerton High School Coach Joe Kennedy’s case and the legal issues it raises.

HILLSBORO, Ore. — Authorities say a 21-year-old man died in Hillsboro, Ore., after the car he was traveling in left the roadway and hit a tree – ejecting him from the vehicle.
KOIN reports the crash happened about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and a second passenger was treated at the scene.
An investigation continues.

BEND, Ore. — The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which oversees the state’s bottle deposit program, says about 90 percent of the containers covered by the plan were returned and redeemed in 2018.
That’s a jump of around 35 percent over where the figure stood just two years ago.
The Bulletin reports Oregonians recycled around 2 billion containers last year, the most ever under the program.

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. diplomat for Europe is resigning after only 16 months on the job in a blow to efforts to maintain trans-Atlantic unity amid questions about the Trump administration’s commitment to historic alliances.
The State Department said Tuesday that Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell would leave his post in mid-February.

WASHINGTON — An unidentified foreign government is asking the Supreme Court to get involved in a case that may be part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The justices on Tuesday granted the government’s request to file a censored version of an appeal to the high court in which the country is fighting a grand jury subpoena and a $50,000-a-day fine for not complying with the subpoena.