Washington | featured news

OLYMPIA — Washington’s lieutenant governor says he won’t preside at Gov. Jay Inslee’s State of the State speech because he’s concerned people might bring concealed weapons into the joint session of the Legislature.

EUGENE, Ore. — A Eugene man and two juveniles were arrested Sunday after police say they kidnapped and tortured a man inside a motor home for more than two hours.
Shane Lewis, 29, and two 16-year-old males, whose names were not released Monday, were arrested by Springfield police on Sunday afternoon on charges of second-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery and the unauthorized use of a vehicle. Lewis was booked into the Lane County Jail on Sunday, and the two juveniles were booked into the Serbu juvenile detention center.

EVERETT — A man who killed his wife at her Snohomish-area home as they were divorcing last year has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
The Daily Herald reports Paul Martinez was sentenced Monday in Snohomish County Superior Court for the shooting death of 45-year-old Holly Martinez.
He previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while armed with a firearm, with a special finding that the crime “occurred within sight to sound of the victim’s and the defendant’s minor children.”

PORTLAND — Two winter storms last month tore off the basement walls of the Rockaway Beach home that Tai Dang has been trying to save for the past four years.
But the Portland area man appears to have finally reached a major turning point in his fight to install riprap to protect the Tuscan-style villa, estimated to be worth $1.8 million in better days.

PORTLAND — A self-described cannabis ambassador is accused of stalking a woman whose business is based along the Newport highway where he spins a sign advertising a nearby marijuana dispensary.
Edward P. Biggar II, 53, was arrested Monday in Newport on an outstanding arrest warrant on suspicion of stalking around 11:30 a.m. as he was twirling his CannaMedicine sign on U.S. 101.
Biggar, who refers to himself as the “Weedman,” frequently wears a suit decorated with marijuana leaves.

Carol Channing, the raspy-voiced star who created two of Broadway’s unforgettable characters and songs, in “Hello, Dolly!” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” has died. She was 97.
She died Tuesday at her home in Rancho Mirage, California, according to the New York Times, citing her publicist, B. Harlan Boll. She had two strokes in the past year.

HOUSTON — A Houston hospital has removed its president and several other leaders following an unusually high number of patient deaths, including a recent case in which a patient died after receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type.