SEATTLE – A hereditary chief of the Hoh Tribe died Wednesday of injuries suffered in a weekend traffic accident on the Olympic Peninsula, the Washington State Patrol reported.
Herbert Clyde Fisher Jr., 52, of Forks died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was brought after the collision Saturday on U.S. Highway 101 about 11 miles south of Forks.
Fisher also was known as Chief Klia of the Hoh Tribe, one of the smallest tribes in the Northwest with just 170 members.
The driver of the other vehicle – Phillip E. Roderick, 69, of Olympia – also was airlifted to Harborview. His condition was not available from the hospital late Wednesday.
Fisher served on the Hoh tribal council for many years and presided at numerous tribal events, including an August 2002 potlatch during the Tribal Paddle Journey, when as many as 45 tribal canoes visited the Hoh reservation.
Fisher’s sister, Mary Leitka, said Fisher loved to carve canoes and was part of the Hoh Tribe’s first Tribal Paddle Journey canoe in 1997.
Yakima: Company issued fraud complaint
A company that sells educational materials says it has suspended a salesperson and issued refunds following complaints from consumers in the Yakima area.
In a statement Wednesday, state Attorney General Rob McKenna said a salesman for Brainstorm USA fraudulently told Spanish-speaking parents he was associated with the Yakima School District.
McKenna’s office said it learned this fall that a Brainstorm salesperson obtained a list of student phone numbers and parent names, and was contacting families to sell learning products.
McKenna said the most recent consumer complaint about Brainstorm was received last month, when a Spanish-speaking Union Gap resident said he paid more than $3,000 for software but thought he was getting a computer.
Joe Galluccio, president and chief executive of Atlanta-based Brainstorm, said the company suspended a salesperson after hearing from the school district and is conducting its own investigation.
A 32-year-old man suspected of killing his sister with an ax was arrested after he called 911 to confess to the slaying, police said.
The suspect was still on the phone with dispatchers when Bremerton police arrived at an apartment to arrest him early Wednesday, police said.
The suspect lived at the apartment with his 38-year-old sister, who was found dead at the scene, police said. Police declined to identify either person, saying they had not notified relatives. Authorities say they do not believe anyone else was in the apartment when the woman was killed.
The suspect could be arraigned as early as this afternoon, but no firm court date has been scheduled, police spokesman Andy Oakley said.
Drivers who install automatic toll-collection devices in their vehicles could cut their tolls on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge in half under a plan proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Gregoire’s state budget proposal includes $10 million for the toll discount plan. The idea must be approved by the Legislature, which convenes in early January.
For those who get transponders installed in their cars, the regular $3 roundtrip toll will be cut to $1.50 for the first year.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, said she’s reluctant to take the money away from other projects. Haugen said she would be willing to consider lending money to promote transponder use if it is repaid with toll revenue.
The Legislature convenes Jan. 8 for a session scheduled to end by April 22.
Authorities this week recovered two bodies believed to be from a commercial crab boat that sank Dec. 16, Curry County authorities said.
Members of the Whale Watch program reported seeing a body Wednesday morning on a beach five miles north of Port Orford. It was identified through tattoos as Mark Wagner, 40, one of four people on the ill-fated boat.
Another body, which has yet to be identified, was removed from a cove north of Gold Beach on Tuesday. The body was spotted Christmas Day, but a search-and-rescue crew couldn’t reach it because of high winds, heavy surf and steep cliffs.
Curry County deputies and six volunteers returned during low tide Tuesday and used a winch system to retrieve the body. The sheriff’s office said it will work with the county and state medical examiner’s office to make an identification.
The Ash, a 43-foot fishing vessel, capsized and sank after it was struck by two large waves while trying to cross the Rogue River bar. Besides Wagner, the Port Orford-based fishermen were identified as captain Rob Ashdown and crewmen Josh Northcutt and Louis Lobo.
Days after he was praised as a hero for helping a family escape a burning apartment, a 12-year-old has been identified as one of the boys who may have started the blaze.
Fire officials initially thought an electrical short caused the Christmas Eve fire in a Gresham apartment. Now investigators say it was children playing with matches.
Gresham Fire Marshal Gus Lian said Wednesday that the 12-year-old’s mother and the woman who lived in the apartment with her three boys had each agreed to put one of their children in a treatment program for fire-starters.
Lian said federal health regulations prevented him from disclosing identities of the children referred to the program. Neither child admitted starting the fire.
“We know exactly what happened,” Lian said. “What we don’t know is which of the kids set the fire.”
The 12-year-old, who lived in a neighboring apartment, was spending the night with the other family when the fire broke out. Initially, he was credited with rescuing four people.
Lian, however, said the boy’s post-fire actions were not that heroic.
“(He) broke a window and got himself out,” Lian said, before leaning back through a window to pull another child out.
Associated Press
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