Puget Sound

For weeks now, an orphan killer whale has been hanging around central Puget Sound--about 250 miles from her only known family member in Canada--and experts are worried she might not survive. There's not much for her to eat, and scientists and whale advocates are concerned about the calf's health. The National Marine Fisheries Service convened a panel of experts to discuss what to do.

Just days after a massive landslide changed the topography of Whidbey Island in Washington state, residents are coming to grips with the idea that change is part of life. They have had community meetings in recent days since the slide pushed an estimated 200,000 cubic yards of earth down the west side of the island in Puget Sound, about 50 miles north of Seattle. What they want is some sense of the timeline for when things will return to normal, Eric Brooks, deputy director of Island County Emergency Management told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.

Eric Cejudo's 26-yard field goal in the sixth overtime gave Whittier College a 42-39 victory over Puget Sound on Saturday in a nonconference Division III football game in Tacoma, Wash. Whittier overcame seven turnovers, including six interceptions — three each by quarterback Alesana Sausau and Collin Wigley — to even its record at 1-1. Puget Sound (1-2) had five turnovers, including four interceptions. Sophomore running back Kimble Tillman was star of Whittier's late, late, late, late, late, late show, rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns in 23 carries.

Geologists searched for clues Thursday to explain the collapse of a 1,000-foot chunk of hillside on the west side of Whidbey Island in Washington state that left a number of homes in danger. The geological team was on the island, located in Puget Sound about 50 miles north of Seattle, and is expected to report its findings soon, Terry Clark, a spokeswoman for the Island County Emergency Management Department, said Thursday morning in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Boeing Co. confirmed that it will consolidate several operations in the Puget Sound area, affecting the jobs of 3,500 employees around the country over the next three years. The Seattle company said it plans to transfer employees or change their assignments rather than cut personnel. It promised to honor all labor agreements. Boeing spokesman Fred Mitchell said initial estimates show that 25% to 30% of work in the area could be contracted outside the company as a result of the changes.

An estimated 8,000 grocery clerks and meat cutters agreed to end an 81-day strike that forced Puget Sound supermarkets to cut back their hours. Members of the Food and Commercial Workers union, who had walked out May 11, voted Sunday night to accept a three-year contract that provides raises and continues Sunday premium pay, which employers had sought to cut, said union spokeswoman Sandi Hubler.

Road and utility crews worked around the clock Thursday to restore power to about 750,000 customers after the worst windstorm in three decades swept through Puget Sound with gale-force winds, killing at least five people. "It's the largest power outage we've ever had," said Bill Seil, a spokesman for Puget Sound Power & Light Co., which said it had called in utility and contract crews from as far away as Portland, Ore., and British Columbia to repair lines.

Southern California College fell short of the title game at the NAIA softball championships, losing to Puget Sound (Wash.), 4-3, in an elimination game at Columbia, Mo., to finish third. The Vanguards, who won three games Friday, including a 3-1 victory over Puget Sound, opened the day with a 4-0 loss to Oklahoma City, which later defended its title with a 3-1 victory over the Loggers.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that a Puget Sound estuary polluted by a pulp mill had been cleaned up--the first marine Superfund site to be so designated. It is also the first time Superfund damage claims have been settled without litigation. No public funds were used in the cleanup. In a statement Monday, EPA Administrator William K.

Salmon are not the only troubled fish in the Pacific Northwest. An analysis prepared last month for a joint U.S.-Canadian scientific panel on the health of fish stocks declared bluntly that "fish resources in Puget Sound have seriously declined, and harvests are at their lowest level in over 55 years." Where once commercial and sport fishermen annually hauled over 26 million pounds of fish out of these waters, the 1993 catch was a paltry 3.6 million pounds.

Let's get lost in the Pacific Northwest, and I don't mean in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada. Little Gig Harbor - for most of the last century accessible only by boat - is a working fishing village ringed by tall pines on the ragged western edge of Puget Sound. Think sailboats, beachcombing, art galleries, a blessing of the fleet festival, fresh salmon, Washington state wines and the occasional glimpse of Mt. Rainier on the eastern horizon. At the far end of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge - famous for the collapse of its first incarnation four months after it opened in 1940 - Gig Harbor isn't easy to get to, about a 45-minute drive from Sea-Tac Airport.

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. - It would be hard to imagine a place further removed from the brash intensity of Occupy Wall Street. This secluded island of fir forests and rolling lavender fields - home to 23 organic farms, a tofu factory and a monastery that markets its own gourmet coffee - has always been a counterculture retreat for those who bike to the sound of different drummers. Yet a continent away - a whole world away, really - from New York, this small island of 11,000 residents has become one of the darlings of the Move your Money campaign, an Occupy effort to hit corporate banking where it hurts: the ledgers.

Two floating bridges across Lake Washington connect Seattle with its eastern suburbs. The roadbeds rest on huge pontoons and sway a bit as you drive across them on a windy day. One is the last gasp of Interstate 90 as it finishes its journey from Boston to the Puget Sound. The other is State Route 520, or "the 520," as it's known. Which bridge to take where, at what time, using which entrances and exits has long been a major preoccupation of Seattleites, and a frequent icebreaker with strangers.

The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, working in concert with a number of environmental and energy activists and researchers in Washington and Montana, announced Thursday a new push to get Puget Sound Energy to stop buying power from coal-fired Colstrip Generating Station in Montana. According to EPA rankings, the facility is the eighth most egregious emitter of greenhouse gases among power plants in the U.S. The campaign announced this as a "bold move" in their nationwide push to negotiate closure dates for coal-fired plants, or to get them switched to cleaner-burning natural gas, since PSE is also a leader among utilities in developing wind farms and pushing for greener forms of electrical generation.

The story of Seattle's ascent out of the tidal flats of Puget Sound is a tad bawdy -- with tales of vice and 2,500 of the city's women whose registered occupation was "seamstress" -- but most of all it's about bad plumbing and engineering ingenuity. "You've just walked through a second-floor window," Tug, our tour guide, tells the group. It's July, and like all good tourists, we're partaking of Bill Speidel's Underground Tour of old Seattle. Tug was obviously delusional -- I know I had stepped through a doorway, from the street.

The Sleeping Bulldog B&B in Seattle lives up to its name. Bulldogs Minnie and Mojo live at this three-guestroom inn about a mile from Pioneer Square. Each room has views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. With a limited-time offer from Yuupon, a two-night stay costs  $229.  The deal: Yuupon, like some discount travel sites, sells you a coupon, which you have a limited time period to redeem. In this case, the $229 coupon applies to the 400-square-foot New Orleans Room with a fireplace, flat-screen TV and Jacuzzi tub. The room comes with a full breakfast and a $50 Restaurant.com certificate to spend at area eateries.

Only two games into the season it may be too early to talk about low points for the men's basketball team at Cal State Dominguez Hills. But if you did, Saturday night's spotty performance against the visiting University of Puget Sound will probably rank right up there with the worst when the highlight films are made. And yet, the Toros came from behind to win, 69-67. Dominguez Hills leveled its record at 1-1, but you won't hear many of its players bragging about this one.

Just when it seemed that Chapman College's basketball team had run out of gas, Dean Balcao stepped forward and filled it up. Again and again and again. After making just 8 three-point field goals all last season, Balcao made 4 in a little more than a minute. His shooting barrage ignited an 18-0 second-half run that led to Chapman's 84-68 victory over the University of Puget Sound Saturday night in front of 775 at the Hutton Sports Center.

The Betty MacDonald Farm is still everything its first owner described in her memoir "Onions in the Stew": a beautiful retreat with a breathtaking view of Puget Sound, lush fruit trees and bald eagles nesting just outside the windows. The farm in the 1940s and '50s was the ideal spot for MacDonald to raise two daughters while cranking out bestselling books that detailed, with a contemporary comedic sense, every step, and misstep, that led her here. Happily for the legion of MacDonald fans - and for nature lovers visiting nearby Seattle - the farm and its grounds are largely as she and her second husband, Don, left it when they moved to Carmel in the 1950s.

Eric Cejudo's 26-yard field goal in the sixth overtime gave Whittier College a 42-39 victory over Puget Sound on Saturday in a nonconference Division III football game in Tacoma, Wash. Whittier overcame seven turnovers, including six interceptions — three each by quarterback Alesana Sausau and Collin Wigley — to even its record at 1-1. Puget Sound (1-2) had five turnovers, including four interceptions. Sophomore running back Kimble Tillman was star of Whittier's late, late, late, late, late, late show, rushing for 238 yards and three touchdowns in 23 carries.