Washington State

On Thursday night, in a small, back room of the local Burgermaster restaurant, a group of neighbors welcomed the man who plans to be the town's newest transplant from California: convicted sex offender Brian DeVries. The people of this rural town of 8,500 welcomed him with questions, condemnations -- and a promise of intense scrutiny. At the end of the meeting, his new neighbors said they were willing to give him a chance. Legally, they had no choice.

President Bush sharply curtailed television advertising in Washington state this week, a sign that national Republicans may be privately conceding the state's 11 electoral votes. With California already being counted in the Democratic column, the apparent Bush pullback from Washington would leave Oregon as the last competitive state on the West Coast in the presidential race. It would also strengthen Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's presumed electoral base.

The race for governor of Washington state was still up for grabs Wednesday, with state Atty. Gen. Christine Gregoire hanging on to a narrow lead over Republican candidate Dino Rossi. But the final results may be days away. Rossi is hoping to become the state's first governor from his party in 24 years. But his edge over Gregoire on Wednesday morning was erased when several thousand more votes from the Seattle area were counted.

There is absolutely no truth to the rumor, advanced by a New York columnist a few years ago, that elections officials in Washington state prefer to age ballots in oak casks before getting around to counting them. That said, it's two weeks after election day, and nobody has any idea who the state's next governor will be.

A microscopic margin of 42 votes, out of nearly 2.9 million cast, separated the two top candidates for governor in Washington state, according to the results of a recount released Wednesday -- enough for the Republican to declare himself the victor but far from enough for his Democratic foe to concede. State Sen. Dino Rossi, vying to become the state's first GOP governor in 24 years, prevailed in the machine recount of the Nov.

Wind-driven waves seriously damaged a dockside restaurant and disrupted ferry service Tuesday while a motorist was killed by a falling tree on nearby Whidbey Island. The storm hit the entire state, blowing dust from the fields in eastern Washington and reducing visibility to zero in some areas. Winds gusted above 70 mph in eastern Washington and topped 50 mph in the northwest part of the state.

Washington state said it will take over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s workers' compensation program, accusing the retail giant of failing to pay proper benefits to injured workers. In seven years of managing its own claims in Washington, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had been warned and fined repeatedly, but still underpaid wages and benefits to injured workers and failed to accept some accident reports, state labor officials said. A spokesman for Bentonville, Ark.

\o7 More Doctors Smoke Camels than any other Cigarette\f7 . . . . \o7 After all, a doctor smokes for pleasure too. The pleasing mildness of a Camel can be just as welcome to his throat as to yours.\f7 The year was 1946. The advertisement arrived in the mailboxes of Americans on the back cover of their Sept. 2 Life magazine. A kindly doctor was pictured taking the pulse of an older woman, a woman not unlike everyone's mother.

Washington state investigators say five children 7 to 16 years old have been found dead in a Graham-area home and they may have been killed by their father. Pierce County sheriff's investigators told the News Tribune that the children apparently were homicide victims. Spokesman Ed Troyer said the father, 35, was discovered dead Saturday afternoon in neighboring King County. Deputies were called to check on the welfare of the children at a mobile home park after the father's body was found.

Pete Carroll will begin searching today for clues, reasons for why California seemingly imploded a week before a showdown with the Trojans. Cal's 42-3 meltdown at Oregon dropped the Golden Bears from sixth to 24th in the Associated Press media poll. "It was so far out of character and out of line with that they'd done up until this point," Carroll said Sunday. Cal's fall makes Saturday's matchup between the Trojans and Golden Bears a game between top-25 rather than top-10 teams.