The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's dangerous-bear and cougar hot line number has changed. The problem is, no one knows that, according to the Tacoma News Tribune. The old 800 number was recycled, and it now goes to Mark Young's business, Soils Control International in Dallas. Young enjoyed offering common sense advice to folks with minor problems, but things have started to escalate. "One woman called, and her Muffy had run in through the pet door, and a cougar was stuck half in and half out of the pet door, swatting at the dog. She was talking to me and hitting it with a broom," he said. "She was scared." Young has gotten three callers with similar pet door situations. Until just a few days ago, 911 dispatchers in Colville and South King County gave Young's number out to people with animal problems. Now he's trying to set the record straight, e-mailing and phoning to get officials to quit giving out his number and to remove postings of it on the Internet. The new number is 800-477-6224. Tribal land for the tribe Concerned that too much reservation land is being bought and sold to nontribal members, the Tulalip tribe's board of directors has called a moratorium on for-profit residential development on the reservation in Snohomish County. The tribe was worried about developers building suburban homes on the reservation that are more attractive to nontribal members, according to the Seattle Times. "We want to buy it all back, but we can't do that if (developers) are out there building houses and selling them to people off the reservation," said John McCoy, the Tulalip Tribes' executive director of governmental affairs. A three-year moratorium will give the tribe a chance to create a long-term strategy for residential development. There is some debate about whether the moratorium is legal. Snohomish County claims legal authority to control development to the Tulalip lands that are owned by nontribal members. Too many fees A $30 business license fee is drawing the ire of vendors at the Port Orchard Farmers Market. Smaller vendors, like 15-year-old Kyle DuGuay, who sells homemade birdhouses, say they can't afford the fee, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. An annual fee of $10 to $20 and a $6 daily fee are already imposed on vendors. The Port Orchard Farmers Market has been around since 1978, housed on the waterfront. It attracts more than 100 vendors, with knickknacks and a few more practical items, such as fruit and jam. Bacteria, toxins close swimming holes E. coli shut down a swimming area in Bellingham's Bloedel Donovan Park for the second time this summer. Water samples taken recently showed bacteria counts were at unsafe levels for three straight days, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A swimming area in Seattle was also shut down, but due to a naturally occurring liver toxin found in the water. No one has reported getting sick this year, but the toxin could cause a potentially fatal illness, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The toxin is a result of blue-green algae in the lake. No one should wade, sailboard or do anything in the lake that would get a person wet, and dogs shouldn't be allowed to drink from the lake, officials said. Never set anything on top of a car A Spokane County sheriff's deputy lost a 35mm camera containing evidence from a burglary, and now the sheriff's office is asking the public to return the camera if they see it, according to the Spokane Spokesman Review. The camera bag may have rolled off the patrol car's roof. It's worth about $200, "but the loss of evidence photos is of greater importance," said Cpl. Dave Reagan. $00:0200307258: $199:A0200307258 $01:Copyright 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co. $02:$?The Columbian $20:August 12, 2002, Monday $30:Clark County/region; Pg. c3 $60:JURY TO BE SET TODAY IN YATES' SECOND MURDER TRIAL $90:PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press writer $100:homicide $120: TACOMA -- Robert Lee Yates has already admitted murdering 13 people, but as he goes to trial for two additional killings in Pierce County, the Spokane father of five is fighting for his own life. After the final round of jury selection scheduled today, Yates' aggravated-murder trial will get under way with opening statements from prosecutors and defense lawyers. Yates, 50, has confessed to 13 murders dating back to 1975. Ten of the dead were Spokane-area women involved in drugs and/or prostitution who disappeared from 1996 to 1998. Yates was sentenced to 408 years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea in October 2000. He has been in the Pierce County Jail ever since, awaiting trial in the December 1997 slaying of Melinda Mercer, 24, and the September 1998 death of Connie LaFontaine Ellis, 35. Like the 10 Spokane women killed in the same period, Mercer and Ellis were killed with a single gunshot wound to the head. Like most of the Spokane victims, their bodies were left in remote areas, their heads swaddled in plastic garbage bags. Prosecutors plan to argue that their deaths were part of a common scheme or plan in the context of the 10 Spokane-area murders Yates has confessed to. Such a plan would constitute an aggravating circumstance, allowing for the state's most serious penalties life imprisonment or execution. Ellis's body was found in a rural area of south suburban Parkland near Fort Lewis, where Yates an Army veteran served as a helicopter pilot for the Washington Army National Guard. Mercer's body was found inside city limits, about four miles from the Ellis site. Yates' DNA was found in semen samples retrieved from Mercer, and Ellis' blood was found inside a van owned by Yates. In both cases, forensic scientists were able to recover bullet fragments and match them to a .25 caliber Raven model semiautomatic pistol. Court documents showed Yates owned two pistols of that caliber and model. The state's case "is big," said Jerry Costello, Pierce County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor. "There's going to be a lot of evidence." Prosecutors have marked over 500 exhibits, including numerous photographs that have been screened by Pierce County Superior Court Judge John McCarthy. "We tried to carefully select the pictures" to avoid emotionally traumatizing the jury, Costello said. At the same time, "it's really important that the jury see how the women were found how we allege the defendant left them." "The women in Spokane we know how he left them," Costello said. "The presentation of evidence from Spokane is to help the jury understand how he did it, where and when. We already know that he did it" committed the Spokane murders. Defense attorneys Roger Hunko and Mary Kay High did not return calls for comment on the upcoming trial. Pierce County prosecutors refused to sign off on the deal Yates made with Spokane County two years ago, a plea bargain that spared him the prospect of execution for 13 killings. In addition to the recent murders, he admitted the apparently random shooting deaths of a young couple near Walla Walla in 1975, when Yates was a guard at the state penitentiary, and the 1988 murder of a Seattle woman in Skagit County. Jury selection got under way in mid-June. Nearly half the 250 prospective jurors were dismissed by McCarthy for hardship reasons related to the length of the trial, expected to last until October. Twelve jurors and four or five alternates are to be selected Monday morning, Costello said. BUNDY, BIANCHI WERE OTHER NW SERIAL KILLERS The Northwest has a chilling history of serial killers, all targeting women. Robert Lee Yates Jr., who's admitted 13 murders and goes on trial this week in two additional deaths, is unfortunately only the latest confirmed predator. Ted Bundy, executed in Florida in 1989, first came to public attention with a series of Seattle-area murders in the early 1970s. He admitted 28 killings and experts believe there were probably at least 40. Ken Bianchi pleaded guilty to strangling two Western Washington University students in Bellingham in 1979. He admitted killing five of 10 young women whose deaths had been attributed to California's "Hillside Strangler." The bodies were left on hillsides in 1977-78 near Los Angeles, where Bianchi lived at the time. Unlike many such predators, Bundy and Bianchi targeted women who were missed, whose deaths provoked widespread concern and fear. Some serial killers, including Yates, work months or even years before their crimes are noticed. Late last year, authorities charged Gary Leon Ridgway of Auburn in four of the 48 deaths attributed to King County's "Green River killer" in the early 1980s. Most of the victims had connections to drugs, prostitution or both. Ridgway, linked to the victims by DNA and other evidence, has pleaded not guilty. $00:0200307262: $199:A0200307262 $01:Copyright 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co. $02:$?The Columbian $20:August 12, 2002, Monday $30:Clark County/region; Pg. c3 $60:LAST-MINUTE GIFTS LIFT SHOPPING SPREE $90:KELLY ADAMS, Columbian staff writer $120: A last-minute flurry of donations made the weekend Mervyn's Back-to-School shopping spree a success. Peggy Hays from the Vancouver Division of Children and Family Services needed between $2,000 and $3,000 to outfit 80 children. An article about the spree ran in the Aug. 4 edition of The Columbian with Hays asking for assistance. When she returned from vacation two days before Saturday's event, there was $5,575 in donations waiting for her. "I could not believe it," she said. There was one check for $3,000 from one individual who promised to give at least that much next year, along with several $10-$50 donations. "This community is so giving," Hays said. The extra money meant six additional children involved with protective services were invited to Mervyn's Saturday morning to spend $100 on back-to-school clothes. "It couldn't have gone better," Hays said. Bridge the Gap, a Vancouver charity, had pledged to help, but instead kept its contribution to fund other programs for foster children. "That's the purpose of Bridge the Gap," said June Garvin, one of the organization's founders. "The community really pulled together." Hays said the majority of the purchases made during the shopping spree were for basics: shoes, winter coats, socks and underwear. "A lot of socks and underwear," she said. "They don't have the necessities." Mervyn's often provides a table of marked-down socks and underwear from packages that have been opened and can no longer be sold at full retail price. Hays often scoops up what's left after the spree to have on hand at the child protective services office. About 500 children will receive help getting ready for school from the Salvation Army. Haircuts, backpacks, school supplies and certificates for shoes will be provided by the organization with help from St. Vincent de Paul, Identity Clark County and the state Department of Social and Health Services. "Project Back to School" is accepting donations of school supplies. They include colored and plain pencils, binder paper, rulers, 24-count boxes of crayons, pens, erasers, glue sticks, pencil boxes or pouches, scissors, spiral notebooks, three-ring binders, folders, markers and calculators. They can be dropped off at the Salvation Army's Corps Community Center, 1500 N.E. 112th Ave., or the Center for Social Services at 7509 N.E. 47th Ave. Donations are needed by Aug. 16. $00:0200307264: $199:A0200307264 $01:Copyright 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co. $02:$?The Columbian $20:August 12, 2002, Monday $30:Clark County/region; Pg. c3 $60:ISLAMIC CONVERT DENIES ANY LINK WITH TERRORISM $90:AP $120: SEATTLE (AP) -- Ali Shahid Abdul-Raheem says his prison conversion to Islam has changed his life for the better. But his alliance with militants at a now-shuttered local mosque has brought him to the attention of federal agents working to uncover terrorist activities across the country. He says he's had nothing to do with terrorism, but does hope to leave America with his wife and children for a new life in a Muslim country. He has traveled to a London mosque that has been a center of militant teachings. He considers the mosque's leader, Abu Hamza al-Masri, a friend. The FBI has questioned him three times in the past year, including on Saturday night, The Seattle Times reported. "I told the FBI, 'You can follow me around until I'm old and gray and you still will not find me with any terrorism group,'" Abdul-Raheem said. Born Patrick Fitzsimmons in 1972, Abdul-Raheem grew up in California and dropped out of high school in the 10th grade. By 19, he was living in Washington, where he and a buddy broke into an Everett apartment and stole a TV and computer. He was convicted of first-degree robbery and sentenced to 31 months in prison. It was in the state penitentiary in Walla Walla where Abdul-Raheem, 30, says his life changed for the better. There, under the guidance of fellow inmate and mainstream Muslim "Omar the Turk," he converted to Islam. The change helped Abdul-Raheem go straight. He quit drinking, smoking and, after leaving prison, he married Halimah, a Muslim woman, and the couple had three children. First a moderate Muslim, Abdul-Raheem later became interested in the more aggressive message of Abu Hamza, a cleric whose funds have been frozen by the U.S. Treasury for his alleged membership in the Islamic Army of Aden. The organization claimed responsibility for the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000. In the 1990s, Abdul-Raheem joined nearly a dozen other conservative Muslims in Seattle's Central Area, and the group tried to enforce strict Islamic law in the block around the now-defunct Dar-us-Salaam prayer center. Mosque members reportedly once beat a drug dealer. "We did not have the money to move to an Islamic country," Abdul-Raheem said. "So we tried to make one here. That block was our Islamic country." $00:0200307266: $199:A0200307266 $01:Copyright 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co. $02:$?The Columbian $20:August 12, 2002, Monday $30:Clark County/region; Pg. c3 $60:SUV REAR-ENDS STALLED CAR; THREE DIE $90:AP $120: KIRKLAND (AP) -- A father remained in critical condition Sunday after a fiery crash on Interstate 405 killed his wife and two children. The family's Honda had reportedly stalled in a northbound lane of the freeway when it was slammed from behind by a sport-utility vehicle, State Patrol troopers said. The Honda burst into flames on impact. The man, who rolled out of the car when it exploded, was flown to Harborview Medical Center, where he was in critical condition, a nurse supervisor said Sunday. He suffered severe burns to the left side of his body, the Eastside Journal of Bellevue reported. Heat from the explosion prevented firefighters and others from reaching the wife and two children. All three died at the scene. The driver of the SUV was treated at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland for minor injuries. No identities had been released. The accident shut down the freeway for several hours. $00:0200307268: $199:A0200307268 $01:Copyright 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co. $02:$?The Columbian $20:August 12, 2002, Monday $30:Clark County/region; Pg. c4 $60:IMMIGRANT FATHER OF 4 FACES DEPORTATION $90:AP $120: WOODINVILLE (AP) -- Egyptian immigrant Maher Shebl may have to leave his quadruplets behind next month if he doesn't find a way to legally remain in the United States. The single father has lived in the United States for 14 years and worked as an engineer in Kirkland since 1996. But his work visa expires Sept. 5 and the Immigration and Naturalization Service says he cannot have any more extensions. If Shebl is returned to Egypt, his 3-year-old children three sons and a daughter, all suffering from developmental disabilities would stay here. As U.S. citizens, they have that right and medical care here is better, he says. Shebl has already appealed to Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who failed to persuade the INS to make an exception on compassionate grounds. "You just feel badly for people in these kind of situations," Inslee said. "We are bound by laws, everyone is. The hard thing is that these really heartbreaking situations happen more often than you would think." Ann Maxwell, a social worker at the Children's Country Home in Woodinville where one of Shebl's little boys is cared for, has written to Gov. Gary Locke, pleading his case. Shebl, who also lives in this community north of Seattle, said he'll turn to President Bush if all else fails. "Lots of people that I know are very angry at the system right now," he said. While some might try to duck the rules, "I have been a law-abiding person, and I like things to go through the legal channels," Shebl said. He came to the United States on a student visa in 1987. He first studied in Illinois and then at Washington State University, where he earned a doctorate in geotechnical engineering. He married, but their relationship fell apart soon after the quadruplets were born, three months premature and with underdeveloped lungs. "They are very good children, although each has a different disability," said Patricia Rantala, who provides day care for the three healthier youngsters. "Marwah has the most developmental difficulties, Alhasan has behavioral problems and Omar lacks large motor skills," she said. Ahmed, who needs a feeding tube, recently learned to walk and was weaned from a respirator. "He won't eat, and that could go on for a very, very long time," said Judy Wachlin, a nurse at the children's home. "But I have been here a year, and it is amazing what he has done in that period of time." Shebl, who lives nearby, said he is working with a lawyer to ensure his children can remain with Rantala in the United States. In Egypt, health care and their future would be uncertain. The INS has no provisions that would allow Shebl extra time in the country, said Joseph Karpinski, the agency's director of congressional relations and public affairs, in a letter to Inslee. With few immigration options, the only way Shebl could legally remain in the country would be to marry a U.S. citizen, which isn't likely. "I'm going to just keep fighting to come back to my children," Shebl said.
MARGARET ELLIS, Columbian staff writer
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