Seattle News (BETA)

One of the oldest matriarchs of an orca pod with ties to the Puget Sound has not been seen for eight months and is presumed dead, whale researchers said today.

The residents of an Olympia trailer park, facing eviction and likely the loss of what they had invested in their homes, are now about to own the place.

Hundreds of firefighters and more than 150 fire engines and other vehicles have assembled at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. They'll drive in a procession to the Christian Faith Center in Federal Way for the 2 p.m. service for East Pierce County Fire and Rescue Chief Dan Packer. He was killed in a July 26 wildfire in California.

A woman lying on an I-5 off-ramp was struck and killed by a passing car. State Patrol troopers say they don't know why the 46-year-old Vancouver...

Azerbaijan Airlines has finalized an order for two Boeing 737-900ERs and two 767-300ERs, and Boeing also announced deals with British Airways and GE Commercial Aviation Services for up to 10 777-300ERs.

OREGON CITY – A man and a woman have been jailed after their sexual encounter led someone to think a rape was in progress.

FRIDAY HARBOR – One of the oldest orcas in Puget Sound pods is missing and presumed dead.

TACOMA – Olympia lawyer Lagrand Jones says it's not a crime to refuse to provide identification to police.

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. – Crews rescued a disoriented man from Mount Hood Wednesday.

PORTLAND – A man who pleaded guilty to an Oregon murder in exchange for buckets of fried chicken will get calzones and pizza to go with his life sentence.

Lummi, one of the oldest orcas in Puget Sound pods, has not been seen since the K pod returned in June.

Dean Peterson is a man on a mission. With a kilt. The mail carrier in Lacey wants the U.S. Postal Service to add kilts as a uniform option for men.

Alfred Friedrich of East Bremerton is charged in the fire that caused $200,000 worth of damage at the Big Valley Vet Clinic on Tuesday night and killed the clinic cat.

The 30 residents of the College Street Mobile Home Park formed a cooperative and raised $1.7 million to buy the property with the help of federal, state and county grants and low interest loans.

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr says more job cuts are coming because the King County budget deficit is much larger than expected.

Investigators said drivers stopped to assist the woman and that she was conscious and talking. But a minivan then came down the offramp and hit her. She died at the scene. A man talking on a cell phone rolled his car nearby.

For the second time this week, local firefighters filled the streets in a memorial procession for a fallen colleague. Hundreds of firefighters gathered Thursday to lead a motorcade to a memorial service for Dan Packer, who was killed last month while battling wildfire in California.

Researchers say a whale known as K-7 has not been seen since the K pod returned in June. As the oldest female, the estimated 98-year-old orca was the leader of the 20 whales in the group.

The helicopter crash Tuesday in California was a painful reminder of the loss of four Grayback Forestry firefighters in July 2002, when a van ferrying its workers from Oregon to a wildfire in Colorado swerved off a highway and spun out of control.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office says a homeless woman seeking a place to pitch a tent contacted the authorities Wednesday after witnessing a man sexually assaulting a bound and naked woman.  But it turned out the sexual encounter was consensual.

The car in which a man was fatally shot is brought into a downtown Seattle courtroom in the murder-for-hire trial of the victim's stepson.

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. -- One of the oldest orcas in Puget Sound pods is missing and presumed dead.

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -- Investigators in Pierce County said that offering gas cards in exchange for information is turning out to be a good way to fight crime.

BREMERTON, Wash. -- The owner of a Bremerton espresso stand said police informed him Wednesday that the city was threatening to shut his business down because his baristas wear bikinis, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -- The 17-year-old driver of a car and his sister fled the scene of a crash that killed a 16-year-old Tacoma girl who was a passenger in the car, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Gas prices that were 41 percent higher last month compared with a year earlier boosted Costco Wholesale Corp.’s July comparable-store sales by 10 percent.

Boeing Co. said British Airways, GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS) and Azerbaijan Airlines have ordered $1.5 billion of 737s, 767s and 777s. (BA)

Nordstrom Inc. said July sales fell to $840 million from $901 million a year earlier. Comparable-store sales also fell, dropping 6.1 percent from July 2007. (JWN)

Zumiez Inc. said same-store sales fell 1.4 percent in July from a year earlier. Total net sales for the month rose to $31.7 million from $28.2 million in 2007. (ZUMZ)

If you want to make the most money, consider a career in information services.

More than 150 firefighters, mostly from East Pierce Fire and Rescue, stood in front of their Bonney Lake headquarters station about 10:30 this morning and saluted as the casket carrying their leader passed by.

Puyallup has spent the first part of the 21st century trying to revitalize its downtown around historic Pioneer Park. First came a new library in 2002. Then came an event pavilion in 2004, followed by a senior activity center in 2006 at the base of a new condominium complex.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon requested new bids Wednesday on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but The Boeing Co. supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane.

Pierce County struck back at Barbara Corey on Wednesday.

The list of requests to the City of Tacoma is long: $100,000 for the Museum of Glass’ mobile hot shop, $100,000 for local farmers markets – and millions more for everything from signs directing people around downtown Tacoma to early childhood education.

A woman lying on an Interstate 5 offramp near Vancouver, Wash., died when she was struck by a car today.

Ten months after they were told to pay $95,000 each for their lots or get out, residents of a manufactured-home park in northeast Thurston County have made a "win-win" deal to own the whole place.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, like other statewide office holders in the Aug. 19 primary election, has little reason to worry about making it to the November ballot.

A few common threads are running through the campaigns for state treasurer, in which a mortician-turned-banker is running against two economists.

About 30 people gathered Wednesday for a question-and-answer session about a measure that would restrict the late-night noise that bars and other commercial establishments can make.

Folson, Calif.-based Waste Connections, Inc. Tuesday announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Tacoma-based Harold LeMay Enterprises, Inc.

For two days beginning Friday, Tollefson Plaza, located near Pacific Avenue and South 17th Street, will be alive with art and music as part of the third annual Showcase Tacoma.

The Pierce County Council is expected to consider the appointment of a Tacoma historian and preservationist to the county's landmarks and historic preservation commission.

Metro Park Tacoma announced this week that staging for improvement work that will soon get underway in McKinley Park has begun.

When completed in July 2009, the revamped Pacific Plaza, located near South 13th and Commerce streets, will boast two new floors of office space, one new level of parking, and expanded and improved street-level retail totaling approximately 32,000 square feet.

WENATCHEE - The Wenatchee AppleSox were only able to muster two runs against the Corvallis Knights on Wednesday night.

BLEWETT PASS - A man in his mid-60s was airlifted out of the Shaser Creek area near Blewett Pass after his all-terrain vehicle rolled over him.

EPHRATA - Autopsy results released Wednesday afternoon did not show whether the explosion-caused deaths of two Moses Lake men last weekend were related.

LAKE WENATCHEE - Lake Wenatchee's first sockeye salmon season in four years opens today, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Tuesday.

MOSES LAKE - The family of a retired electrician killed by an explosion Saturday is trying to make sense of why FBI agents and a bomb-sniffing dog searched the shop behind his Moses Lake home.