Starting Saturday, the Washington Department of Natural Resources will ban all outdoor fires in state parks, state forests and DNR-protected areas in Eastern Washington. Because it’s a state ban, it won’t apply to national parks and other federal lands. The ban, effective through Sept. 30, comes after two devastating fire seasons over the past two years. The largest wildfire in Washington’s history occurred in 2014, while 2015 was the worst wildfire year overall. Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark said in a statement that the ban is intended to protect people and property from fires.
Details: Here.
In the past year, Washington saw its largest percentage increase in population growth — 1.7 percent — since 2007, according to a report from the state Office of Financial Management. Seventy-one percent of this growth was caused by people moving in, while the remaining 29 percent was due to births. Most of the growth happened in the largest and economically strongest counties like King, Clark, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane. Overall, Washington gained a little over 100,000 people in the 12 months ending April 1 this year.
Details: Here.
The family of Haram Kim, a 20-year-old Korean international student who was killed when a Ride the Ducks vehicle crashed into a bus, could be denied any compensation from a wrongful death suit . The denial would be based on what they believe is a discriminatory law, The Stranger reports. The law, which dates to 1909, states that if a victim’s family was not living in the United States at the time of death, they cannot claim damages from a wrongful death suit. Ride the Ducks has asked a court to dismiss the suit on the basis of the law. An attorney and member of the Washington State Association of Justice — which is trying to change this law — told The Stranger that, if the case is dismissed, none of the families of the other five victims would likely receive damages because they are all from Asia. The Kim family attorney argues that this law was created at a xenophobic and anti-Asian period in Washington history. "It's, on its face, nativist. It's a kind of Donald Trump's America thing," he said.
"Ride the Ducks Cites "Discriminatory" Law to Deny Relief to Families of Crash Victims," The Stranger.
It turns out there are plenty of places where you can eat bugs in Seattle, if that’s what you’re looking for. Two KUOW reporters took a tour of some Seattle restaurants and tried water beetles, grasshoppers and snails. As a man who raises snails (technically, they are gastropods, not insects, but who's nit-picking?) on the Olympic Peninsula for one of the restaurants puts it, "We're eating bugs every day whether we know it or not — might as well do it purposefully." If you’re curious what they tasted like — but not curious enough to brave trying them yourself — the grasshoppers were described as pretty plain, but the water bugs apparently tasted "like a salt lick chased by an apple Jolly Rancher" hard candy. If you feel the urge to cook snails, well, there’s a recipe included (and don't forget the part about putting them on a fast to "clear out their digestive tract").
“We ate bugs at Seattle restaurants. This one tasted like apple Jolly Rancher” KUOW
