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Two men were rescued from Puget Sound waters Saturday evening after their kayak sank, according to Lacey Fire District 3.

The men spent an hour in the water between Tolmie State Park and Anderson Island before they were rescued, Battalion Chief Pat Harn said.

They launched their kayak in the area of John Luhr Road, which is near the Nisqually Reach.

Fire crews were dispatched about 7 p.m. One of the men was able to use his cell phone to call his wife, who then called 911, Harn said.

The two men were wearing life jackets, he said. Harn stressed how important it is to wear a life jacket in a situation like this.

Lacey Fire District 3 used two jet skis to rescue the men. Once back on shore, they were treated at the scene for hypothermia and released, Harn said.

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A man was taken to an area hospital Monday morning after his camper caught fire, according to Lacey Fire District 3.

Fire crews were dispatched about 9:40 a.m. to the 7900 block of Kelly Beach Road Southeast, which is near Yelm Highway.

The man was removed from the camper, but he suffered smoke inhalation as a result of the blaze. He was later taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Battalion Chief Pat Harn said.

The fire did not extend beyond the camper, he said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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Amazon will open a new logistics center in Everett, Washington, for its broadband satellite network, Project Kuiper, expanding its ability to design, test and manufacture satellites in the Puget Sound region.

At the 184,000-square-foot facility, Project Kuiper workers will receive and sort supplies that will then be used to construct thousands of satellites. Those materials from third-party vendors will be the physical and metaphorical nuts and bolts that are used to construct each satellite. They will range from electrical boxes to mechanical structures to specialty items, said Steven Metayer, vice president of product operations at Amazon.

The new facility, set to open in June, will help streamline the manufacturing process as Project Kuiper prepares to launch its first production satellites later this year.

Employees will collect and inspect the raw materials and then compile a production kit that will be sent to Project Kuiper’s manufacturing facility in Kirkland, where the satellites are made. That hub opened its doors last year and began manufacturing satellites in April, Metayer said.

The new facility in Everett is “a big step in our supply chain operation,” he continued.

Through Project Kuiper, Amazon hopes to bring high-speed, low-latency broadband to areas that don’t have reliable internet access, using a low Earth orbit satellite network with more than 3,000 satellites. After a successful prototype launch in October, Project Kuiper aims to launch its first production satellites sometime this year, though Metayer said it’s too early to pinpoint a specific date.

There’s a “very prescribed” ramp-up plan, Metayer said. With “something as complicated as this, you start out walking, then eventually you run.”

In the race to provide broadband, Project Kuiper is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which flew its first Starlink satellites in 2018 and has since launched more than 5,000 satellites using its own rockets.

Project Kuiper’s satellites are largely built in Washington, before heading to Cape Canaveral, Fla., where they will integrate with the rockets that will carry them to space. The prototype satellites launched aboard the Atlas V rocket from United Launch Alliance, and the production satellites are expected to take off on another ULA rocket.

In Washington, Amazon has continually increased its Project Kuiper footprint over the last few years. It opened a 219,000-square-foot research and development facility in Redmond in 2020 to design and test its satellites and announced the 172,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Kirkland in 2022.

Expanding in the Puget Sound region “was always in the plan,” Metayer said. “The reason why we’re here is to keep it close to the engineering team, the people who designed it and know the most about it.”

“We’re pretty confident that the footprint we’re building will give us the ability to have a full constellation” of satellites, he said.

Once the manufacturing facility reaches its peak capacity next year, the Kirkland factory will be able to build five satellites per day, Metayer said.

The logistics center in Everett will have space to store enough materials for five satellites per day and a couple months of supplies, he added.

Once fully operational later this year, the Everett center will create 200 jobs, according to Amazon. The Kirkland center will have 250 jobs once fully ramped up.

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin said Tuesday in a prepared statement that the new facility will have a positive impact on Everett’s economy and that she is excited to “put our stamp on a project that will help transform the world.”

As part of its expansion in Washington, Amazon also announced Tuesday it has partnered with the Lake Washington Institute of Technology to create a satellite technician certificate program. The certificate will focus on safety protocols, aerospace assembly skills, electrical systems and emerging technologies, Amazon said.

Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy and community engagement, said in a prepared statement that the partnership will “create a pipeline of future satellite technicians to meet the evolving needs of this area’s thriving space and satellite sectors, and give more people the opportunity to take part in Project Kuiper’s important mission.”

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Mutilated, injected and forced to kill or be killed: Roosters raised for the blood sport of cockfighting face a hellish life.

"Usually after a fight, they just throw them away. I've seen 55-gallon drums of dead birds," said Ronnie Cooper, a special agent supervisor for the Washington State Gambling Commission.

Animal cruelty has been in the spotlight following the seizure of hundreds of roosters allegedly used for cockfighting in Outlook and Zillah and a new state law that strengthens the punishment for animal cruelty. It's a problem that has persisted for years across the U.S. and world, but often gets less attention in the face of other serious crimes.

Cooper said local police often are bogged down with other crimes and there is a sentiment among the public that because this illegal activity is often conducted in rural areas, it isn't affecting their community.

Animal fighting, usually done with roosters and dogs, is fueled by illegal gambling and can be associated with drugs, assaults, robbery and even murder, according to information from the gambling commission.

"It isn't just animal fighting, it's drugs and other crimes," Cooper said.

Yakima County raid

In March, 20 search warrants were served in the Yakima area alone in an operation targeting the prison gang La Nuestra Familia in Eastern Washington.

When agents made arrests, they seized 37 guns, cocaine, methamphetamine and more than 8,000 fentanyl pills, along with hundreds of roosters from Zillah and Outlook.

Thirty-four people were indicted and accused of a variety of crimes, including attempting to kill witnesses. Two of them were indicted on unlawful animal fighting charges. The joint federal-state operation, led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, began in 2018 and involved over 350 law enforcement personnel across the state and in Louisiana, Colorado, and Arkansas.

This was "the second time in five years that we have encountered a cockfighting enterprise," said Casey Schilperoort, spokesperson for the Yakima County Sheriff's Office.

More than 40 of the roosters from the Yakima Valley were sent to Heartwood Haven, a farm animal sanctuary in Roy, near Tacoma.

A new home for rescued roosters

For some abused animals, a happily-ever-after ending is possible.

The adoption of a rescued rooster named Porter back in 2017 is what nudged Kate Tsyrklevich, and her wife, Hope Hillman, to found Heartwood Haven. It is one of the few local organizations that will take seized cockfighting roosters, which would otherwise be euthanized.

"He was such a cool little dude," Tsyrklevich said of Porter. "He would just hang out with us."

A sanctuary in North Carolina has offered to take some of the recent rescues. Heartwood Haven has already sent many of the birds in crates on red-eye flights.

Tsyrklevich is urgently looking for homes for roosters. It's not an easy task, since they can have a public perception problem. Just because a rooster has a cockfighting background doesn't mean it will be aggressive, she said. Many can be safe around children and hens.

Those interested in adopting a rooster can visit the Heartwood Haven website, heartwoodhaven.org. Heartwood Haven conducts home checks on adopted roosters, as cockfighting organizers have attempted to adopt back their seized roosters before, she said.

"These roosters are deserving of life. They are friendly and good with people," she said.

Legislature increases penalty for animal cruelty

In March, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law strengthening the state's animal cruelty penalties.

The Legislature almost unanimously passed House Bill 1961, which reclassifies animal cruelty in the first degree starting in June.

Currently, animal cruelty in the first degree is a class C felony, and animal cruelty involving sexual conduct is a level three on the felony seriousness scale. Soon, all cases of animal cruelty will be ranked level three, which will allow judges to give longer sentences to those who commit animal cruelty offenses. Depending on criminal history, someone found guilty of animal cruelty may now be sentenced between two months and five years, rather than up to one year.

State Rep. Sam Low, a Republican from Lake Stevens, was the sponsor of the bill.

"Washington state should always stand for justice and compassion for all living beings. Through this bill, we have an opportunity to give a voice to the voiceless and deter future acts of cruelty," Low said before the bill went to vote.

Mutilations and neglect

Roosters used in cockfighting are abused, Cooper said. The waddles and combs of fighting roosters are cut off. Most of their spurs are cut off, so that deadlier metal spurs, known as gaffs, can be attached.

"They mutilate the birds to a degree," Cooper said.

Among other acts of cruelty, he said, roosters are sometimes injected with methamphetamine to make them more aggressive. Because animal fighters don't want to get caught, their animals never see a veterinarian, though they often inject the animals with supplements. A rooster raised for fighting might go for $10,000, if it has a "good bloodline."

Dogs raised for fighting are often tortured to make them more aggressive. They are also often hung by chains on spring poles to strength their neck and jaws. Dog fights have been busted near Yakima and Snohomish, where heroin exchanges were also conducted.

But there's hope. Cooper has been around dogs recently rescued from a dogfighting operation. "They weren't trying to attack me; they just wanted to be petted and loved," he said.

Long investigations and a call to action

It's not easy to establish probable cause in an animal fighting case, especially if they are conducted out in rural, hidden places, Cooper said. A wide variety of tactics can be used to gather evidence for this crime, including undercover agents and confidential informants. The investigations can take a lot of time.

Tips from neighbors are often helpful. The Washington State Gambling Commission accepts tips on illegal gambling activities like cockfighting and dogfighting through its website, wsgc.wa.gov. 

Tips can be anonymous.

Several tips led to the 2018 raid of a cockfighting ring in Port Orchard, which led to arrests of two operators and 27 spectators and the seizure of $35,000 in cash and 300 roosters. Attending an animal fight is a felony under state law.

Signs of animal fighting include lots of traffic in remote areas and crowds gathering in barns. Cockfighting roosters may have their combs and waddles removed, and fighting dogs might have visible scars.

Every time law enforcement takes down a breeder or fight organizer, Cooper hopes that future fights and other serious crimes are prevented. The commission receives one or two tips a month about potential animal fights across the state.

"It's affecting everyday people," he said.

Questen Inghram is a Murrow News Fellow at the Yakima Herald-Republic whose beat focuses on government in Central Washington communities. Email qinghram@yakimaherald.com or call 509-577-7674.

This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, email news@yakimaherald.com.

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A Sunday afternoon fire tore through an Oakville residence, leaving only charred remains of the structure.

The initial call came in at 1:57 p.m. for a structure fire, said Chief Carlton Rhoades of the Grays Harbor Fire District 1, while the department's first-out engine was already assisting East Grays Harbor Fire and Rescue with a call.

The structure, located on the 300 block of South 2nd Street, was completely ablaze when the initial fire crews arrived on scene, Rhoades said.

"Everybody was out. As far as we know there was only one occupant and he was out with law enforcement when we got there," Rhoades said in an interview. "They immediately went to structure protection because the house was a loss."

Invoking mutual aid agreements with West Thurston Regional Fire Authority and Riverside Fire Authority, crews worked to suppress the spread of the fire as it threatened neighboring structures and vehicles, Rhoades said.

"We held it to the residence of origin," Rhoades said. "We spent a significant amount of time in overhaul. There was a tremendous amount of fire load in the house."

The fire entered overhaul at 2:47 p.m. and crews cleared the scene at 4:42 p.m., Rhoades said. The thoroughness of the devastation made discerning the origin of the fire impossible, Rhoades said; the interior of the house was totally destroyed, with only a few charred remnants of the wall and roof still standing.

The fire comes at a busy time for the department, Rhoades said.

"Lately, we've had a lot of structure fires," Rhoades said. "We've been busy."

A fire swept through the beach grass at Pacific Beach State Park on Saturday, destroying about two acres, after a campfire on the beach spread.

Grays Harbor Fire District 8, with assistance from the Quinault Nation Fire Management, extinguished the fire. No injuries were reported and no property was destroyed, but the fire marks the start of a season where the threat of wildfires in the dune grass reaches its most dangerous.

Some of the rules for beach fires set out by GHFD8:

• All fires must be set 100 feet from the dunes, beach grass and vegetation
• Fires should be no more than 3 feet high and 3 feet wide
• Fires should not be left unattended under any circumstances
• Fires should be completely extinguished before leaving
• Fireworks should be aimed at the water
• Trash or firework debris should not be burned in the fire
• Beachgoers should be aware of the wind and where the sparks will fly

Beach grass is extremely dry and prone to fire, even after rainfall. Fire can spread easily with the wind and destroy the environment and structures, such as homes