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Portland Business News
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AWS CEO Adam Selipsky to step down next month
The company has already tapped Adam Selipsky's successor.
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Washington State News
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Mariners acquire INF Jake Slaughter from Cubs
(Photo credit: Margaret Kispert/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK)
The Seattle Mariners acquired minor league infielder Jake Slaughter from the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday for right-hander Tyson Miller.
Slaughter, 27, is batting .297 with five homers, 17 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 32 games this season at Triple-A Iowa, where he has started games at first, second and third base.
Drafted by Chicago in the 18th round in 2018 o
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The Chronicle - Centralia
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Oregon dad accused of drugging girls at sleepover placed on GPS monitoring
A man accused of plying his daughter’s sleep-over friends with sedative-laced smoothies must be monitored by GPS tracking, a Clackamas County judge ruled Monday. The Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office sought to have Michael Meyden, 57, tracked to ensure he stays away from the three girls he’s accused of drugging and their Lake Oswego school. “It’s an added level of security so the victims know that Mr. Meyden is not coming anywhere near them,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Bryan Brock said. The request came from the girls’ families after Meyden attempted to take his own life in March by overdosing on medication, Brock told Circuit Judge Katherine Weber during a brief hearing. Court records show Meyden was hospitalized after overdosing on the sedative Lorazepam. Brock said Meyden’s apparent attempt to harm himself prompted the victims to worry “that they’re not safe either.” Meyden already agreed not to have guns while the case is pending. Meyden’s lawyer, Jeff Turnoy, told Weber that Meyden hasn’t violated any court-imposed conditions while his trial is pending and that there’s no evidence he’s ever gone near the girls’ homes or their families. He’s in counseling, Turnoy said, and is “fostering stable relationships” with his ex-wife and children. “Quite frankly, nothing really has changed that would cause any additional fear such that Mr. Meyden would need to be GPS tracked,” he said. Meyden faces charges of causing another person to ingest a controlled substance and application of a controlled substance to the body of another person, stemming from his alleged conduct while hosting his daughter’s sleepover last August at the Lake Oswego home where he lived at the time. Court records allege he laced mango smoothies with benzodiazepine and served the drinks to his daughter’s friends. The affidavit written in support of a search warrant doesn’t explain a motive. During a search of the home, investigators seized computer equipment, a Vitamix blender, a hand-held blender, reusable straws, a mortar and pestle, bottles of a sedative called Temazepam and an opioid painkiller called Tramadol, court records show. Temazepam is a benzodiazepine used to address insomnia and anxiety and, medical experts say, can cause too much sleepiness, loss of consciousness and can obstruct the airway. Lake Oswego began the investigation after being called to the emergency room at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland where three girls tested positive for benzodiazepine. According to court records, the girls told police they attended a sleepover the night before at their friend’s home and suspected Meyden had given them drugs, leading them to feel groggy and even blacking out. An affidavit written by Lake Oswego police Detective Nicole Palmeri states that Meyden served each of the girls two smoothies each. One girl drank both. One finished one of the drinks and the third girl sipped from a straw “to be nice” but she barely drank any, the affidavit says. Meyden gave each of them their own straws and then later grew upset when he thought his daughter and one of the girls were switching straws, the affidavit states. The court filing says the girl who left most of her smoothie recounted for police what happened next, describing how he returned to the basement as the other girls slept and moved her arm and then moved her friend’s body. She told police she stayed awake afraid Meyden was going to harm her friend, according to the affidavit. At one point, the record notes, she said she saw Meyden place a finger under her friend’s nose to see if she was asleep and waved his hand in her face. The girl, identified in court records by an initial, was terrified and repeatedly texted and called her parents, saying “Mom please pick me up and say I had a family emergency. I don’t feel safe. I might not respond but please come get me (crying emoji), Please. Please pick up. Please. PLEASE!!” She then called and texted several friends asking for a ride. Investigators saw the text the girl sent a family friend. The girl’s message said Meyden “kept moving us away from each other but kept doing tests to make sure we weren’t awake,” according to the affidavit. She texted that one of the girls “won’t wake up,” the filing states. The court record says the girl saw Meyden return to the basement a third time and he “seemed drunk.” The family friend drove her home; she woke her parents who woke the other girls’ parents. They picked up the two other friends still at Meyden’s house, court records say. Meyden’s next court appearance is later this month. ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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Killer in Oregon beat, strangled girlfriend's father and then went on family vacation; gets 19 years
Zachary Hackman jogged down the Seaside beach, scooping up sand dollars and tossing them into the waves on a vacation with his girlfriend’s family in October 2022. It didn’t appear Hackman had a care in the world during those days of s’mores, hot dogs and ice cream, but family members said they returned from Seaside only to learn that the 22-year-old had killed James Harris — his girlfriend’s father — the day before the vacation began. Harris was found dead in a sleeping bag that had been dumped 20 feet off Northeast Marine Drive in heavy brush. Harris, 54, had been killed on Oct. 4, 2022, with a hammer blow to the head and had also been strangled with a dog leash, according to autopsy reports. Hackman had been living for months with Harris’ daughter at Harris’ southeast Portland home, family members said. “He stole something that cannot be replaced,” Donna Harris, Harris’ sister, said Monday at Hackman’s sentencing. Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jenna Plank sentenced Hackman, now 24, to 19 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and abuse of corpse under the terms of a deal with prosecutors. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses showed Hackman drapping a towel over the kitchen window of the Harris home in the Montavilla neighborhood on the day of the murder, according to an affidavit written earlier by prosecutors. The videos showed Hackman and his girlfriend, LoraJean Harris, loading a very large plastic container from the house into her Dodge Charger, the affidavit said. Hackman, who went by the name Zack Call, was confronted by detectives Oct. 13 but said he didn’t remember anything out-of-the-ordinary before James Harris’ disappearance, according to the affidavit. LoraJean Harris told detectives she’d just gotten back from an out-of-town concert when Hackman asked for her help cleaning up some trash and only told her after the fact that she had helped him dump her father’s body, the affidavit said. The couple then extensively cleaned the house, but criminalists still found trace amounts of blood on the walls and ceilings, according to the affidavit written by Senior Deputy District Attorney Kevin Demer. LoraJean Harris was never charged in the case and watched the sentencing hearing remotely. She told police she was afraid of Hackman and was forced to help conceal his crime, according to the affidavit. Hackman didn’t make a statement during the hearing and LoraJean Harris said he never disclosed a motive. His defense attorney said Hackman would write a letter to the family answering their questions — though many in the courtroom gallery said they were still in shock at Hackman’s deception. Family members recalled James Harris as an all-around handyman with a “MacGuyver” talent for fixing cars and a passion and creativity for landscaping. In his youth, Harris had found great success as a car salesman and could have started his own landscaping company, but a chronic spinal injury left him out of work for years, they said. Kathryn Pyland recalled how her uncle once fixed a spark plug with a speaker wire and was known for rescuing anyone who was stranded with car trouble. “He preferred it to be midnight and a blizzard. He would drop everything to come save us,” she said. As for Hackman, his troubled childhood was no excuse, Pyland said, and only one punishment was fitting: “a dark room with a mirror that he can’t look away from.” ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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Washington state to acquire 9,700-acre forest near Cle Elum thanks to federal grant
SEATTLE — As Darcy Batura often wanders Cle Elum Ridge, she cherishes the ponderosa pine bark glowing red in the sunshine, releasing a sweet aroma that permeates the forest. A blanket of lupine and yellow balsamroot flowers color the hills this time of year. Batura, of The Nature Conservancy and a 20-year resident of Roslyn, has been among a coalition of local, state and federal officials, nonprofits, tribal members and others working to preserve thousands of acres of forestland in Kittitas County for wildlife, recreation, forest health and water supply. Now, the state Department of Natural Resources will soon acquire the 9,700-acre forest, with $15.3 million from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, coupled with $5.7 million in matching state funding. U.S. Forest Service officials announced the funding on their visit to Washington this week, with the state getting more than $30 million in federal money to conserve forests like Cle Elum Ridge, which abuts the Teanaway Community Forest and touches the communities of Cle Elum, Roslyn and Ronald. The state will manage Cle Elum Ridge under a community-based plan. "In many ways it's the heart of Washington," Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said of the area in a phone call. This project, Franz said, is especially important amid a changing climate — reducing sprawl into fire-prone areas, preserving fish and wildlife habitat and further safeguarding the headwaters of the Yakima River basin. The river basin is increasingly strained to supply a growing population with drinking water, support the area's roughly $4 billion agricultural economy and keep cool, clean water in the river for fish. The Forest Service announced a total of $154 million in grant funding for 26 projects to conserve forests in 17 states. That also included $14 million to move nearly 14,000 acres of forestland near the White Salmon River into the conservation status and legally protect them from development. The land is owned by Twin Creeks Timber and managed by Seattle-based Green Diamond. That project is intended to help sustain three local mills which have 300 jobs combined, while protecting drinking water and recreation opportunities. Another $1.5 million will go toward a conservation project at Green Mountain in Kitsap County. The project will move 360 acres of forest and salmon habitat adjacent to federal, state and local forests into the conservation status. The land is within a contiguous 70,000-acre forest and builds on three nearby conservation projects including the Tahuya River headwaters. The federal grants will cover a portion of those projects, with the state also footing some of the costs. "About half of Washington is forestland and a third of that forestland is private," said U.S. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small in a phone call. "That speaks to the importance of collaboration when it comes to habitat restoration and healthy forests." Those forests provide services like a clean water supply and crucial habitat for culturally important species like steelheads and bull trout, Torres Small said. The piece of forestland in Cle Elum is just one piece of a much larger community-led landscape protection project. A decade ago, private investors helped The Nature Conservancy acquire nearly 50,000 acres of forest land in upper Kittitas County from Plum Creek Timber. The land spanned all of the timber company's holdings from Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum along both sides of the Interstate 90 corridor. The acquisition was focused on pausing the threat of development, so the Nature Conservancy could work with the community and adjacent land managers to develop a protection and conservation vision centering community voices and values, Batura said. Batura joined the Nature Conservancy just a couple of years later, where she has focused on developing the vision with the community to protect and conserve the forest. The forests were incredibly dense, overstocked and unhealthy, fueling the 2017 Jolly Mountain fire which burned about 36,808 acres across all land ownerships, including a small portion of the conservancy's lands. Since then, the Conservancy has collaborated with DNR, the Upper Kittitas County fuels crew and other partners to put fire back on the landscape through prescribed burns, commercial thinning and forest mastication to weed out smaller trees that can serve as fuels. Cle Elum Ridge has served as a "living laboratory" to explore forest health treatments like these. Research found thinning the forest and opening up gaps in the canopy increases the depth and duration of snowpack. The gaps, similar to those found in old growth forests, indicate that lost water can return to a landscape if a more natural structure can be restored. The protection of Cle Elum Ridge was the culmination of 20 years of collaboration and planning to expand the adjacent Teanaway Community Forest. The Teanaway property became Washington's first Community Forest, a new model providing for state and community collaboration to conserve forests. The Nature Conservancy and DNR submitted the proposal for the Cle Elum grant, with letters of support from 25 partners, including the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, nonprofits and U.S. Rep Kim Schrier. Nearly half of the grants announced Monday will go to conserving forests near disadvantaged communities identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool across the U.S. Upon the acquisition of Cle Elum Ridge, DNR will most likely classify some areas as Community Forest and some as Trust Lands to allow for timber harvest. ___ (c)2024 The Seattle Times Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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Eastern Washington paraeducator jailed, accused of sex crimes against teens
A Riverside Elementary School paraeducator and high school coach admitted to recording himself engaging in sex acts with underage boys and sending the videos to other children, court records say. The Spokane County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the FBI, arrested Dallas M. Shuler, 28, on suspicion of sexually exploiting minors and possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexual conduct. He was booked into the Spokane County Jail on Saturday morning after the Spokane County Sheriff's Office arrested him at a residence in Spokane Valley. He's worked as a paraeducator at Riverside Elementary School in Chattaroy for three years and a coach at Riverside High School for six, said Riverside Superintendent Ken Russell. Shuler graduated from Riverside High. Shuler told investigators he solicited explicit content from 25 children in the last year because he is "sexually excited by" 11- to 15-year-olds. He has done so for "several years," according to records, and was viewing those videos in the last week. He allegedly admitted he kept a collection of explicit photos and videos of minors and "traded" them with children for other illicit content. Shuler also admitted he arranged meetings with 14-year-old boys on two separate occasions last year, according to court documents. He told one teen he was 22 years old and met him in woods near University High School. Shuler recorded the two performing oral sex acts on each other, which he later distributed and exchanged for more sexual videos of minors, court records said. In his second encounter, he met a juvenile through Snapchat and arranged a meeting at a campground near Newport. In exchange for sex acts, he supplied the teen with vapes, court records said. Shuler initially denied any sexual activity with minors and "adamantly" denied explicit interactions with local children, according to court records. Shuler has been in "plenty of situations where I could, but I never, never would," he told investigators. Russell wrote to families in an email that an initial investigation does not indicate any Riverside students were involved in the alleged crimes, though he's not sure what might come out. Shuler told investigators he primarily used Instagram to communicate with kids, and often lied about his age or disguised himself as another juvenile. The district placed Shuler on administrative leave May 7, immediately after becoming aware of the investigation. Investigators from the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the FBI, began investigating a sexually explicit video on May 6 of two boys ranging in age from 9 to 11 years old. Shuler was screen-recording the video when he received a call on the app, and investigators were able to obtain an image of his face, court records said, and trace it back to him. He received 14 other explicit videos during that time frame. Shuler denied being abused as a child, but said he had sexual contact with a neighbor when he was around 4 years old and into his teenage years. He began watching pornography at 12, and "got into things I wish I'd never gotten into," he told investigators, according to court records. When he turned 13, he began watching child sexual abuse content, calling it an "addiction" and "nothing an adult should be into." He told detectives he knows his attraction is wrong but can't help himself, court records said. Superior Court Commissioner Eugene Cruz spoke directly to Shuler during his first court appearance Monday. Cruz said even though Shuler doesn't have any criminal history, there are community safety concerns if he was to be released on a lower bond. "What's more alarming ... is the fact you're employed at Riverside Elementary School," Cruz said. "The young people you're involved with are of the same age group of the minors you were interested in soliciting." A judge over the weekend set Shuler's bail at $25,000, but Cruz raised bail to $150,000, given the community safety risk. If he posts bail, Shuler is barred from entering any area where children congregate, Cruz said, like playgrounds. Shuler declined a jailhouse interview Monday. It is unclear if he will face federal charges. The district hired a substitute to assume Shuler's position as the investigation continues. Russell said he was shocked and devastated when law enforcement told him of the investigation on May 7. "As a superintendent, you pray that nothing like this ever happens," Russell said. "And here we are." ___ (c)2024 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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Two of the three candidates for governor named Bob Ferguson drop out of Washington's race
OLYMPIA — Drama that ensued last week when three people named Bob Ferguson all filed to run for Washington's governorship appeared to have settled down Monday when two of the trio of Bobs dropped out of the race. On Monday, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a public statement in which he threatened to take legal action if the other two people by the same name did not withdraw their candidacies by the deadline later that day. "In the final hours of filing week, anti-democracy Republicans orchestrated a cynical, deceptive attack on election integrity," Ferguson said. "To be clear: I do not want these two individuals to be prosecuted so long as they do what is right and withdraw by today's 5 p.m. deadline." At a campaign event Monday in Seattle, the attorney general told supporters he had sent cease-and-desist letters to the other Bobs over the weekend. Later on Monday, the secretary of state's office released a statement confirming two of the three people named Bob Ferguson had formally dropped out of the race. "Voters deserve good-faith candidates who are running on the strength of their ideas to make Washington a better place to live and work, not people who pay a filing fee just to manipulate elections," Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said. "Washington's long history of free and fair elections must be protected and preserved in every year and campaign cycle." A state law makes it a felony to declare as a candidate for public office under the same name of a fictitious person, a false name or in using the name of an incumbent or candidate who has already filed "with intent to confuse and mislead" the voting public. Ferguson formally filed his campaign paperwork to run for governor on May 6. Four days later, with hours to spare before the state's filing deadline, two other men named Bob Ferguson threw their hats into the ring in the governor's race. One of the Bobs who entered the election Friday is a military veteran in Graham, and the other is a retired state employee who lives in Yakima. All three Bobs filed as Democratic candidates. The cost to file campaign paperwork for governor is almost $2,000. A statement posted on the website titled Neighbors for Bob Ferguson PAC on Monday announced that the man named Bob Ferguson who is a military veteran from Graham was dropping out of the race. "I was faced with harassment and legal action if I did not withdraw from the race," reads the statement signed by Robert Ferguson. "I was publicly labeled a 'threat to democracy' by another candidate and his supporters." It turned out that conservative activist Glen Morgan orchestrated the three-Bob chaos and fronted the $2,000 checks for the two Bobs who filed their campaigns Friday. Morgan was given the Washington State Republican Party's "volunteer of the year" award in 2023. In a phone interview, Morgan told the Seattle Times he tried to get as many as a dozen people named Bob Ferguson to file paperwork to get their names onto the primary ballot. A Spokesman-Review reporter's phone calls to phone numbers listed for the Morgan-backed Bob campaigns were not returned Monday. Also on Monday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Mark Mullet issued a statement decrying the Bob drama. "The two Bobs should withdraw before the 5:00 deadline today," Mullet said. "We don't need anything to confuse voters on the ballot. This is an illegal sideshow that does nothing to improve our electoral process." This year marks the first incumbent-free contest for governor since Gov. Jay Inslee was elected in 2012. Inslee announced last year that he would not seek re-election for a fourth term. Thus far, candidates in the governor's race have spent nearly $7 million on their campaigns. Washington's primary election is Aug. 6. ___ (c)2024 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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71-year-old Yakima man killed after dispute with neighbors, police say
Yakima police are investigating the shooting death of a 71-year-old man during a dispute Saturday afternoon. The accused shooter, a 27-year-old man, is not in custody, according to a YPD news release after police checked with Yakima County prosecutors. Police were called to the 1400 block of Cherry Avenue for shots fired around 3:30 p.m. They found the deceased 71-year-old man and the man who had shot him, the release said. The older man had a small-caliber pistol, and witnesses said had had come over to the younger man's property and made threats, the release said. Police said video recordings corroborated the statements of the witnesses. Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice said an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday. Curtice said he will release the man's name after his family has been notified. The shooting is the third homicide in the city this year, and the sixth in the county. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Yakima police Sgt. Noah Johnson at 509-576-6784. ___ (c)2024 Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.) Visit Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.) at www.yakima-herald.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
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Washington state road deaths jump 10%, reaching 33-year high
Washington recorded another grim milestone this week, with numbers from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission showing yet another year of increasing fatalities on the state's roads. Statewide, 810 people were killed in crashes involving a motor vehicle in 2023, a 33-year high. That's up from 743 in 2022, and nearly double from 2014, when 462 people were killed in traffic. The upward trend bucks national behavior, where traffic deaths have fallen two years in row despite an increase in the number of miles driven. Last year, 40,990 people died on U.S. roads, a 3.6% decrease from 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Washington helps lead the pack in double-digit increases in road fatalities. With its more than 10% increase over the previous year, Washington joins Idaho and Rhode Island as the three top states with the most dangerous roads — and both states had far fewer deaths in raw numbers, about 280 and 70, respectively. Nearly every other state recorded fewer deaths than the year before. California and Texas remain the states with the largest number of road deaths, with more than 4,000 each. In Washington, King County recorded the most dead, with 167 people killed in traffic, up from 151 in 2022 and more than double the fatalities in 2014, which had 83. Pierce, Spokane and Snohomish counties rounded out the top of the list. "Every number represents a life lost. A lost family member. A lost co-worker. A lost friend. The people who mourn have had their lives changed forever," said Shelly Baldwin, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, in a statement. "I hold them in my heart as I ask drivers to take the actions we know save lives. Drive sober. Be patient. Stay focused. Buckle up." Last year, 400 fatalities involved a drug- or alcohol-impaired driver, 251 involved speeding, 171 involved someone not wearing a seat belt or other restraint, and 35 involved a distracted driver. Roger Millar, who leads the state transportation department, said the state is investing in safer roads, by installing cameras that catch speeders and incorporating Complete Streets policies into its capital programs that create more space and separation for people on bikes and pedestrians. But he called on people to end "erratic driver behavior," which he said "would make a difference immediately." Kirk Hovenkotter, executive director of the statewide Transportation Choices Coalition, said a solution has less to do with motorist behavior than street design. "We know what works. It's designing roadways to slow down speeds and promote people walking and riding bikes, and promote transit," he said. "That works, it just takes political will and investment." Hovenkotter pointed to a 2022 WSDOT report that showed 65% of serious or fatal crashes between drivers and people on bikes or pedestrians were on state highways within cities. He called on policymakers to treat these dangerous state roads as a "megaproject" in need of an immediate fix. And he applauded the proposed $1.45 billion Seattle transportation levy for focusing on roads like these, notably Aurora Avenue North. "Make it easier to walk, ride a bike or take transit. We need better sidewalks, better transit stops, and signals. Make it easier for the 25% of Washingtonians who don't drive," Hovenkotter said. The highest recorded year of traffic fatalities remains 1979, which saw 1,015 deaths. Beginning in the 1980s, American policies on road safety, speeding and drunken driving began to drive down traffic deaths until 2009. That year, fatalities began their rise to today, fueled in part by much larger vehicles and smartphones distracting drivers. The pandemic supercharged this trend. Despite Seattle's efforts to reverse the increase in road deaths, last year also had the dubious distinction of having the most pedestrians killed than any other year on record, with 157 dead, many in the Seattle area. In 2015, the city of Seattle adopted its Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030. In the years since, deaths and injuries have only risen, leading Seattle Department of Transportation Director Greg Spotts to call for a review of the program soon after being sworn-in in September 2022. The review concluded in February 2023, and said the city must lower speed limits, build safety into its capital projects, and fully fund safety projects if it was serious about ending deaths. The city's proposed $1.45 billion transportation levy, which will be on the November ballot after the City Council reviews and amends it, has $162 million earmarked for Vision Zero safety projects. With 53 pedestrians killed, King County accounted for more than a third of the state's pedestrian deaths. ___ (c)2024 The Seattle Times Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
Metro News
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Nueva Esperanza brings affordable housing with community-centered design to Hillsboro
Built with funds from Metro’s affordable housing bond, the new apartment complex provides homes for 150 households with an emphasis on meeting the needs of farmworkers, and Latine and Somali immigrant families. |
