A suspected flu death in Snohomish County has been confirmed, bringing the total to six who have died in the worst flu season since 2009.
The most recent death was of an Everett man in his 90s, who died on Jan. 24, according to the Snohomish Health District.
The previous deaths were of an Everett woman in her 70s, a Stanwood man in his 90s, a Bothell woman in her 40s and two women in their 80s, one from Everett and one from Edmonds.
For comparison, three people died of influenza during the previous two flu seasons combined, said Dr. Gary Goldbaum, health officer for the Snohomish Health District.
The number of people hospitalized with flu or its complications this season — 84 — also far exceeds the numbers from the past two flu seasons.
“This has been a particularly brutal, severe year for influenza deaths and hospitalizations,” said Dr. Yuan-Po Tu, who tracks flu issues at The Everett Clinic.
Statewide, 28 people have died from the flu, according to the state Department of Health. That’s the largest number since the swine flu epidemic of 2009-10 when 98 people died in Washington.
“What we’ve seen is an influenza that spread pretty widely, specifically for the older residents of the county, the state and nationally,” Goldbaum said. “It certainly is more severe.”
Flu this season, both locally and nationally, has caused the most serious illness in people 55 and up.
It’s not just the initial onset of influenza that can cause people to become so ill that they need to be hospitalized, Tu said.
Some people have several days of classic flu symptoms of high fever, sore throat, sniffles and body aches and seem to get better, but then get sick again two to four weeks later. “All of a sudden you develop a ‘late’ fever,” Tu said, indications of health problems such as more severe asthma or a bacterial infection, such as pneumonia.
The influenza virus damages the linings of the respiratory system in a way that makes it far easier for these health problems to occur, Tu said.
Although flu has hit older adults far harder than children, seven schools in Snohomish County have reported high absenteeism rates from students with flu-like symptoms.
Flu outbreaks also have been reported at 11 long-term facilities such as nursing homes and assisting living facilities.
The good news is that flu season seems to have peaked about two weeks ago, based on reports from area clinics and the number of patients being hospitalized.
“I would hazard a guess that we’re in the last month of flu season,” Tu said.
TULALIP — A drug-related carjacking on the Tulalip Indian Reservation on Tuesday was interrupted when three undercover tribal police detectives happened by.
The detectives were in an unmarked car driving 81st Street NE about 4:15 p.m., according to a police affidavit.
Near the intersection with 30th Drive NE, they saw a maroon Honda Civic suddenly stop and block a white Cadillac Seville.
Two men got out of the Honda and approached the Cadillac. One of them reportedly had a large knife concealed behind his arm.
The detectives got out of their car, yelling, “Police! Stop!” according to court papers.
At that point, one of the men from the Honda reportedly took a plastic baggie from his pocket and threw it into the Cadillac through a window. The Cadillac’s driver then grabbed the baggie and threw it back outside.
The bag contained 5.49 grams of heroin.
Arrests ensued. Some of the people in the two cars apparently were acquainted.
Also recovered was the knife, the blade of which measured more than 10 inches.
The people in the Honda reportedly were trying to get the Cadillac back. It had been sold a couple of times, and they planned a carjacking to settle a related debt. Police have identified the car’s registered owner.
Two of the men from the Honda were booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of attempted first-degree robbery. One also is being investigated for possessing a controlled substance and resisting arrest.
From left, Marysville Police School Resource Officer Dave White takes a moment during lunch at Marysville Getchell High School to chat with students Dalton Adcock, Curtis Combs and Bionca Perez. Photo: Kirk Boxleitner.
By Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe Reporter
MARYSVILLE — In the wake of December’s school shootings in Connecticut, schools across America have become more conscious of their safety and security procedures, and the Marysville School District is no exception.
However, the district’s security manager and one of its school resource officers from the Marysville Police Department explained that Marysville schools have already adopted a proactive approach to safeguarding their children.
Marysville Police School Resource Officer Dave White has built up a rapport with the students at Marysville Getchell High School over the course of the past four years, since a year before the campus opened, and while he also covers the district’s three middle schools, he credits his presence on campus at Marysville Getchell with elevating his visibility and approachability with students and staff alike.
“It’s been brought to my attention when students have been doing things they shouldn’t, and I’ve been lucky enough to talk to them in ways that have preempted them from committing criminal acts, either at school or elsewhere,” White said. “After [the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.], the staff has been even more interested in using our expertise to make the schools safer.”
Just as the Tulalip Tribal Police Department has donated a part-time SRO to cover the Quil Ceda and Tulalip elementary schools, as well as the 10th Street Middle School and the Heritage and Arts & Technology high schools, so too is the Marysville Police Department providing its two SROs to the school district free of charge, with White’s fellow SRO covering the Marysville-Pilchuck and Mountain View high schools. However, this leaves the rest of Marysville’s elementary schools relatively uncovered, which is why White explained that Marysville Police regular patrol officers are conducting walk-throughs of those elementary schools several times a day.
“We appreciate the huge service that the Marysville Police Department is doing for us here, because we have absolutely no money for it,” said Greg Dennis, security manager for the school district. “After Sandy Hook, everyone asked, ‘What if that happened here?’ Here at Marysville, we’ve been asking, ‘How do we prevent that from happening here?’”
The school district’s measures already include SROs, 11 FTE security guards, rapid-response maps that allow 911 responders to arrive at exact locations within 1-2 minutes, and regular drills for fires, lockdowns and earthquakes.
“Going forward, we’re working with our safety committee and law enforcement to review our campuses and our emergency plans,” said Jodi Runyon, executive assistant to the superintendent. “The city police and county sheriff’s office have been very willing to work with us. As the president and state legislators weigh in on what can and should be done, we will take a second and third look at our procedures to make cost-effective adjustments.”
Snohomish County Safe Kids is looking for volunteers to help with their first car seat check event of the year
Date/Time:
Thursday, February 21, 2013
10:15-11:00 Event Prep & New LATCH Manual Overview
11-2:00 pm Seat Checks
*Starbucks coffee, water and pizza will be provided.
Location:
Everett Fire
3619 Rucker Ave
Everett, WA
Parking:
Please park on one of the side streets or adjacent parking lots [see map]. Please do not park at the fire station itself as we will need all the space allocated.
Event Details:
We are partnering the two local HEAD Start programs. The week prior to the event we will be providing education to the families and have them sign up for a car seat check at that time. This is a win-win as families will have a baseline knowledge before their car seat check. I also received some seats that we can give away. I am advertising this as “while supplies last” so it’s not a guarantee.
Depending on the number of appointments we may open it up to drop-in’s. We won’t know until the date gets closer.
Volunteer Requests:
We always need volunteers to assist in our events. You don’t need to be a technician, just interested in helping keep kids safe! For example, we could use greeters & traffic flow assistants.
Thank you all for your continued support for child passenger safety & injury prevention in Snohomish County!
The Washington state Legislature is considering a bill to prohibit companies from asking job applicants for passwords to social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Debates over social media in the workplace are taking place across the country.
OLYMPIA — Anyone who has hunted for a job recently has heard the warning: Don’t let your Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts ruin your chances with a potential boss.
The sites are now commonly incorporated into the job-application process by HR departments searching for pictures, status updates and messages that may expose candidates’ true colors — or momentary lack of judgment.
But how much leeway should companies have to examine online photos and posts purposely hidden from general public view?
The Legislature may soon attempt to answer that question, one of many that employers and employees are grappling with as social media blurslong-sacred lines between personal and professional life.
“It’s a privacy issue,” state Sen. Steve Hobbs said. “Companies want to know who they’re hiring, but applicants have a right to express themselves on these sites.”
Hobbs is the prime sponsor of a bill to prohibit companies from directly or indirectly demanding a password to a social-networking site as a condition of hiring or continued employment. Senate Bill 5211 would not bar companies from looking at publicly available pages.
Six states have approved similar laws in response to complaints, most recently in California. Congress is also weighing its own version.
Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, said he doesn’t know how much of an issue it really is here, but he says lawmakers should “nip this in the bud.”
The bill’s prospects are unclear.
A spokeswoman for the Association of Washington Business said the group has not taken a position. But the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business said his group is concerned that the way the bill is worded could end up affecting managers’ ability to monitor company social-media pages run by employees.
The California bill passed last year with little opposition, said sponsor Nora Campos, a San Jose Democrat and Assembly speaker pro tempore.
Few opponents have materialized on the national level either, officials said.
“I think a lot of people agree that this seems intrusive and unwarranted,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a former attorney general who said he introduced the Senate bill after hearing complaints.
Privacy concerns are not the only social-media issues being debated across the country — so, too, are questions about worker rights.
In December, the National Labor Relations Board declared in response to a lawsuit filed in New York state that workers have a right to discuss work conditions with their colleagues on social-media pages, just as they would in the break room.
The board found that such communication is protected under the National Labor Relations Act, which allows for workplace organizing.
“Employees have always had the right to discuss working conditions at the workplace,” said Ron Hooks, the Seattle-based regional director of the NLRB. “We are applying the law to these new technologies.”
New Jersey human-rights attorney Lewis Maltby said the impact of the NLRB decision was limited because it applied only to discussions between employees about work.
Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, said bosses have essentially unchecked power and are using it inappropriately because they don’t understand social media and are afraid of it.
Bills like Hobbs’ are needed, he said, because companies are arbitrarily weeding out job applicants based on social-media posts that have nothing to do with the candidate’s ability to do the job.
“Unfortunately, at this time my advice is, don’t say anything that anybody could possibly disagree with,” he said. “You have to choose between your right to express yourself and your ability to get a job. You can’t have both.”
Patrick Connor, the National Federation of Independent Business state director, agreed there should be some limits on what candidates must provide during the job-application process. He said more discussions are needed about how to maintain a clear line between private social-networking pages and pages that affect the company.
Ryan Calo couldn’t agree more.
Calo, a University of Washington law professor, said that social-media-related tension between employees and bosses is likely to grow because the stakes are higher than in the past.
“Employees have always had the ability to embarrass the company,” he said. “But most of them have had limited access to public channels of communication.”
Saturday mail may soon go the way of the Pony Express and penny postcards. The Postal Service said Wednesday that it plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses in a world radically re-ordered by the Internet.
In this Tuesday, March 2, 2010 photo, letter carrier Kevin Pownall delivers mail in Philadelphia. Photo: MATT ROURKE / AP
WASHINGTON — Saturday mail may soon go the way of the Pony Express and penny postcards. The Postal Service said Wednesday that it plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses in a world radically re-ordered by the Internet.
“Our financial condition is urgent,” declared Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. But Congress has voted in the past to bar the idea of eliminating Saturday delivery, and his announcement immediately drew protests from some lawmakers. The plan, which is to take effect in August, also brought vigorous objections from farmers, the letter carriers’ union and others.
The Postal Service, which suffered a $15.9 billion loss in the past budget year, said it expected to save $2 billion annually with the Saturday cutback. Mail such as letters and magazines would be affected. Delivery of packages of all sizes would continue six days a week.
The plan accentuates one of the agency’s strong points: Package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has plummeted. Email has decreased the mailing of paper letters, but online purchases have increased package shipping, forcing the Postal Service to adjust to customers’ new habits.
“Things change,” Donahoe said.
In fact, the Postal Service has had to adapt to changing times ever since Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general by the Continental Congress in 1775. The Pony Express began in 1860, six-day delivery started in 1863, and airmail became the mode in 1918. Twice-a-day delivery was cut to one in 1950 to save money.
But change is not the biggest factor in the agency’s predicament – Congress is. The majority of the service’s red ink comes from a 2006 law forcing it to pay $11 billion a year into future retiree health benefits, something no other agency does. Without that and related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion last year, lower than the previous year.
Congress also has stymied the service’s efforts to close some post offices in small towns.
Under the new plan, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open.
Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages – and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully has appealed to Congress to approve the move. An independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.
The proposed change is based on what appears to be a legal loophole – and that may be a gamble. Congress has long included a ban on five-day-only delivery in its spending bills, but because the federal government is now operating under a temporary spending measure rather than an appropriations bill, Donahoe says it’s the agency’s interpretation that it can make the change itself.
“This is not like a `gotcha’ or anything like that,” he said. The agency essentially wants Congress to keep the ban out of any new spending bill after the temporary measure expires March 27.
Might Congress try to block the idea?
“Let’s see what happens,” he said. “I can’t speak for Congress.”
Two Republican lawmakers said they had sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate in support of the elimination of Saturday mail. It’s “common-sense reform,” wrote Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
But Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich called it “bad news for Alaskans and small business owners” who he said need timely delivery to rural areas.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was disappointed, questioned the savings estimate and worried the loss of Saturday service might drive customers away.
“The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1 trillion mailing and mail-related industry that employs more than 8 million Americans in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, magazine and newspaper publishing and paper manufacturing,” she said. “A healthy Postal Service is not just important to postal customers but also to our national economy.”
She noted that the Senate last year passed a bill that would have stopped the postal service from eliminating Saturday service for at least two years and required it to try two years of aggressive cost cutting instead.
The House didn’t pass a bill.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday, `’I think trying to act in this postal area is pretty difficult. But I understand where the postal commission is coming from. They’re in charge with running the post office, but yet the Congress, in its wisdom, has tied their hands every which way in order for them to actually run the post office in a revenue neutral way.”
“And so Congress needs to act, there’s no question about that, and I hope we’ll act soon.”
President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said the White House learned only Tuesday about the agency’s decision to cut Saturday service. He said the White House is still evaluating the decision but would have preferred its own comprehensive overhaul package that failed to pass Congress last year be adopted “for the sake of a stronger future Postal Service.”
The president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fredric Rolando, said the cutback is “a disastrous idea that would have a profoundly negative effect on the Postal Service and on millions of customers,” particularly businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.
He said the maneuver by Donahoe to make the change “flouts the will of Congress, as expressed annually over the past 30 years in legislation that mandates six-day delivery.”
The National Farmers Union said “impacts on rural America will be particularly harmful.”
Despite that opposition, the Postal Service clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side. The service’s market research indicates that nearly 7 in 10 people support the switch as a way to reduce costs, Donahoe said.
He said the savings would include employee reassignment and attrition.
The agency in November reported a record annual loss of $15.9 billion for the past budget year and forecast more red ink in 2013, capping a tumultuous year in which it was forced to default on the $11 billion in retiree health benefit prepayments to avert bankruptcy.
The financial losses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 were more than triple the $5.1 billion loss in the previous year. Having reached its borrowing limit, the mail agency is operating with little cash on hand.
The Postal Service is in the midst of a major restructuring throughout its retail, delivery and mail processing operations. Since 2006, it has cut annual costs by about $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000, or 28 percent, and has consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations, officials say.
Shelton Story Pole, Wetmore & California Ave.: From 1923 to 1929 a 60-foot American Indian story pole stood right in the middle of this intersection. The pole became a problem for fire engines, which had trouble getting around it. Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library
By Debra Smith, Herald Writer
Originally published Sept. 7, 2010.
EVERETT — It’s easy to walk downtown streets and forget Everett is an old man of a city, with secrets, strange stories and even violence in its past.
President Teddy Roosevelt once spoke to a crowd of 15,000 on Colby Avenue. A newspaper editor shot and killed a political foe not far from a spot later known as the Free Speech Corner.
For a period in the 1920s, a 60-foot American Indian story pole stood smack in the middle of Wetmore Avenue and California Street. It eventually had to come down because city firefighters couldn’t get fire engines around it.
Historian David Dilgard captured these and other fascinating tidbits in a downtown Everett walking tour you can take anytime. The audio tour and the accompanying map are available for free at the Everett Public Library’s website at www.epls.org. Download the audio tour onto an MP3 player and take a walk back through time.
Everett Theatre Sign, 2911 Colby Ave.: A fire at the theatre had one bright spot. The renovations after the fire included the addition of a charming Renaissance Revival facade. The site is one stop on a history tour of downtown Everett. Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library
The tour takes a little more than an hour to complete. It starts at the library and follows a circular 2.5-mile route through downtown.
The tour includes more than 60 sites and covers subjects as varied as crime, politics, architecture and famous people.
Dilgard has led historical tours of downtown Everett for 30 years. However, he expects even the most knowledgeable locals to hear something surprising.
“I would be profoundly disappointed if anybody who took this tour didn’t find something they didn’t know,” Dilgard said.
EVERETT — Kevin Nihart made a living by fishing for spot shrimp in the waters of Possession Sound and selling his harvest off the dock near Anthony’s HomePort restaurant.
He won’t be able to do it this year, however.
The state Fish and Wildlife Commission decided in December to ban commercial shrimpers in the inland marine waters south from Deception Pass and Port Townsend, including all of Puget Sound. The idea is aimed to boost sport fishing in more urban areas of the state. Spot shrimp is a prawnlike shellfish found from California to Alaska.
For Nihart, it’s a tough loss for his business and he says it’s a sad loss for his many faithful customers, who bought from him off the docks in Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds.
Now Nihart, who lives in Anacortes, can commercially fish for spot shrimp only in the marine waters around the San Juan Islands and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the availability in the San Juans is limited.
“Fishing near Everett was how I made my living,” Nihart said. “I can’t afford to run my boat from the straits to the dock in Everett or even truck my shrimp in for the Everett Farmers Market. A lot of people I sold to are going to be disappointed. I feel bad for my customers.”
Only a small group of people actually shrimp commercially in the waters off Washington. The state licensed just 18 commercial shrimp fishermen last season and only two, including Nihart, harvested spot shrimp in Puget Sound, said department biologist Mark O’Toole.
It used to be that the Port Susan, Possession Sound and Puget Sound spot shrimp harvest was divided, 60 percent to recreational fishermen and 40 percent to commercial boats. The spot shrimp season begins in late spring. Nihart is a long-line fisherman who uses shrimp traps on his lines. Recreational shrimp fishermen use traps similar to crab pots.
Nihart sold spot shrimp at the Everett Farmers Market for the past four years and for the past six years on the dock below Anthony’s HomePort restaurant off Marine View Drive.
Joe Verdoes, president of the Puget Sound Shrimp Association, testified in September before the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, asking that commercial fishing of spot shrimp be allowed to continue in the Puget Sound region.
“This change makes it very difficult for guys like Kevin,” Verdoes said.
The state is encouraging commercial fishing in the strait because it is more of a sustainable resource there, O’Toole said.
“This is particularly hard on Kevin, and we know people in Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds are going to miss being able to buy fresh prawns from him off the dock,” O’Toole said.
YETI club members at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.
Article by Jeannie Briones and Kim Kalliber; photos by Jeannie Briones, Tulalip News Staff
The Tulalip Boys & Girls Club has incorporated a new program into their learning curriculum. YETI (Youth Education To Inspire) Tribal is an Internet-based club designed to help children explore their bodies and emotions, and learn about the wonders of humanity. What’s more, these children will be connecting with others around the Northwest via the Internet.
Kids in the YETI club, guided by adult supervision, make a fun-filled journey with children from other cultures, learning the complexity of the human body. The age group ranges from 2nd to 4th grade, and the club currently consists of kids from Tulalip and other reservations located in Spokane, Wash., Warm Springs, Or., and Lapwai, Idaho. Tulalip YETI clubbers meet every Wednesday at the Boys and Girls Club, from 3:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m., to engage in online conversations and activities, along with arts and crafts and games in the Club’s Immersion Room.
These live chats engage kids from all over the Northwest to help each other understand who they are and learn to respect themselves, others, and other cultures, in a safe and non-judgmental environment.
“I like everything about it. We are getting kids together around the Northwest and different reservations to talk about what they like and what they don’t like, and they learn about their bodies, minds, and feelings. What I hope is that this program expands across the entire country. It’s a very good program. So far we are in our second week and the kids love it, they’re having a blast,” said Jay Davis, Tulalip Boys & Girls Club Yeti Club Facilitator and Games Room Coordinator.
Jay, along with Christina Gahringer, Director of Education Technology, for the Club, are currently working with the kids on body exploration. Kids are learning about their bodies and the functions of body organs, such as the heart, lungs, stomach and brain. Students then create a life-size drawing of their bodies, coloring in their inside parts. By learning bodily functions, kids can learn to better appreciate their bodies and to respect them.
“I like learning about the body parts,” said Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Eian Williams.
YETI club members will also be learning about emotions, such as happy, sad, angry or scared, and the affect they can have on the body. Kids will explore the physical sources and reactions of emotions.
As a whole, YETI is designed to help kids to gain a sense of personal appreciation, to see themselves in others and gain patience and understanding in their relationships, now and in the future.
The YETI Tribal Club is a part of Wholeschool, a non-profit educational organization, started in Spokane, Washington. YETI also operates with support from Tulalip Tribes Charitable Funds.
To learn more about the YETI Club, contact Jay or Christina at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club at 360-716-340 or visit www.bgclub.tulaliptribes-nsn.gov.
The Stillaguamish Tribe recently partnered with the state Department of Natural Resources Family Forest Fish Passage Program to restore access to Cherokee Creek, near Darrington.
Cherokee Creek provides spawning, rearing and refuge for coho and other species of Pacific salmon, as well as cutthroat and bull trout. However, the creek also was home to a deteriorating metal culvert that had been poorly installed and was too small to withstand floods.
“The culvert had created an artificial waterfall that was too high for salmon to swim or jump past on their way upstream,” said Scott Rockwell, Forest and Fish biologist for the tribe. “It was also interfering with natural stream ecology, interrupting the downstream movement of water, fallen trees and gravel.”
The Family Forest Fish Passage Program replaced the culvert with a steel bridge and an 80-foot-long section of stream channel that restored fish access to more than a mile of productive spawning habitat. The state program helps small forest landowners comply with forest practice rules by covering 75-100 percent of the cost of eliminating stream barriers.
At a fall event celebrating the project’s completion, many coho salmon swam through the restored area.
“Their genetic compasses guided them back to habitat that had not been accessible for years,” said Washington State Forester Aaron Everett, who worked on the project.
As a project sponsor, the Stillaguamish Tribe conducted landowner outreach, collected habitat data, provided matching project funds, and managed project design, construction oversight, permitting and billing.
Cherokee Creek is a spawner index stream for coho salmon. For the past 12 years, Stillaguamish natural resources staff have documented the number and location of spawning adults and redds (egg nests) to help forecast the size of future coho runs.
For more information about the state’s Small Forest Landowner Office, visit www.dnr.wa.gov/sflo.
