> Rank-and-file Seattle police officers voted in favor of a new, partial three-year contract that, if approved by the Seattle City Council, will give them immediate retroactive raises totaling 23%.

> The agreement, announced by Mayor Bruce Harrell on Monday, will make Seattle officers the highest paid in the state, leapfrogging them from 29th. A starting officer will make $103,000 a year, up from $83,000.

> Negotiations are not finished, however. The agreement covers 2021, when the previous contract expired, through 2023. City negotiators and the Seattle Police Officers Guild left 2024 unresolved and called in a mediator with the Public Employment Relations Commission to help.

But I thought the police were defunded!! /s

> But what could have turned into a coronation now has the looks of a competitive race, with three veteran state officials vying for the seat representing the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas in the U.S. House.

> Franz, a Democrat, has opened up an early fundraising lead. But state Sen. Emily Randall, also a Democrat, has collected more high-profile endorsements from the state’s congressional delegation, indicating a split among the Democratic establishment. Republican state Sen. Drew MacEwen lags in fundraising but says he’s confident he can flip the seat, just as he previously won open state House and state Senate seats that had been held by Democrats.

> In the week since a line of Japanese health supplements began being recalled, five people have died and more than 100 people were hospitalized as of Friday.

> Osaka-based Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co. came under fire for not going public quickly with problems known internally as early as January. The first public announcement came March 22.

> Company officials said 114 people were being treated in hospitals after taking products, including Benikoji Choleste Help meant to lower cholesterol, that contain an ingredient called benikoji, a red species of mold. Earlier in the week, the number of deaths stood at two people.

> Some people developed kidney problems after taking the supplements, but the exact cause was still under investigation in cooperation with government laboratories, according to the manufacturer.

I think it's finally upgrade time. While I love my Neptune 2, it definitely has its issues.

Ideally, my next printer would have:

• Built-in auto leveling, so I don't have to install a BL Touch
• An enclosure
• Be slightly larger than the Neptune 2
• Open source firmware
• OctoPrint support

I was looking at the Prusa MK4, but it seems like a high price for what you get. Any recommendations?

> Republicans are entering a months-long stretch of legislating with their smallest House majority in decades. And the margin is about to tighten even more.

> Departures from the House have whittled down the Republican caucus from 222 to 219, meaning the party can only afford to lose two members and still pass legislation when everyone is attending and voting.

> Another Republican, Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), announced Tuesday that he would vacate his seat at the end of next week.

> Meanwhile, Congress is staring down a deadline next Friday to fund about 70 percent of the government — including the Defense, State and Homeland Security departments. It could further complicate a stalled border security bill and aid package for Ukraine and Israel.

> Democrats are likely to add another lawmaker to their ranks after a special election in a deep-blue, Buffalo-area district in late April. The next special election in a red district isn’t until May 21.

> American oil and natural gas wells, pipelines and compressors are spewing three times the amount of the potent heat-trapping gas methane as the government thinks, causing $9.3 billion in yearly climate damage, a new comprehensive study calculates.

> But because more than half of these methane emissions are coming from a tiny number of oil and gas sites, 1% or less, this means the problem is both worse than the government thought but also fairly fixable, said the lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.

> The same issue is happening globally. Large methane emissions events around the world detected by satellites grew 50% in 2023 compared to 2022 with more than 5 million metric tons spotted in major fossil fuel leaks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday in their Global Methane Tracker 2024. World methane emissions rose slightly in 2023 to 120 million metric tons, the report said.

> "This is really an opportunity to cut emissions quite rapidly with targeted efforts at these highest emitting sites," said lead author Evan Sherwin, an energy and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab who wrote the study while at Stanford University. "If we can get this roughly 1% of sites under control, then we're halfway there because that's about half of the emissions in most cases."

> Sherwin said the fugitive emissions come throughout the oil and gas production and delivery system, starting with gas flaring. That's when firms release natural gas to the air or burn it instead of capturing the gas that comes out of energy extraction. There's also substantial leaks throughout the rest of the system, including tanks, compressors and pipelines, he said.

> The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, announced plans to pardon all simple marijuana possession charges from the state, which could affect “hundreds of thousands” who have faced charges.

> “We believe this is the most sweeping cannabis pardon announced by any governor in the United States. The reason we do this is simple: justice requires it,” Healey said at a press conference on Wednesday.

> Though the state does not have exact numbers of how many people the pardon will affect, Healey said it could be “hundreds of thousands” in Massachusetts.

> The pardon does not cover other marijuana-related charges, including those related to distribution or driving under the influence. Without the pardon, simple marijuana possession charges can show up on people’s criminal records, affecting their ability to obtain a job or housing.

> Laurynn Evans is resigning as superintendent of North Kitsap School District, according to the district's school board agenda updated Tuesday morning.

> Evans' resignation is listed among personnel recommendations that will be reviewed by board directors as a consent agenda item during Thursday's regularly-scheduled meeting.

> Evans, who became North Kitsap's superintendent in 2017 and signed a three-year contract with NKSD in 2023, was put on paid leave by the board after she was named as the suspect in a Jan. 26 theft of signs opposing the district's February bond measure, which failed. Evans entered into a pretrial diversion agreement Feb. 28 while appearing at Kitsap County District Court over a misdemeanor charge of removing or defacing political advertising.

> Kohberger’s public defenders had argued that a grand jury seated by prosecutors improperly indicted him on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. They contended that Idaho law left open the idea that grand jurors must reach the higher legal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt — the same as at trial to convict a defendant — rather than the longstanding threshold of probable cause to indict.

> In the one-page Supreme Court ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, the justices offered no legal rationale for their denial of the motion to appeal from Kohberger’s attorneys. The document was signed by Melanie Gagnepain, clerk of the Idaho Supreme Court.

> The King County Prosecutor’s Office said Officer Noah Zech, 40, was justified in firing a single round from his patrol rifle, striking Shaun Fuhr in the back of the head as Fuhr fled through a construction site in the 4100 block of 37th Avenue South after police responded to a report of domestic violence and child abduction.

> The city’s civilian-run Office of Police Accountability previously found Zech’s actions fell within the department’s policies. The office also dismissed complaints of biased policing — Zech is white and Fuhr was Black — and failure to de-escalate the situation before resorting to deadly force.

> King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion met with Fuhr’s family and their attorneys before publicly releasing her office’s findings. A federal civil-rights lawsuit from Fuhr’s family is pending against the city and Zech in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

> In addition to an internal investigation by OPA, the city in a rare move had asked the King County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the shooting, along with the SPD’s Force Investigation Team and Firearms Review Board.

> Zech, a member of SPD’s SWAT team and longtime department veteran, was among a large number of officers who had responded to a frantic 911 call from a woman who said she had been beaten by her boyfriend, who fired a shot at her and had taken their 1-year-old daughter, according to police. The woman reported her boyfriend, Fuhr, had assaulted her throughout the day, and police said she had significant injuries.

> The police department released a copy of the woman’s frantic 911 call and a clip of body-camera video from another officer who was pursuing Fuhr.

> The lawsuit — filed by Fuhr’s father on behalf of his granddaughter — alleges she wasn’t in danger and that police, when they caught up with Fuhr about a half hour after the initial call, could see he was not armed, was not threatening officers, and was complying with their commands.

> The body-camera video shows several officers chasing Fuhr through a small parking lot and down the side of a building, where they confront him. Fuhr was holding the child when he was shot, and another officer ran and picked up the child. Police said the infant wasn’t physically injured.

> The department said a handgun was found “nearby.”

> “At the time Shaun was shot, he was unarmed and cradling his infant daughter in his arms,” the family’s lawsuit said.

> A six-week audit by the Federal Aviation Administration of Boeing’s production of the 737 MAX jet found dozens of problems throughout the manufacturing process at the plane maker and one of its key suppliers, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times.

> The air-safety regulator initiated the examination after a door panel blew off a 737 MAX 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in early January. Last week, the agency announced that the audit had found “multiple instances” in which Boeing and the supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, failed to comply with quality-control requirements, though it did not provide specifics about the findings.

> The presentation reviewed by the Times, though highly technical, offers a more detailed picture of what the audit turned up. Since the Alaska Airlines episode, Boeing has come under intense scrutiny over its quality-control practices, and the findings add to the body of evidence about manufacturing lapses at the company.

> For the portion of the examination focused on Boeing, the FAA conducted 89 product audits, a type of review that looks at aspects of the production process. The plane maker passed 56 of the audits and failed 33 of them, with a total of 97 instances of alleged noncompliance, according to the presentation.

> The FAA also conducted 13 product audits for the part of the inquiry that focused on Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselage, or body, of the 737 MAX. Six of those audits resulted in passing grades, and seven resulted in failing ones, the presentation said.

> At one point during the examination, the air-safety agency observed mechanics at Spirit using a hotel key card to check a door seal, according to a document that describes some of the findings. That action was “not identified/documented/called-out in the production order,” the document said.

> In another instance, the FAA saw Spirit mechanics apply liquid Dawn soap to a door seal “as lubricant in the fit-up process,” according to the document. The door seal was then cleaned with a wet cheesecloth, the document said, noting that instructions were “vague and unclear on what specifications/actions are to be followed or recorded by the mechanic.”

> The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said a 911 call around 7:40 p.m. Sunday reported the crash outside the city of Madras, and deputies found the site with the help of power company officials.

> “Due to the extent of the crash there were no survivors,” the sheriff’s Facebook post said.

> Authorities did not specify the number of passengers in the single-engine plane. The sheriff’s office says it won’t release the names of the victims until identities are confirmed and families are notified.

> The National Transportation Safety Board said it has opened an investigation into the crash, which involved a Piper PA-32. It will oversee the probe along with the Federal Aviation Administration, the sheriff’s office said.

> The NTSB said one of its investigators arrived at the site Monday afternoon to document the wreckage before it’s sent to a secure facility for further evaluation.

> Local power company officials found the wreckage after looking into a power outage in the area, the federal agency said in an email.

> U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the Federal Aviation Administration will rigorously assess Boeing after the blowout of a fuselage section on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

> To maintain airline safety, “that means an enormous amount of rigor in dealing with Boeing, in dealing with any regulatory issue,” Buttigieg said on Fox News Sunday. “And that’s exactly what the FAA is doing.”

> Boeing has faced scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and increasingly passengers after a series of high-profile flight incidents this year, most notably the blowout of a fuselage section on a brand-new 737 MAX 9 during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

> Shares of Boeing fell 1.6% in premarket U.S. trading on Monday, after reports over the weekend that the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the Alaska Air incident. The head of Delta Air Lines Inc. told Bloomberg separately that he expects further delays to the yet-to-be certified 737 MAX 10.

> A reported discharge in Sinclair Inlet wasn't a sewage overflow, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard said Friday night, but rather consisted of stormwater and treated oily wastewater, and a seven-day no-contact advisor for the waterway was rescinded by the Kitsap Public Health District.

> The Health District had announced a sewage spill and a no-contact advisory on Thursday evening.

> According to a statement issued by the shipyard's spokesperson Adrienne Burns, on Wednesday morning public works personnel discovered a flooded utility vault that required urgent repair. Personnel believed the vault was flooded with rainwater, and didn't observe any oil or other pollution indicators in the vault before starting their pumping, the shipyard told Kitsap Sun.

> "At the first indication there was oil in the vault, pumping was stopped," according to the statement. "Upon entering, public works personnel found broken ship’s Collection, Handling, and Transfer (CHT) piping which indicated there could be domestic wastewater from vessels in the discharge. This CHT piping also carries treated wastewater from the Oily Wastewater Treatment System.

> By the close of Washington’s legislative session last week, state lawmakers had added more funding to help reduce health care insurance costs for undocumented immigrants, as the state also prepares to expand Apple Health, its free or low-cost health insurance, to the same population in July.

> This year, the Legislature added $28.4 million, nearly twice as much as its first allocation of such funding during the 2023 session, to continue helping the 16,000 individuals who applied for coverage during the recent enrollment period, which ended Jan. 15.

> In May 2022, Washington was the first state to file a waiver application to allow undocumented immigrants to buy private health insurance; a year later, the waiver was approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Treasury.

> The waiver meant undocumented immigrants could apply for Medicaid or shop for private health care insurance through Healthplanfinder, the website to apply for health care in Washington.

> Mixed-status families, or families with different citizenship or immigration statuses, can also purchase private insurance coverage together.

> A collision on Interstate 5 just north of Everett has caused a 6-mile backup for drivers traveling south, the Washington State Department of Transportation said Monday morning.

> The department first posted about the closure on X shortly before 7 a.m. WSDOT’s real-time traffic map showed the backup stretching through Marysville around 8 a.m.

> Drivers should avoid the area if possible or prepare for delays, the department said.

> A Washington State Ferries crew on Saturday helped the Coast Guard rescue six people and two dogs from a boat in Rosario Strait.

> A 37-foot cabin cruiser called for assistance during “nasty weather” near Decatur Island just before 1 p.m., the Coast Guard station in Bellingham said. A wave over the bow shattered the boat’s front windshield, injuring some of the boaters and causing the vessel to take on water.

> The boaters shared their GPS position before their radio shorted out and they lost communications. The Coast Guard issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast — a radio message for all boaters in the area — and dispatched vessels and a helicopter.

> Pets of homeless and low-income people now have a place to get emergency veterinary care with the opening of Kitsap Humane Society’s Lifesaving Center.

> “One of the harsh realities now is there are a lot of people who are in need and aren’t able to get (their pets) access to desperately needed care,” said Dr. Jen Stonequist, co-interim executive director at KHS. “What we are doing for the people and animals that need us is really important. The ability of this community to support a clinic that helps people, when facing hard times, to keep their pets is really incredible.

> “It’s going to be a game-changer,” Stonequist said.

> The center – officially called the Russ and Linda Young Veterinary Lifesaving Center – primarily serves dogs and cats. The $10.1 million facility will treat an estimated 2,500 animals each year.

> The center formally opened in March but during a pilot period, as the complex geared up to full operation, the staff provided critical surgeries to select animals. Dozens of furry patients were assisted during this preliminary stage. Here are a few examples:

> Hulk, a 102-pound pitbull, had a hematoma on his right ear. Removing the swelling required expensive surgery the owners could not afford. After a successful surgery and a lot of drool, Hulk returned to health and was reunited with his family.

> Mercury, a brown tabby cat, had been hit by a car in Bremerton and incurred extensive injuries to his hind legs and hips. The owners took him to emergency care but were unable to pay for needed services. The family took the animal to KHS to be euthanized. But veterinary team members examined the tabby and had another idea. After an operation, follow-up care and daily bandage changes, Mercury made a full recovery.

> Judah, a 7-year-old cat with eye issues, was found as a stray in Bremerton. The feline was brought to the shelter suffering from bilateral entropion, a condition in which the animal’s eyelashes rub against the eye causing injury. The owner was unable to afford the procedure. But the lifesaving center performed surgery, and Judah was reunited with its owner.

> The center provides services ranging from standard spay and neuter procedures to operations.

> “We will be doing general practitioner emergency-type procedures. We will assist with things like foreign body surgery, like animals eating something they shouldn’t, with amputation surgeries, with exploratory surgeries if an animal has a mass removal, and wound repair. We will also be doing dental procedures, like cleanings and extractions,” Stonequist said.

> The center features a community clinic that provides services similar to those available at a neighborhood vet. “We will be seeing things like eye and skin infections, upper respiratory and lameness, inappetence, and older pets that are ill,” she said, adding medical services will be provided on a sliding scale.

> The building has two operating rooms, a dental suite, examination areas, and prep and recovery rooms.

> Humane society personnel toured similar facilities around the nation to help design the 6,500-square-foot center. Bremerton’s Rice Fergus Miller was the architect. The late Dr. Jim Moore, a beloved Kingston veterinarian for over 30 years, influenced the project. “He was passionate about providing care for the community and pets in need,” Stonequist said.

> On the heels of the Legislature approving more funding for ferry services in the session that concludes this week, another four “Fix our Ferries” town halls have been scheduled for community members in Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Kingston and Poulsbo.

> On Saturday Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, will host the first town hall, from 10 a.m. to noon in Bremerton at the Norm Dicks Government Center, 345 Sixth Street. A second town hall that day is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center, 370 Brien Dr.

> The following Saturday, March 16, Nance will host a meeting in Kingston, at the Village Green community center from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by a final meeting at Poulsbo City Hall, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

> The community meetings follow three previous “Fix our Ferries” town halls that Nance hosted in Bremerton, Bainbridge and Kingston, which drew an attendance of about 50 people each. There, Nance listened to testimonies from attendees on how the weakened ferry system had affected their personal lives, and how they would like to see it changed.

> One of Nance’s top priorities has been advocating for a stronger ferry system during his freshman session in Olympia. He’s worked to fund a Washington State ferries commission and conduct an economic impact study on ferry cancellations and delays in the House transportation budget. The budget has allotted millions of dollars to support vessel maintenance, staff recruiting and training, service along the Bremerton to Seattle fast ferry route and terminal upgrades.

> Democratic lawmakers are probing SpaceX over Russia's reported use of Starlink in Ukraine, saying that recent developments raise questions about SpaceX's "compliance with US sanctions and export controls."

> SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last month denied what he called "false news reports [that] claim that SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia," saying that, "to the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia." But Musk's statement didn't satisfy US Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), who sent a letter to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell yesterday.

> "Starlink is an invaluable resource for Ukrainians in their fight against Russia's brutal and illegitimate invasion. It is alarming that Russia may be obtaining and using your technology to coordinate attacks against Ukrainian troops in illegally occupied regions in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, potentially in violation of US sanctions and export controls," Raskin and Garcia wrote.

> Musk has also stated that "Starlink satellites will not close the link in Russia." However, the concerns raised by Rankin and Garcia are about whether Russia used the broadband service in Ukraine. Their letter said that Ukraine last month "released intercepted audio communications between Russian soldiers that indicated Russian forces had illegally deployed and activated Starlink terminals in certain Russian-occupied areas in Eastern Ukraine."