Truck Body Builders Of South Carlonia

Officials celebrate new Washington state BMW plant

Gregoire will not challenge McKenna on health law Gov. Chris Gregoire says she will not try to halt Attorney General Rob McKenna's challenge of the new federal health care overhaul. Gregoire said Thursday afternoon that she is focused on presenting the courts with an argument on why President Barack Obama's health law is beneficial. McKenna has joined a legal challenge against the law, arguing that it is unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court said Thursday that McKenna has the authority to challenge the law. But justices left open the possibility that Gregoire could step in to stop him, saying there's merit to the argument that Gregoire has superior authority when the two agencies disagree on the correct course of action. Justices did not officially rule on that issue.

   Drivers this Labor Day weekend in Washington will find gasoline prices averaging $3.85 a gallon. The AAA auto club reports that's 20 cents higher than the national average and 79 cents higher than the price a year ago in the state. Some metro prices from the AAA survey for Friday: Bellingham $3.94, Bremerton $3.84, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett $3.84, Tacoma $3.82, Olympia $3.84, Vancouver $3.80, Yakima $3.84, Tri-Cities $3.83 and Spokane $3.78. A Portland, Ore., trucker was stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 5 south of Tacoma because of a flat tire when he saw a woman in her underwear crawl over the guardrail from a swamp near the Nisqually River. The Washington State Patrol says she was wet, hypothermic and covered with scratches from sticker bushes. Trooper Guy Gill says John Davis drove on the flat tire Thursday to take her to a nearby weigh station to call for help. The 23-year-old Centralia woman was treated at a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. Gill says it appears she had been with a man in an SUV found about 200 yards from the freeway. He says at some point she left the vehicle and crawled through the swamp to the highway. Gill said troopers were looking for the man to make sure he was OK. Vancouver police say a body found floating in the Columbia River has been identified as that of a 41-year-old Vancouver man. Police said Thursday that the Clark County medical examiner had not yet determined the cause of death for Jeffrey A. Barry. The Columbian says two people found the body floating Wednesday in shallow water east of the Marine Park boat launch. A spokeswoman for Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging says the company received 719 applications at two hiring events over the past week. Pat Case tells The Daily News that the company had an open hiring call for hourly workers Saturday and Monday at the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 union hall in Longview, Wash. Longview Fibre plans to hire about five hourly workers each month for the next few months as openings occur to replace retirees. Applicants are entered into a lottery. Those selected tour the plant and get interviewed. Starting pay is about $32,000 per year. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against a union that has led protests at a new Port of Longview grain terminal. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton said Thursday there is substantial evidence that local authorities are unable to control the misconduct of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. He's ordered union protesters to stop blocking access to the facility and to stop all threats, violence and property damage. The union wants the terminal manager to use ILWU workers. The company has been working with a contractor that is staffing the terminal with laborers from a different union. ILWU official Leal Sundet called the ruling a victory because it didn't impose all the picketing limits sought by the National Labor Relations Board. A woman who sold fake Washington identification cards when she worked at the state Department of Licensing office in Bellevue was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Seattle to two years in prison. Melinda Kay Johnson pleaded guilty and admitted that she accepted as much as $30,000 in bribes. The U.S. attorney's office says some of the fake IDs were used to open bank accounts in a fraud scheme that cost Bank of America hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle is replacing 300 glass panels on its high-rise condo balconies after broken glass rained down on the street below for the third time in a year. The Seattle Times reports no one was injured in the incidents - the latest one on Sunday. But falling pieces in July cracked the glass awning at the hotel entrance and slightly damaged a car. Hotel general manager Ben Trodd says it's working with the city and a contractor to find out why the glass panels failed and to install new railings. Bellevue-based online travel company Expedia Inc. said Thursday its chief financial officer is leaving and would be replaced by the current senior vice president of corporate development. Michael Adler had been CFO for six years. Expedia said he will remain during a transition period including completion of the spinoff of TripAdvisor. Mark Okerstrom, currently senior vice president of corporate development, will be appointed to the job and take over after a transition period. He joined the company in 2006 and leads its strategic planning and acquisitions functions. He previously worked for management consultant Bain & Co. and as an acquisitions lawyer. Expedia owns Hotels.com, discount travel website Hotwire and Researchers at Saint Louis University are studying two flu vaccines to see if nursing mothers pass immunity to influenza to their babies. The university says the research is important because young infants are most prone to flu but cannot get a vaccine until they're six months old. Researchers will compare Fluzone, a flu shot, and FluMist, a nasal spray. The trial is also being conducted at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Emory Children's Center in Atlanta, Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, and Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. All told, 240 healthy, breastfeeding mothers will participate, including about 50 in St. Louis. The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health. A municipal judge in Union Gap, Wash., says shots were fired when a security guard fought with a shoplifting suspect who tried to flee a courtroom. No one was hit by gunfire but Judge Bob Northcott says the Phoenix Protective Corp. guard was bitten on the arm Thursday. Acting Police Chief Greg Cobb says evidence suggests only one shot was fired but Northcott tells the Yakima Herald-Republic there were two. The judge says the defendant tried to run when he was ordered taken into custody but the guard intercepted him. The fight spilled from the lobby outside the courtroom into the women's restroom, where the gun discharged. The men reportedly were still fighting when patrol units arrived. Michael Garza has been booked into jail for investigation of first-degree assault, resisting arrest, escape and attempting to disarm an officer. Phoenix Protective officials declined comment. Union Gap is south of Yakima. A man arrested after of break-in in Richland is suspected of six commercial burglaries in the city. KVEW reports the 25-year-old was found near Columbia Basin Imaging Thursday and his shoes matched footprints at the business where some items had been taken. Police searched his home and found computers, electronics, a camera and cell phone stolen last month from other businesses.

Charleston South Carolina Pierce Arrow XT 4 New ... - E-Vehicle News

The City of Charleston SC has taken delivery of and placed in service 4 Pierce Arrow XT pumpers, the pumper pictured is Engine 108.

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