SILVERTIPS SPECIAL
Everything a WHL fan needs to know, inside today
FRIDAY, 09.19.2014
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OSO MUDSLIDE
Monday estimate for 530 And if the weather cooperates, the highway could be back to 50 mph even sooner, though work will continue. By Kari Bray Herald Writer
OSO — Crews hope to have Highway 530 open at full speed in both directions by Monday
morning, exactly six months after the Oso mudslide killed 43 people and buried the road between Arlington and Darrington. Construction is weeks ahead of schedule. Contractors built a
new roadway through the slide area, a project that originally was scheduled to wrap up in early October. The new road is elevated up to 20 feet in some places because the area is especially vulnerable to flooding after the mudslide changed the landscape, according to the state Department of
Transportation. The project is paid for by $28 million in federal emergency relief funds. The road opened to alternating one-way trips May 31, then to 25 mph two-way traffic June 20. The speed should be back up to 50 mph Monday, or sooner if it’s See 530, Page A2
Working with worms Monroe prison’s composting program a national model
Herald wins major awards Investigation of county government, coverage of the Oso disaster and editorial writing bring in top regional recognition. Herald Staff
MONROE — They’ve got time. And the inmates are using it to build a large-scale composting program at the Washington State Reformatory that is saving taxpayers money. Now the program is attracting attention from other correctional institutions across the country. On Thursday, a dozen people from prisons and sustainability groups were allowed behind the razor wire and led through seven sliding metal gates to see Monroe’s operation.
PORTLAND — The Daily Herald’s pursuit of computer records from former Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s office has earned the 2014 Associated Press Ted Natt First Amendment Award, and the newspaper’s coverage of the deadly Oso landslide has won a top regional award for distinguished reporting. The honors were among five awards presented to The Daily Herald during an annual meeting of Pacific Northwest editors and publishers. They included a first-place award in the Dolly Connelly environmental journalism contest and three C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for distinguished journalism. The Daily Herald staff won first place in the deadline category of the Blethen competition for its coverage of the March 22 Oso landslide that killed 43 people; Diana Hefley and Noah Haglund won first place in investigative journalism for their reporting on Snohomish homeowners wrongly forced to pay a developer’s fees; and Hefley won first place in enterprise reporting for a story about two retail clerks who helped rescue an abused child. All Blethen awards were in the category for newspapers with circulations of 50,000 or less. In awarding the first place in the Dolly Connelly competition, judges cited “consistently exceptional” commentaries on environment topics, all of which were written by Peter Jackson, Daily Herald editorial page editor. The entry included opinion pieces about coal and oil trains, delays in the Hanford cleanup efforts and the proposed Pebble Mine at Alaska’s Bristol Bay. “Today was truly a proud moment for The Daily Herald and one that we’re excited to celebrate with our readers and the community,” Herald Publisher Josh O’Connor said. The Ted Natt First Amendment Award recognized a series of stories by reporters Scott North and Noah Haglund that revealed abuses of county government public records and technology policies.
See WORMS, back page, this section
See AWARDS, Page A2
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VOL. 114, NO. 221 © 2014 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
INSIDE
Business . . . . .A9 Classified . . . . B1
Comics . . . . . .D4 Crossword . . .D4
Sideline Surface Microsoft makes iPads? In what should be a PR touchdown, Microsoft has furnished NFL teams with Surface Pro 2 tablets to use on the sidelines during games. But some TV playby-play announcers keep calling the gadgets “iPads” (Page A9). Dear Abby. . . .D5 Horoscope . . . B6
Microsoft says it’s coaching announcers on correctly naming the Surfaces — which they say should be only be called iPads if a player uses one to smack his girlfriend. Speak for yourselves: Americans’ net worth hit a record high in the AprilJune period, the Federal
Lottery . . . . . .A2 Obituaries. . . .A6
Opinion. . . . .A11 Sports . . . . . . . C1
Reserve said (Page A9). Another increase is forecast for this fall, as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s families are expected to find a lot of loose change behind the couch cushions while cleaning up for Halloween parties. Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev Short Takes . . .D6 Stocks . . . . . .A10
was denied entrance to Disneyland, sparking an angry outburst from the Soviet leader (Today in History, Page D6). To mollify the premier and prevent an international incident, quick-thinking aides treated Khrushchev to cheeseburgers and strawberry pie at a Bob’s Big Boy.
— Mark Carlson, Herald staff
Ebbing 69/58, C8
DAILY
MARK MULLIGAN / THE HERALD
Washington State Reformatory inmate Robin Combs separates worms from drying soil that will be used to collect worm castings by the vermiculture program at the Monroe Correctional Complex on Thursday morning. The program uses worms to compost food waste from the facility, turning that into fertilizer that is distributed at the prison and in the city of Monroe. Inmate Ricky Curry (below) grabs a handful of what once was food waste.
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