Everett Daily Herald, April 25, 2015

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Felix fans 9 batters and Cruz homers again to lead the M’s to a 2-0 win over the Twins. C1

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Special session looms in Olympia Prison By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer

OLYMPIA — It’s a wrap, for now. The Legislature concluded its regular session Friday by approving new rules for oil

trains, including a means of letting emergency responders know in advance when shipments are traveling through their communities. Some lawmakers also watched Gov. Jay Inslee sign a law that will bring most medical marijuana

users and providers under the regulatory structure of the recreational pot industry. Then, shortly before 6:15 p.m., lawmakers adjourned the regular session and went home two days early. That’s because they’ll be returning to the state Capitol on Wednesday for the start of a special session during which the primary focus will be breaking a deadlock in negotiations on a

new two-year state budget. Lawmakers last held a special session in 2013. That year it took until late June before the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate finally struck a deal on the budget. Sen. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, sounded cautiously optimistic See LEGISLATURE, back page, this section

Learning to liftoff

Herald Writer

PHOTOS BY MARK MULLIGAN / THE HERALD

Challenge at Cathcart Elementary: Who can build a better rocket? SNOHOMISH — It was rocket science here on Friday. Fifth-graders at Cathcart Elementary School competed to see if they could build better rockets than a team of scientists from Aerojet Rocketdyne, a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer.

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“I’ve never met a real, live rocket scientist before,” said Jocelyn Camacho, 11. “I’m thinking that’s pretty cool.” The Redmond-based Aerojet scientists brought in rocket motors to show students. They talked about working on major projects, such as NASA’s Space Shuttle and Orion, the next generation of spacecraft designed to take

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VOL. 115, NO. 73 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.

INSIDE

Business . . . . . A9 Classified . . . . B1

Comics . . . . . . C8 Crossword . . . C8

Mike Obenland, 51, most recently superintendent at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, takes over for Robert Herzog as superintendent in Monroe. By Eric Stevick

Top, fifth-graders Lexie Ross (left), Ava Gahan and Tristen Carpenter build a rocket during class at Cathcart Elementary School on Friday morning. Later, students watch as one of the rockets they built blasts into the sky over their playground. The students spent the morning learning about rockets from Aerojet Rocketdyne scientists before forming into teams and building their own projectiles. Go to www.HeraldNet.com for more photos of the rocket science experience.

By Amy Nile

complex gets new leader

humans further than ever before. The scientists explained how force can be used to accelerate mass. The students then applied that knowledge, building rockets from PVC pipe and using compressed air to launch them. Students had to work within an imaginary budget of $1 million to buy parts, build their

Xfinicky Cable’s been cut: Despite spending $17 million on lobbyists, Comcast has dropped its planned merger with Time Warner Cable after federal regulators balked at the monopoly the cable giant would have represented (Page A9). Part of the problem may Dear Abby . . . C9 Horoscope . . . B7

rocket and pay to launch it. Teams had to learn to manage with less money and time than they would have liked to complete their mission. Lexie Ross, 10, said budgeting the team’s money was tough. “It didn’t work out very well,” she said.

have been the lobbyists. When they would set up meetings with members of Congress, the lobbyists could only say they’d arrive sometime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Better living through unpronounceable chemicals: PepsiCo, citing poor sales numbers for Diet Pepsi,

Lottery . . . . . . A2 Obituaries . . . A5

Opinion . . . . A12 Spiritual Life . .A3

See LIFTOFF, back page, this section

says it will remove the soft drink’s artificial sweetener aspartame because of consumer concerns. Instead of aspartame, Diet Pepsi will be sweetened with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium (Page A10). Among the new slogans PepsiCo is considering: “Diet Pepsi: It’s Acesulfame Potassi-Yummy. Sports . . . . . . C1 Stocks . . . . . A10

MONROE — So much is familiar; so much is different. The granite steps leading up to the front door of the century-old Washington State Reformatory are still steep. The tall columns still look imposing. Mike Obenland, 51, climbed the steps and walked beneath the impressive masonry many times as a young corrections officer half a life-time ago. It was the early 1990s. He spent a few years working there before moving on. Earlier this month, Obenland returned, not as a front-line officer, but as the leader of the sprawling Monroe prison. The Monroe Correctional Complex stretches out over 365 acres with different perimeters separating its diverse population of 2,400 minimum-, medium- and maximum-custody inmates. Among other things, it is home to the Special Offenders Unit that houses a mental health treatment program and an Intensive Management Unit for inmates with particularly challenging behaviors. Each unit of the prison has a distinct mission. Therein lies one of the biggest differences for Obenland from then and now. He must understand the operations, needs and challenges of each. “For me, it is certainly a complex operation with a lot of moving parts,” he said. “And it is just big. It is going to take me a little while to figure out. “When I was a corrections officer, it was just my narrow view of what was in front of me,” he said. “Over the years, 97 out of 100 guys are going to be going home. My philosophy now is to try to get them some skills when they go home so they can be productive members of society. I know we can’t help those who don’t want to help themselves, but for the ones that do, we should give them the opportunities to make those changes.” These days, Obenland is exploring his new digs, observing different programs aimed at improving the odds the inmates See PRISON, Page A2

Channel-surfing the vast cultural wasteland: The Syfy channel pits schlock against schlock as crocodiles and snakes battle it out in “Lake Placid vs. Anaconda” tonight at 9 (The Clicker, Page C8). The victor faces the winner of “Avalanche Shark vs. Sharknado.”

—Jon Bauer, Herald staff

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DAILY

The Legislature adjourns two days early, but will return Wednesday to focus on breaking the deadlock in negotiations on the state budget.

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