Now Johnson pitches his photographs
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Distracted driving: The irresistible lure of your phone Health & Wellness
SATURDAY, 07.25.2015
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EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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Phone planned near ice caves
Firefighters’ worries grow
The Forest Service hopes to install a land line at Camp Silverton to cut down on the time it takes to get help in emergency situations.
He’ll have the catch of the day
With hot, dry weather conditions expected to persist, “all indications are we are going to have a very bad August.” By Eric Stevick and Rikki King Herald Writers
EVERETT — Firefighters are growing increasingly fearful
that brush and grass fires will threaten homes across Snohomish County in this summer of hot dry days and windy afternoons. The fear is growing in suburban areas with each passing day
of parched conditions. “It’s as bad as it can be out there,” said Travis Hots, chief of the Arlington Rural and Getchell fire districts. Although Friday saw some rain and the weekend could bring a few showers, fire officials say it won’t reduce the danger. Based on long-term weather
forecasts, they are urging people to comply with the burn ban they predict will be in place well into the fall. “All indications are we are going to have a very bad August,” said Snohomish County Fire District 5 Chief Merlin Halverson. See WORRIES, Page A4
By Eric Stevick Herald Writer
the buzz
See PHONE, Page A4
Grizzlicane? Channel-surfing the vast cultural wasteland: No sooner had we survived the third — dare we hope, final — Sharknado movie, than the Syfy channel graced us with “Lavalantula,” about fire-breathing tarantulas that emerge from volcanos. It airs tonight at 9 (The Clicker, Page C8). Here’s a fun game to play
DAN BATES / THE HERALD
A great blue heron changes fishing holes recently at the south end of Meadowdale Beach, north of Edmonds.
Safeway closure leaves no anchor store MILL CREEK — The shelves of the Safeway here are mostly bare as the grocer gets ready to close the store for good Saturday. Safeway spokeswoman Tairsa Worman said the store at 13314 Bothell-Everett Highway is shutting down because it wasn’t as profitable as other locations. In an email, Worman said the company is working with the labor union and the 84 store employees to find them other work. Some have been transferred to the Canyon Park Safeway in Bothell.
with the kids on long drives: Syfy movie producer. Take an animal from the following list: grizzly bear, fire ant, hyena or giant squid; and mix and match with a disaster from this list: earthquake, hurricane, Greek debt crisis or GOP presidential candidate debate. Then, the others were standing? President Barack Obama arrived in Kenya,
The Mill Creek store closing is not related to the $9.2 billion merger that was approved in January between Albertsons and Safeway, Worman said. The Federal Trade Commission required Albertsons and Safeway to sell 168 supermarkets to settle charges that the merger would reduce competition, leading to higher prices and less innovation. Haggen, a Bellingham-based grocery chain, acquired most of the stores. As part of the merger, Albertsons started converting 146 stores to Haggens in February. The Monroe Albertsons was the first to be rebranded.
the first visit ever by a sitting U.S. president of the African nation. Obama previously visited his father’s homeland in 2006 while he was a U.S. senator (Page A6). Donald Trump has visited Kenya, too, while he scoured the basements of hospitals and government buildings for Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate. Don’t know much about
Now, much of the remaining merchandise in the Mill Creek Safeway is on sale until the store closes for good. Mill Creek Community Development Director Tom Rogers said the property manager for the Safeway building, which is located in the Gateway Shopping Center, doesn’t have a new tenant for the space but is pursuing leads. The city has offered to help get a business into the space. “We want to be part of the solution,” Rogers said. He is concerned that some of the smaller businesses in the shopping center will struggle without a large anchor store,
history: On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan was booed as he played at the Newport Folk Festival. The negative reaction has been blamed either on his switch to an electric guitar, poor audio quality or the shortness of the set (Today in History, Page C8). Fifty years later, has it ever occurred to anyone that it might have been his voice?
—Jon Bauer, Herald staff
Mill Creek Safeway closing 132nd St. SE Cedar Cross Preschool
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By Amy Nile
THE HERALD
See SAFEWAY, Page A4
INSIDE Business . . . . .A7 Classified . . . . B1 Comics . . . . . . C8 Crossword . . . C8 Dear Abby. . . . C9 Horoscope . . . B4 Spotty 67/59, C12 VOL. 115, NO. 163 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
Lottery . . . . . .A2 Obituaries. . . .A5 Opinion. . . . .A10 Sports . . . . . . . C1 Stocks . . . . . . .A8 Venture. . . . .A11
DAILY
VERLOT — When collapsing ice threatens lives and minutes matter, the Big Four Mountain terrain renders cellphones useless. The scramble to reach 911 can seem an eternity. From the caves to the parking lot is a 1.1-mile run down the trail. The drive to the Mount BakerSnoqualmie National Forest Service ranger station at Verlot stretches another 14.5 miles. The Forest Service hopes to shorten that driving distance by nine miles next year by installing a land-line telephone to make 911 calls from Camp Silverton. “That would save a lot of time,” said Adrienne Hall, manager of the Verlot ranger station east of Granite Falls. “I’m champing at the bit to get this in.” When the ice caves collapsed July 6, killing one and injuring five, dispatchers received 911 calls roughly a half hour later. One came from the Verlot ranger station; another from a cellphone after the caller drove far enough to get reception, said Kurt Mills, executive director of SNOPAC 911, which provides emergency dispatch service for much of Snohomish County. Mills said the quicker access to phone service would be helpful. “That is an extremely rural area and even our public safety radio coverage is sparse in that mountainous region,” Mills said. Annalisa Santana, 34, of Moreno Valley, California, died inside the caves from her injuries that day. Her brother, David Santana, 25, remains in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Her boyfriend, Dustin Wilson, 35, was released from the same hospital last weekend. The other three people injured in the caves were treated and released. The ice caves remain closed to hikers. The parents of Grace Tam, who died July 31, 2010, after being struck by a boulder-sized chunk of ice, have described the wait for emergency medical help
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