Colorful twist on a classic: rainbow potato salad
D1
South Snohomish 3-0 in Little League regional tourney C1
WEDNESDAY, 07.29.2015
●
EVERETT, WASHINGTON
●
WWW.HERALDNET.COM
●
75¢ (HIGHER IN OUTLYING AREAS)
Just 4 911 texts valid so far Ballot ELECTION 2015
Since the service went live in the county 3 weeks ago, people mostly have used it for nonemergency complaints. By Rikki King Herald Writer
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The ability to text 911 has been live in Snohomish County for three weeks now.
The good news is people are making use of the service. The bad news is that so far, 81 percent of the texts received haven’t been for emergencies. Dispatchers are averaging two or three texts to 911 a day now
in the county, as they expected, said Debbie Grady, executive director for SNOCOM, the dispatch center based in Mountlake Terrace. SNOCOM received 911 texts from 36 people as of Thursday. Four of those reports were valid, and would not have been better served as voice calls, Grady said. Two were
from deaf people and two were from domestic-violence victims — two populations the service was designed to help. The nonemergency texts included complaints about speeders and neighborhood noise, according to a SNOCOM memo. See TEXTS, Page A2
Kindnesses of strangers Accident victim has endured, thanks to his family and one officer’s compassion
return at 9.1% for now But the county auditor says that despite all-mail elections, people still wait until the last minute to vote, and the count will be average.
By Rikki King
By Jerry Cornfield
Herald Writer
Herald Writer
LYNNWOOD — After a long day at work, Kevin Warner needed to run some errands. He picked up last-minute Valentine’s Day cards for his kids and their teachers. He stopped to browse bicycles for his son, Cash, whose sixth birthday was coming up. It was about 10 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2014. Warner, 40, was on his motorcycle, just blocks from home. He saw a car blow the stop sign to his right. He figures he had a second, maybe a half-second, to make a decision. He hopped up from his motorcycle seat, moving his right leg to avoid a direct hit. He heard a bang as the car collided with his bike. The moments that followed are a blur. He remembers tumbling, then lying in the middle of the road. He heard voices and saw faces and somehow, someone called his wife, Amy. A bystander appeared above him. She told him not to move, to focus on her face and to keep breathing until help arrived. That woman showed him such kindness, and so have so many others since the crash, Warner said. He counts the investigator, Lynnwood police officer Stephen Showalter, among them. It’s kindness, and the love of his family, that has helped Warner push through a lengthy healing process and ongoing criminal case. Showalter, a longtime traffic officer, said he’s learned on the job that a little bit of compassion can go a long way. Last month, Warner wrote a letter of thanks to Showalter that he sent to Lynnwood Police Chief Steve Jensen. The letter ended up in the mayor’s hands, too. Showalter didn’t set out to get any attention for doing his job, but Warner wrote that the officer gave him a sense of calm and a sense of community. Showalter “made me feel like he was genuinely concerned
quiet by then. The officer found something else, something personal, on the road among the motorcycle pieces.
EVERETT — Snohomish County voters are certainly not rushing to cast ballots in the Aug. 4 primary. As of Tuesday morning, 38,297 ballots had been returned representing a slim 9.1 percent of the roughly 421,000 ballots mailed out. That trickle isn’t worrying the county’s top election official, who said Tuesday that turnout is on pace to reach its historic average by the time every ballot is counted. Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Weikel said because an increasing number of voters wait until the last minute to get their ballots in, turnout could wind up as high as 30 percent. “When we went to all-mail elections we believed that voters would change their voting patterns and get their ballots in earlier. That is not true,” she said. “People are holding onto their ballots longer and longer and using the convenience of the drop boxes to turn them in.” Last year, for example, 42.5 percent of all ballots cast in the primary were returned via one of the drop boxes, county elections director Garth Fell said. Most of those arrived in the final days, including Election Day, according to county statistics. If Weikel’s prediction is correct and turnout reaches 30 percent, that would be quite an achievement. Historically, Snohomish County voters show less interest in odd-year primaries. In 2011, only 25.8 percent took part when a fierce contest for county executive headed the primary ballot. In 2007, the turnout was 28.1 percent. The last time the county broke 30 percent was in 2003 when the ballot featured a multi-candidate elimination fight for what was then an open county executive seat.
See KINDNESS, back page, this section
See BALLOTS, back page, this section
50% OFF
Go to HeraldNetDailyDeal.com to purchase today’s deal from
Nail & Beauty Boutique
the buzz
about my health, and shared in my frustration over the situation,” Warner wrote. “His kindness and compassion put my wife and I at ease through what otherwise has been a very difficult and stressful
VOL. 115, NO. 167 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
INSIDE
Business . . . .A11 Classified . . . . B1
Comics . . . . . .D4 Crossword . . .D4
ordeal,” he wrote. The two men didn’t cross paths at the accident scene. The driver who struck Warner took off. Showalter arrived to collect evidence after Warner was taken away in the ambulance. It was
Who’s counting? Out the Windows: Microsoft’s new Windows 10 operating system debuts today and more closely resembles Windows 7 than its last update, Windows 8, the tile-like design of which alienated some (Page A11). And if you’re wondering what happened to Windows Dear Abby. . . .D5 Good Life . . . .D1
9, it was sent to the Isle of Misfit Microsoft Products, along with the Windows Phone, Zune, Clippy and Steve Ballmer. The buzz above: Amazon. com, still hoping to use drones for deliveries, has proposed regulations that would prevent collisions among drones and other
Horoscope . . . B5 Lottery . . . . . .A2
Obituaries. . . .A8 Opinion. . . . .A13
aircraft. Drones, Amazon suggests, should only be allowed in a narrow band of low-altitude airspace, follow flight plans and communicate with a central computer system (Page A11). Oh, and if Amazon could get the same sweet deal that railroad companies have with railroad rights of way, that would be super. Short Takes . . .D6 Sports . . . . . . . C1
Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1914, transcontinental telephone service began with a call between New York and San Francisco (Page D6). But the San Francisco operator hung up when she heard, “Hello, this is a recorded message from the Bull Moose Party. ...”
—Jon Bauer, Herald staff
Bright 79/57, C6
DAILY
MARK MULLIGAN / THE HERALD
Lynnwood police officer Stephen Showalter visits with Kevin Warner, Warner’s wife, Amy, children Cash and Mazzy, and dog, Steve. Kevin Warner was involved in a hit and run crash when a car hit his motorcycle just blocks from his home in Lynnwood. Showalter has stuck by the family throughout Warner’s recovery.
6
42963 33333
9