Ed Hume kind of grows on you. Catch up with the host of ‘Gardening in America.’
Getting Kamiak charged up C1
B1 TUESDAY, 09.22.2015
●
EVERETT, WASHINGTON
●
WWW.HERALDNET.COM
●
75¢ (HIGHER IN OUTLYING AREAS)
Everett Clinic, Fortune 500 firm to merge Denver-based DaVita HealthCare operates physician groups in six states and has more than 2,000 kidney dialysis centers nationally. By Sharon Salyer Herald Writer
EVERETT — The Everett Clinic, with 318,000 patients in
Snohomish and Island counties, announced plans Monday to merge with Denver-based DaVita HealthCare Partners. The Fortune 500 company operates physician
groups in six states and has more than 2,000 kidney dialysis centers nationally. The Everett Clinic will keep its name and continue to be led by a physician board, said Rick Cooper, the clinic’s chief executive. Patients will notice little change, he said, either in dealing with a physician or with insurance
issues. “It will be business as usual,” he said. No details of the financial deal between the two organizations were disclosed. Final approval could come early next year. It must first be approved by The Everett Clinic’s 250 physician shareholders, Cooper said. Many Everett Clinic employees
VIP camaraderie
learned of the proposed merger during a companywide conference call at 6:30 a.m. Monday. The Everett Clinic is the state’s largest independent medical group and, with just over 2,000 employees, Snohomish County’s See MERGE, back page, this section
MARYSVILLE PILCHUCK
Trial of shooter’s father begins By Diana Hefley Herald Writer
Visually Impaired People meet in Everett to share, help each other Herald Writer
EVERETT — Jane Reno knew she was losing her vision, but when the doctor confirmed it, she still got upset. She thought about her choices. There had to be support available, people who were going through the same thing. On Monday, she attended the monthly support group for the visually impaired at the Carl Gipson Senior Center in Everett. This month’s topic was dealing with medication, prescription bottles and pharmacists. “We’re a peer group. Everybody’s equal, and we learn from
Christian Ford’s Comedy Magic Show
each other, ” said Gloria Riley, who moved to Everett last year. Riley attended one of the support groups in 2014 and went back for one in January. She was told the former leader had died. The senior center director asked Riley if she could lead the group. Her February group had two people attend. August’s meeting had 14. They talked about devices that can help visually impaired people with chores. Someone brought a scale with an electronic voice that reads out the weight. They laughed about that: Who wants their weight read aloud? The group encourages loved
38% OFF
Go to HeraldNetDailyDeal.com to purchase today’s deal from
Everett Historic Theatre
the buzz
By Rikki King
VOL. 115, NO. 222 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
INSIDE
Business . . . . . A7 Classified . . . . B4
Comics . . . . . . B2 Crossword . . . B2
ones and caregivers to join them. “Family, friends have no concept of what our vision range is or how we see the world,” Riley said. She owns a set of cardboard eyeglasses that simulate the different kinds of vision problems. She has retinitis pigmentosa, a heredity disease that causes failing eyesight. The glasses that simulate her disease are solid cardboard, with pencil-sized holes to see through. She has no side vision or depth perception: Stairs are dangerous, because they appear to her as flat ground. Underneath fluorescent lights,
Good to go But do they have an approved transponder? China President Xi Jinping is scheduled to arrive this morning at Paine Field for a three-day visit to Washington state (Page A3). The timing of Xi’s motorcade to Seattle is unknown; presumably it will depend Dear Abby . . . B3 Good Life . . . . B1
“it’s like I’m looking through a white fog, and it isn’t sharp or clear,” she said. Her brother was blind all of his adult life, also from retinitis pigmentosa. She worked in bookkeeping and as an emergency dispatcher before retirement. She’s not one for crying, but still, she remembers the first time she knocked over a glass of water in a restaurant. She couldn’t see the clear plastic. She sobbed. Now she always warns her waitress. When Riley’s brother died in 2007, he hadn’t lost hope that
on security considerations and the ability of Xi’s limo driver to figure out the state’s new carpool lane striping scheme (Page A3). He’d only just begun: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, hailed by pundits as a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination when he launched his
Horoscope . . . B6 Lottery . . . . . . A2
Obituaries . . . A5 Opinion . . . . . A9
See VIP, back page, this section
campaign three months ago, dropped out of the race Monday (Page A6). Clearly, Walker will be remembered as the Jimmy Graham of 2016 presidential candidates. Not feeling the Fahrvergnügen: Volkswagen’s market value plunged by about $15 billion Monday Short Takes . . B4 Sports . . . . . . C1
See TRIAL, Page A2
following revelations that the German carmaker installed computer code that rigged U.S. emissions tests for about 500,000 diesel cars (Page A7). The scandal has shrouded VW CEO Martin Winterkorn in a black cloud of shame, which is also the exhaust from a 2014 Passat.
— Mark Carlson, Herald staff
Captivating 62/46, C8
DAILY
IAN TERRY / THE HERALD
Jane Reno, of Everett, tries on a pair of glasses designed to replicate visual impairment during a monthly support group meeting for the blind and visually impaired at the Carl Gipson Senior Center in Everett on Monday. The group, open to anyone with a visual impairment regardless of age, discusses topics ranging from technology designed to make everyday tasks easier to navigating interactions with others who may not fully understand blindness.
SEATTLE — A federal jury is expected Tuesday to hear from the first witnesses in the case against a Tulalip man whose teenage son shot five of his friends at Marysville Pilchuck High School. Raymond Fryberg faces six counts of illegal gun possession. He was indicted earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Seattle and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors Raymond allege that RayFryberg mond Fryberg wasn’t legally permitted to own the Beretta pistol Jaylen Fryberg used to murder four of his classmates and wound a fifth. The moms of two of the victims attended Monday’s court proceedings. Judge James Robart made it clear to prospective jurors that Raymond Fryberg isn’t charged with any crimes related to the school violence. “This is not a trial about the shooting. This is about the gun,” Robart said. The defense last week tried to convince Robart to move the trial to a different location, citing extensive publicity about the killings. The judge declined but ruled that any statements Fryberg made to police in March about his son’s actions should be redacted from transcripts provided to the jury. Lawyers on Monday carefully questioned jurors who said they had heard about the school
6
42963 33333
9