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On Sept. 26, 1979, a girl’s body was found on a beach in Marin County, Calif.

The girl had been stabbed 43 times with an ice pick, her body doused with acetone and set on fire. She’d been shot in the head as she tried to escape.

For more than 27 years, no one knew who she was.

But early this year, in an improbable twist to the long-cold case, two teams of investigators working independently in Washington and California were able to piece together the mystery.

Her name was Tammy Vincent. She was 17 when she was reported missing in Seattle in August 1979.

She had been subpoenaed to appear before an inquiry judge investigating a prostitution ring in the Seattle area, but she never appeared to testify.

Marin County investigators now believe they have finally figured out what happened to her. The detectives say the answers, as well as possible future arrests, are rooted in Seattle’s history of sex shops and in a prostitution ring that made headlines around the time of Vincent’s death.

The break that led to Vincent’s identification came from a rare DNA match that hinged on a single hair from the victim and a saliva swab from a relative.

For Marin County Detective Steve Nash, who has been working on the case for nearly six years, it was a long-sought payoff.

“She was waiting to be found,” he said.

Adventurous streak

Tammy Vincent was born in 1962 in Tulsa, Okla. Her family soon moved to Okanogan County in Washington, where she grew up as a farm girl with a taste for adventure.

Sandy Vincent, now 43, remembers when older sister Tammy rigged up a speedometer on her Schwinn three-speed and went barreling down a steep hill, chasing ground squirrels. “She told me she was going 50 down that hill,” she recalled.

But her teenage years brought turmoil and fights with her parents, and Tammy Vincent left home at 16, ending up in a foster home in Spokane and then working as a prostitute in Seattle.

In August 1979, King County police raided a South 180th Street apartment they believed was a front for prostitution and found Vincent, then a 17-year-old runaway from the state Department of Social and Health Services.

Vincent was put on a plane to Spokane two days after the raid and returned to DSHS there. But the following day, a caseworker called King County police to report that she had run away.

She was last seen in Seattle on Sept. 10, 1979, at a motel in the 19200 block of Aurora Avenue North, getting into a silver Lincoln Continental owned by one of the suspects in the sex-shop investigations, detectives found out shortly after the sighting.

On Sept. 11, 1979, a King County judge signed a protective order that identified Vincent as a material witness and ordered her held to testify in the prostitution and racketeering case against five men accused of forcing women and girls into prostitution. She never showed up.

One last call

The trials resulted in a mix of verdicts. One sex-shop operator was sentenced in March 1980 to five years in prison for promoting prostitution, and others received sentences of up to eight years in prison.

Vincent’s family knew nothing about the investigations. The last time they saw her was in the summer of 1979 when she showed up at the family home in a car with another person.

“She was different,” said Sandy Vincent. “She said a couple of things and I just walked away. She never even got out of the car.”

Sandy Vincent declined to explain exactly what was said.

She heard from her sister one more time later that summer.

“She called on the phone and said she wanted to come home. … She was very scared. She knew her life was in danger. We never heard from her again.”

The family tried periodically to find her. They suspected she may have been killed by the Green River Killer and began contacting King County’s Green River Task Force.

The task force added Tammy Vincent to its investigation of missing women, begun in the 1980s.

Then in 2003, the family got a call from a King County deputy working with the task force asking if they could provide a DNA sample from a member of the family - something the task force began to do routinely. Sandy Vincent provided a saliva swab.

That swab was forwarded to a national DNA “library” just being developed at the University of North Texas at Fort Worth. The university’s Center for Human Identification stores information and conducts tests to identify human remains for crime laboratories and in noncriminal cases.

A match

Unknown to King County police, detectives in Marin County had reopened the 1979 murder case in 2001, part of taking a fresh look at unsolved crimes.

In reviewing old case files, detectives learned that a clerk at a San Francisco Woolworth’s store had “vividly recalled” a mysterious man in a white leisure suit coming to the store that summer with a girl about 5 feet 6 inches tall, about 125 pounds, with light-brown, Afro-style hair - a match with Vincent’s description.

The man bought acetone, paint and an ice pick, the clerk said.

Detectives also went back through long-stored evidence folders, which had been moved through four evidence rooms over the decades.

A single hair was found intact.

That hair was sent in 2005 to the California Department of Justice and then to the Texas database in December 2006.

In February 2007, the results came back.

The two law-enforcement agencies, independent of each other, had sent samples to the Texas lab hoping for a hit. They got one.

The DNA from the hair matched the DNA sample provided by Tammy’s family four years earlier.

The California Department of Justice said it was the first time the state had matched remains found in California with a DNA sample from another state. That type of match was also “pretty rare” in Washington, said Dr. Gary Shutler, State Patrol DNA technical leader.

Marin County detectives called Vincent’s family in Eastern Washington and said they wanted to meet them at their home.

Sitting in their Moses Lake living room one evening earlier this year, Nash told the family that Tammy had been found.

The return

On Aug. 10, Tammy Vincent’s cremated remains were returned to Washington state. She was buried in a small ceremony that day in Ephrata, that was attended by seven friends and family members. Her mother, Glenda Vincent, 63, sat in a wheelchair, respiratory disease requiring her to use an oxygen tank. Nash and his partner, Jim Hickey, handed the family a small container with Tammy Vincent’s remains. Sobbing broke the sunny afternoon silence as the family embraced one another.

“At least they found her,” Glenda Vincent said.

Now the family says they want one more piece in place.

“We want to see them caught,” Sandy Vincent said. “They’ve been living their lives to the fullest and Tammy never got to live hers.

“We want justice.”

Nash said the investigation will continue. He and his partner have spent months since the identification interviewing possible witnesses and suspects in at least four Western states and in the Seattle area. Now they’re asking for the public’s help.

The answers could be anywhere.

“It’s got a lot of tentacles,” Nash said.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes

WASHINGTON - How the state’s members of Congress voted on major roll calls in the week ending Friday:

House

Children’s insurance

By a vote of 265-159, the House on Tuesday passed a five-year renewal of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) projected to cost $60 billion, up $35 billion from current spending on a program designed mainly to insure needy youth not covered by Medicaid. The bill (HR 976) would expand eligibility to a large number of middle-class families lacking health insurance. It would expand coverage from 6.6 million to 9.8 million children and increase federal tobacco taxes from 39 cents to $1 per pack to pay for added costs.

Voting yes: Jay Inslee, D-1, Rick Larsen, D-2, Brian Baird, D-3, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-5, Norm Dicks, D-6, Jim McDermott, D-7, Dave Reichert, R-8, Adam Smith, D-9.

Voting no: Doc Hastings, R-4.

Popcorn regulation

By a vote of 260-154, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 2693) that would begin federal regulation of worker exposure to the food additive diacetyl, which has been linked to fatal lung disease in workers who manufacture and package microwave popcorn. The bill would give the Occupational Safety and Health Administration three months to require workplace-safety procedures, air-quality monitoring and medical testing at plants where there is exposure to this flavoring compound. Final regulations would have to be issued in three years.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Reichert, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers.

Flood insurance

By a vote of 263-146, the House on Thursday sent the Senate a bill (HR 3121) that would renew the National Flood Insurance Program, increase overall coverage limits and add coverage for such categories as windstorm damage and business interruptions.

Voting yes: Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Dicks, McDermott, Smith.

Voting no: Hastings, McMorris Rodgers.

Not voting: Reichert.

Senate

Children’s insurance

By a vote of 67-29, the Senate on Thursday joined the House (above) in renewing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program at more than double today’s cost. The bill (HR 976) faces a possible veto by President Bush.

Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D, Patty Murray, D.

Iraq-partition plan

By a vote of 75-23, the Senate on Wednesday approved a nonbinding proposal to split Iraq into three semi-autonomous regions - Kurdistan in the north, a Sunni entity based in the west and a Shiite entity in the south. The federal government would remain in Baghdad with power to secure borders and distribute oil revenues. The measure was added to a 2008 defense bill (1585) that remained in debate.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

U.S. policy toward Iran

By a vote of 76-22, the Senate on Wednesday adopted an amendment to HR 1585 calling for “the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of U.S. power” in confronting Iran.

Voting yes: Murray.

Voting no: Cantwell.

Hate-crimes prosecutions

By a vote of 60-39, the Senate on Thursday agreed to expand the federal law against hate crimes to include offenses based on sexual orientation, gender or disability, as well as existing categories of national origin, religion and race. The measure, attached to HR 1585, would authorize federal grants and law-enforcement resources to help state and local officials combat hate crimes.

Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray.

Roll Call Report Syndicate

EUGENE, Ore. - DeSean Jackson is back.

The California receiver got off to a slow start this season, but he emerged with 11 catches for 161 yards - both career bests - and two scores in sixth-ranked Cal’s 31-24 victory over No. 11 Oregon Saturday.

“This game was the one where I needed to do that, and I stepped up and made big plays,” said Jackson.

Justin Forsett ran for 101 yards and another two scores, and Nate Longshore completed 28 of 43 passes for 285 yards and two scores for the Golden Bears (5-0, 2-0 Pac-10).

California snapped a seven-game losing streak at Autzen Stadium - it hadn’t won there since 1987 - and needed a close call to go its way to hang on to the victory.

With 22 seconds to go, Oregon’s Dennis Dixon hit receiver Cameron Colvin, who fumbled trying to reach the ball into the end zone when he was hit by Marcus Ezeff. The loose ball went through the end zone and was ruled a touchback and possession for Cal. The play was reviewed, the call stood, and time ran out for Oregon (4-1, 1-1).

“That had huge significance right there, so they had to get it right,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said.

Colvin said he was only trying to score.

“I think he hit my elbow, but I’m not really sure how it came out,” Colvin said.

Oregon’s Dennis Dixon, who was the only Pac-10 quarterback who had not thrown an interception, threw two late in the game. He finished 31 of 44 for 306 yards and a TD.

It was billed in advance as a high-scoring, offense-driven game, but both teams had trouble getting into the end zone through the first three quarters.

With the score tied at 10 in the third, Dixon hit Colvin with a 32-yard TD pass. Cal tied it again early in the fourth with Forsett’s 1-yard scoring run, then pulled ahead with Longshore’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Jackson.

Dixon ran a keeper in for a yard to tie it again at 24 with 7:06 left.

The Golden Bears got a scare late in the game when Longshore was hit by linebacker Kwame Agyeman and briefly left the game.

Dixon was picked off by Anthony Felder and Forsett went on to put the Bears ahead again on a 1-yard touchdown run with just more than three minutes to go.

Jonathan Stewart, the Timberline of Lacey graduate who was leading the Pac-10 in rushing, had 21 carries for 121 yards for the Ducks.

Last season Cal defeated Oregon 45-24 in Berkeley. The loss was pivotal for the Ducks, who at the time were 4-0 and ranked 11th. Oregon went on to lose five of its next eight games for a 7-6 finish. Cal, at the time ranked 16th, went on to win five of the next seven and wrap up the season 10-3 as the co-conference champions with USC.

“It’s not a vindictive win by any means,” Tedford said. “It’s just a great win for our program.”

SMALL business is the constant heartbeat to a booming economy in Southeast King County.

Some of these small enterprises fall under the category of a microenterprise. These businesses may take care of your children, provide you with a haircut or manicure, cook your favorite ethnic food, or even fix your computer. Each tries to serve the community’s needs while hopefully generating enough income to make ends meet. A microenterprise is a small business with up to five employees and startup capital needs of less than $35,000. Such businesses play a critical role to our local economy. A total of 163,329 microenterprises in King County employ more than 218,000, according to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity.

Most of these businesses typically encounter two significant barriers to success: denial of traditional commercial loans because of inadequate collateral or credit; and lack of access to business and technical training.

These needs have prompted the emergence of microenterprise-development programs to help with startup funds and business training. The mission of these programs is to help low-income families attain self-sufficiency, enter the mainstream economy and stay out of poverty.

Indeed, fostering a sustainable business is key. A simple one-time loan to start a business will usually not be enough for an entrepreneur to be self-sufficient. However, the chances for success increase dramatically when business training is attached.

One local microenterprise program is the Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (WA CASH). It provides a business training course, microcredit-lending services from $500 to $15,000, technical business assistance, and peer support to enable low-income residents to start or expand self-employment ventures.

WA CASH is partnering with BuRSST for Prosperity, a local venture of the Northwest Area Foundation and the Children’s Home Society making a long-term impact on family self-sufficiency in South King County. Together, we are developing a community-based business-training program to address the economic needs of low-income immigrants and refugees, their families and distressed communities. This program will use WA CASH’s tested approach to train community representatives who, in turn, will train groups of potential entrepreneurs in their own languages and neighborhoods.

Another source of funding for microenterprises are community-development financial institutions, which provide financial products and services to people and communities underserved by traditional financial institutions. In one year, these financial institutions have financed 142 businesses and microenterprises, and created 982 jobs.

Microenterprise development is a proven strategy in poverty alleviation. Microenterprise allows resources and training opportunities within the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families system, workforce investment boards, local community and technical colleges, or partnerships with nonprofits. Unfortunately, changes to work-training requirements through the Federal Deficit Reduction Act make it more difficult for self-employment opportunities.

Supportive policies are needed to help small businesses succeed. Fortunately, this last session, the Legislature took positive action to remove barriers by requiring the local work-force boards to include entrepreneurial training. Sen. Claudia Kauffman, D-Kent, worked to establish a statewide microenterprise association.

Providing more opportunities for microenterprise-startup funds and training yields many benefits. A successful entrepreneur provides jobs, generates public revenue, keeps individuals off public assistance and instills hope to others who aspire to own a business. Most importantly, it breaks down systematic barriers low-income families face.

As a community, we should support these local businesses and continue to advocate for more resources to allow microenterprise-development programs to reach as many low-income residents as possible. If they prosper, so does every resident, visitor, investor and consumer throughout Southeast King County.

Who knows, maybe these microenterprises will become as successful as a certain local computer or coffee company.Karan Gill is the government and public-relations manager at BuRSST for Prosperity (www.BuRSST.org), based in the Old Renton City Hall. He can be contacted at karang@chs-wa.org.

PATERSON, Benton County - Zipping along in a four-seat helicopter, Don Odegard can see Watts Brothers Farms from miles away.

Its dairy cows are dark dots ambling toward an indoor milking carousel. Others munch on grass in irrigated pasture before retreating from the Eastern Washington sun to shelters the length of three football fields. They rest there and eat dried organic hay and other feed before heading to the carousel again.

It’s not exactly Old MacDonald’s farm.

Watts Brothers, which started milking cows in December, is Washington’s largest organic dairy with 2,200 milking cows.

State regulators and some small dairy farmers speak highly of it, but critics question whether milking thousands of cows is worthy of the term “organic.”

They lump it into the same category as Aurora Organic Dairy in Colorado, which agreed last month to reduce its herd, add organic pasture and stop labeling some of its milk “organic” after the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to revoke its organic certification.

Consumers sometimes pay twice as much for organic milk, and they might not picture the dairies producing it with thousands of cows, or a farmer arriving at 140 mph from overhead.

However, increasing demand for organic milk has made the market appealing to large-scale farmers like Odegard, president and a minority owner of Watts Brothers.

“The right thing to do”

The idea for Watts Brothers’ organic dairy began three years ago, when Odegard realized its 22,000-acre vegetable farm could save money on manure if it produced its own. With customers like Gerber and Safeway wanting more organic vegetables, it made sense to start an organic dairy that would produce organic manure.

Watts Brothers cows graze on four giant irrigated circles among hundreds near the Columbia River. Many of the circles grow vegetables for Watts Brothers customers, others are part of a joint venture begun 16 years ago between Watts Brothers and Lamb Weston, a brand of ConAgra, and some grow grapes for the state’s largest winery, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

Watts Brothers grows much of the organic hay and other dry feed that its cows eat, and its cows produce much of the manure that its organic crops need.

That arrangement saves the company money and is good for the environment, Odegard said, because it means fewer trucks hauling in supplies from other places.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Odegard, a former banker and professional football player with the New York Jets.

That’s the way he answers a lot of questions about the dairy.

Watts Brothers uses mostly Jersey cows, which is unusual in the dairy business because they produce less milk per cow than a Holstein. Jersey cows were bred to graze, and their bodies produce milk more efficiently, Odegard said, which makes business sense and is “the right thing to do.”

The dairy milks each cow twice a day rather than three times, which produces less milk but is easier on the cows in the long run and is also “the right thing to do,” said Odegard.

“God gave us the resources we have, and our job is to use them as efficiently as we can and leave it like we got it, if not in better shape,” he said.

Grazing questions

Odegard believes Watts Brothers has a better business model than many small dairies.

“A lot of smaller dairies are barely getting by,” he said. Because they have fewer cows, he figures, the small dairies need to wring more milk out of every animal, which creates stress for cows, employees and the environment.

PCC Natural Markets in Seattle sees it differently. The grocery cooperative stopped carrying Horizon Organic milk products last year, partly because it doubted that cows at Horizon’s biggest dairies were spending enough time on pasture.

Unlike conventional dairies, organic dairies must graze their cows on pasture.

The U.S.D.A.’s organic-standards board recommends they graze at least 120 days a year, and that at least 30 percent of their food come from pasture when it is available.

Watts Brothers is one of Horizon’s largest suppliers. Although its cows graze for several hours a day on 500 acres of irrigated pasture, the dairy’s critics say it is missing the bigger picture.

“These people are probably making every effort to be organic,” said Goldie Caughlan, nutrition education manager at PCC and a former member of the U.S.D.A.’s organic standards board.

“There’s just no way to get around the fact that this is an arid desert area,” she said. “That’s not a sustainable place for concentrated animal operations.”

The Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit farm-advocacy group in Wisconsin, opposes organic dairies with more than 1,000 cows, and co-founder Mark Kastel says one in an arid region like Eastern Washington is “really stretching it.”

Large organic dairies can’t graze cows properly, Kastel contends, and they might end up driving smaller organic players out of business.

That’s what happened with conventional dairies, he said, “so one of the things family farmers did was switch to organic because of the relationship with consumers who are willing to pay a fair price for their product. Now the corporate players want that, too.”

A big welcome

Odegard knows about the criticism and is determined to run Watts Brothers’ dairy responsibly.

He wants to put picnic tables on a patch of grass next to the milking barn and invite the public for tours.

They won’t see cows lolling around under shade trees, but that vision might exist more in consumers’ minds than in reality anyway.

“People want to picture cute 50-cow dairies all over the countryside, but our economics don’t allow for that everywhere anymore,” said Georgana Webster, an organic-livestock inspector for the Washington Department of Agriculture, which determines whether dairies like Watts Brothers are following national organic standards.

She finds that no matter what their size, organic dairies put less stress on cows and workers.

“I see healthier cattle and happier people,” Webster said. “There’s less stress. They’re not pushing, depending on the economics of their situation.”

Her boss, Miles McEvoy, manages the state’s organic program and applauds Watts Brothers for going the organic route with its new dairy.

Odegard was appointed by the department’s director to sit on its organic program advisory board.

“We want to create a sustainable, organic agricultural system, and we need not just small farms to be involved,” McEvoy said.

“Large farms are part of agriculture, and excluding them from organic agriculture would be a big mistake.”

Washington is the 10th largest milk-producing state, with 488 dairies pumping out 5.5 billion pounds of milk last year. Most are conventional dairies averaging about 500 cows each.

Organic dairies are smaller and coming on fast. Washington now has 46, up from three in 2003, and they average about 250 cows each.

Even Watts Brothers, the largest by far with 2,200 cows, is dwarfed by the country’s largest conventional dairies, which can top 15,000 cows, according to the U.S.D.A.

Smaller dairies threatened

Other organic-dairy owners were concerned when they heard that a large Horizon supplier was opening in Eastern Washington. They don’t want the organic-dairy label to be tainted by any questionable players.

“A bunch of us said, ‘How is Watts Brothers going to graze in pasture in 110-degree heat?’ ” said Jay Gordon, an organic dairy farmer near Olympia and executive director of the Washington State Dairy Federation.

The state uses routine and unannounced inspections to ensure that organic cows are grazing, and by now word has spread to other dairy farms that Watts Brothers’ cows are doing fine.

“We all went, ‘Doggone it, they figured out a way to do it,’ ” Gordon said.

That still leaves the question of whether small dairies can survive alongside operations 10 times their size in the organic marketplace. If the demise in recent years of tens of thousands of smaller conventional dairies is any guide, a lot of small organic dairies will disappear.

Organic dairymen like Gordon hope that with 200 or so cows, they will have the critical mass necessary to stay in business.

“I like to think I have a good, efficient system at my place,” he said, “but ask me in 10 years.”

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com

The roar heard so many times at Husky Stadium on Saturday night had finally died to a familiar lull, that of loss just moments away.

Washington cornerback Roy Lewis heard this, and he thought about bringing that roar back.

“All I knew was that we just needed a big play,” Lewis said.

On the next play, Lewis burst past his blocker to block a USC punt in the last two minutes. That set up Jake Locker’s final-minute touchdown that momentarily kept the Huskies’ victory hopes alive.

For all the yards the Huskies allowed, a few plays like Lewis’ kept the Huskies close to top-ranked USC until the final seconds in UW’s 27-24 loss. For every time USC appeared on the brink of making it the blowout the numbers showed, Washington came up with something to stay near.

“Washington was there to take it,” USC coach Pete Carroll said.

In one way, it was exactly as UW had drawn it up, with all of the emphasis this week in practice on turnovers. The Huskies surely wouldn’t have liked to give up 460 yards to USC, but a defensive touchdown and two touchdowns set up by the defense were what Washington knew it needed to have a chance.

“If you look at the games they’ve lost in the last two years, it’s had to do with turnovers,” defensive coordinator Kent Baer said. “That gave us a chance to win. Anytime you score on defense and you set up one or two more, it gives you a chance to win.”

In the second quarter, after the first three Huskies drives had ended in an interception or punt, the defense made its first move.

USC quarterback John David Booty couldn’t handle a snap, and as it fell to the ground, senior defensive tackle Erick Lobos jumped on it.

Two plays later, Locker ran in a touchdown from 9 yards to put the Huskies up for the first time, 7-0.

“This whole week, we focused on getting turnovers,” safety Mesphin Forrester said. “And when we get the turnovers, score.”

Forrester did that in an important spot later in the first half. USC had taken a 14-7 lead and, with three minutes left, had an opportunity to add to the lead. Booty threw a pass to Stanley Havili, but it went off Havili’s fingertips and into the hands of Forrester, who was in zone coverage.

He summed up what he saw from there on with one word: “Green.”

There was a lot of red, gold and white among all that green, but Forrester weaved through several Trojans before finding the end zone on a 54-yard touchdown.

“When I caught the ball, I knew I had to score with it,” Forrester said.

Said coach Tyrone Willingham: “It put us right back in it. … Those are the kind of signs you look for, and expect from, good teams.”

Yet for all of these plays, leaving with a loss didn’t allow the Huskies to show any progress.

“We made some great plays,” Lewis said. “We capitalized on their mistakes, but in the end, I don’t think we turned the corner.”

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com

Heard the one, “So-and-so is so dumb, he flunked a urine test”? As it turns out, it’s not so dumb to study urine. Who knows? You may need to be tested.

Staring into toilets or urinals is like reading tea leaves. The rainbow of urine colors can merely reflect recent exercise, medications, disease and diet or signal something much more serious. Urine bears watching.

Too many B vitamins can turn the color a fluorescent yellow, says Dr. Ralph Green of the University of California, Davis Medical Center. And while red or rust-colored urine may signal serious diseases, it can also be caused by eating beets.

Black is a color for alarm and can mean malaria or blackwater fever. Green advises not to be obsessed with pee gazing, but be aware. Normal pee, by the way, is a straw-yellow color.

Larrian Gillespie, a retired urologist-urogynecologist and the author of “You Don’t Have To Live With Cystitis” (Harper Paperbacks, $13.95, 320 pages), groups colors with their possible causes. While it’s likely a color change is temporary, see a doctor if it persists.

Clear: You’ve been drinking more liquids than usual. Signals good hydration and health. However, if you’re not drinking increased amounts of beverages and it remains consistently clear, contact a physician - it could be a sign of a kidney or liver disorder.

Dark yellow: Most likely, you haven’t been drinking enough liquids and are dehydrated. Drink up. On average, we need at least 32 ounces of fluids per day.

Fluorescent yellow or orange: Perhaps you’ve been consuming a lot of darker-colored foods, such as beets, carrots, too much vitamin C, etc. Could also be an early sign of liver dysfunction if urine is consistently a dark yellow/orange or brownish color. Keep hydrated. If color persists, see a doctor.

Blood-tinged or rust: If accompanied by pain, burning and frequent urination, it is most likely a urinary tract infection. Contact your health-care provider for a urine culture. You can take over-the-counter medications formulated to relieve the pain while waiting for results and an antibiotic prescription.

Brown: Could indicate a serious condition, liver or kidney disease. See a physician.

Murky, cloudy: Yikes! Could be bacterial vaginosis or a yeast infection, a bad urinary tract infection, kidney stones or other urinary tract diseases. See a physician promptly, and alert the physician about any changes in the way you urinate (flow, pain or urgency).