Woman found dead in apartment identified
A woman whose body was discovered in a Pioneer Square apartment on Friday has been identified as Naeemah Smith, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office said Monday.
The bodies of Smith, 28, and a 36-year-old man were found lying face down on the kitchen floor of their unit in the Frye Apartments at Yesler Way and Third Avenue.
The cause of Smith’s death is still pending, the Medical Examiner’s Office said, and the man’s name has not been released.
The apartment manager discovered the bodies about 2 p.m. in what police later described as “a strange scene.”
Eastside
Lead changes in 2 council races
The leading candidate in two Eastside city-council races changed after the weekend’s returns.
Newcastle Councilmember Sonny Putter now has a 25-vote lead over Planning Commissioner Russ Segner.
Duvall Planning Commissioner Anne Laughlin has an eight-vote lead over former Councilmember Gary Rutledge.
A Medina ballot measure to put the city’s power lines underground was failing. It needs 60 percent of the vote to pass, and after the weekend returns it had about 51 percent.
The King County elections office was closed Monday but will post absentee results until the election is certified Nov. 27.
Olympia
2,600 votes separate school-levy measure
Nearly a week after Election Day, an effort to make passing school levies easier was gaining ground, with the gap narrowing to just under 2,600 votes.
With about 178,000 votes left to count, the measure was too close to call, with 50 percent of voters rejecting it but 49.9 percent approving it.
The proposed constitutional amendment is aimed at eliminating the 60 percent supermajority required to approve special levies for local school districts. The rule is a decades-old limitation on voters’ power to tax property owners.
The measure was failing in all but five counties: King, San Juan, Thurston, Whatcom and Whitman. The measure was too close to call in Asotin, Snohomish and Spokane counties. No ballots were counted Monday, the Veterans Day holiday.
Supporters said the measure was needed to remove unfair hurdles to districts at risk of losing programs, but opponents said it would only raise property taxes without helping education.
During the past eight years, more than 100 school districts received majority approval of their levies, but not the required supermajority.
Wenatchee
Fruit growers used more guest workers
Washington fruit growers hired twice as many seasonal agricultural workers through the federal guest-worker program this year as they did last year, reflecting a shortage of farm hands.
Bill Tarrow, spokesman for the state Department of Employment Security, said growers received permission to hire 1,657 workers through the federal H-2A program, and at least 1,140 were in fact hired. In 2006, permission was granted for 814 workers, and 515 hirings were verified.
Under the program, growers can hire foreign workers on temporary visas if there’s a shortage of workers. Growers must pay $9.77 an hour, provide housing and pay for the workers’ transportation. Many of the workers come from Mexico.
Overall, about 26,000 seasonal workers are typically hired during Washington’s cherry harvest, and about 42,000 are hired for the pear and apple harvests.
Low unemployment and efforts to crack down on undocumented workers have increased the demand for legal foreign workers, and Employment Security expects the use of the program to increase next year as well, Tarrow said.
In 2005 some workers came from Thailand, but last year and this year all of them came from Mexico, Tarrow said.
The number of applications to use the program was up from 16 in 2006 to 31 this year, Tarrow said. However, five of the 31 were withdrawn by applicants or denied by the state on grounds that there was sufficient domestic labor in that particular area, he said.
Seattle Times staff and news services