SEATTLE- Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and state department of transportation directors from 17 states hosted a news conference today highlighting the rapid pace of delivering federal Recovery Act jobs and highway projects bolstering the nation's economic recovery.

Nationwide 2,000 construction projects with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are already underway with more to come in the months ahead.  Hammond, Caltrans Director Will Kempton, and Utah Department of Transportation Executive Director John Njord each conveyed how thousands of projects were approved by states in record time, and below budget estimates.

SEATTLE - Sharks are in danger in the Pacific and all the world's oceans, and after tangling with sharks and living to tell about it, a group of shark attack survivors is in the nation's capital today, asking the Senate to pass a bill to protect sharks. Scientists say that, like many other fish species, sharks have been over-fished and many are endangered.

Here in the Northwest, there are at least 18 shark species on the Pacific coast. Shark sightings are common but attacks are extremely rare, according to Matt Rand, director of Global Shark Conservation, a project of the Pew Environment Group.

     LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) - The Port of Longview will process garbage from Hawaii heading to Washington landfills under an agreement recently reached with a shipping company.

Port officials say the deal reached with Daybreak Transportation and Rail Transfer will create more hours for local longshoremen and more work for the little-used crane.

The Longview Daily News reports the garbage, shrink-wrapped in plastic and stored in steel shipping containers, will be unloaded at the port to trucks or trains.

SEATTLE - The Coast Guard hoisted a 22-year-old man from a cliff on Little James Island near La Push, Wash., Tuesday.

Coast Guard Station Quillayute River, Wash., received a call from the La Push Police Department at approximately 12:46 p.m. requesting a helicopter with hoist capabilities for a man suspended 150 feet on a cliff.  

Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles launched an MH-65C helicopter crew at 1:37 p.m., which arrived on scene at approximately 2:00 p.m.

The man was taken to a waiting emergency medical service crew in Quillayute.

     WESTPORT, Wash. (AP) - A ticking package that prompted employees at a Westport, Wash., post office to call police has been determined to be a hoax.

     Westport police tell KBKW News that the package was found to contain some sort of a clock with wires and some fireworks.

     Washington State Patrol Trooper Krista Hedstrom tells us that the package was left on the counter, wrapped in Christmas wrapping, and that the Bomb Squad determined it to be a hoax device. U.S. postal inspectors will take over the investigation into the matter and charges could be pending for the parties involved.

    The U.S. postal Service said that hoax devices can cause panic. A note was also found with the box but authorities did not disclose what it said.