Aberdeen, WA - The city of Aberdeen took the same stance against Initiative 1033 as Hoquiam did earlier this week, unanimously passing a resolution apposing Initiative 1033. Mayor Bill Simpson read from the resolution prior to the unanimous decision.

Aberdeen, WA - Aberdeen City Councilman Jerry Mills presented the council with an update on the North End park construction "November 16th they're going to put the play field in, and all that money that's being spent on that is not coming from the general fund, it's coming from the Bishop Foundation"

Olympia, WA - The Washington State Department of Health has confirmed the first death due to West Nile virus within the state. The Yakima County woman in her 70s died last month. Confirmatory tests to specifically identify West Nile virus as the cause of her infection were performed at the Washington State Public Health Laboratories and at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Before her illness, the woman spent time in both Yakima County and Colorado. She could’ve been exposed to the virus in either area, both of which have virus-carrying mosquitoes.

In addition to this case, 31 other West Nile infection cases have been reported with exposure in Washington during 2009, bringing the total this year to 32 human cases. Among these cases, 25 have had severe disease, including encephalitis, meningitis, and/or paralysis. Seven cases had mild illnesses, mostly with symptoms of fever and headache.

Aberdeen, WA - Power has been restored to the Grays Harbor City area west of Hoquiam after another brief outage in the area this afternoon. The outage occurred at about 11:30am and power was restored at about 1:55pm. Early this morning the area was impacted by an outage at 4:30am. Power was restored at  9:26am. It is believed the outages were due to tree branches impacting power lines. A tree trimming crew worked to clear branches.

Power was restored to the 20 customers on Porter Creek Road at 9:26 this morning.

SEATTLE - One of the hottest issues on the upcoming ballot in Washington is Initiative 1033, which would hold the state, cities and counties to strict limits on the amount of income they can raise through taxes. Backers say it's a way to force state and local governments to spend less money, because they'll have much less to spend.



At least 200 organizations, from business and labor to consumer groups, are opposed to I-1033, including AARP Washington. State Director Doug Shadel says a similar initiative in Colorado was suspended by that state's legislature because of its effects on public services and the economy.