Voters reject green bag fee
Seattle voters have rejected a US$0.20 fee for every paper or plastic bag they get from supermarkets, drug stores and convenience stores. With about half the ballots counted in the all-mail vote, the bag fee was failing 58 percent to 42 percent in Tuesday’s primary. City leaders had passed an ordinance to charge the bag fee, which was to start in January, but the plastics industry bankrolled a referendum to put the question to voters in Tuesday’s election. Plastic bag makers had lobbied hard to defeat the fee, outspending opponents about 15 to one. Also in Seattle, unpopular Mayor Greg Nickels was narrowly trailing two challengers in his bid for a third term. Sierra Club activist Mike McGinn had a slim lead with 27 percent of the vote, mobile phone executive Joe Mallahan had 26 percent, while Nickels had 25 percent.
■UNITED STATES
Fire started by traffickers
The fires that hit a protected forest area in mountains close to the northwestern California city of Santa Barbara could have been started by Mexican drug traffickers, officials said on Tuesday. “The reality is that we could have an army out there and not be able to cover all of that ground,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters, saying he based his claim on the size of a marijuana farm and equipment found where the fire began. A special team of the US Forest Service, a counternarcotics police unit and investigators from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department uncovered stacks of propane tanks, irrigation tubing, empty fertilizer canisters, a cooking stove and a semi-automatic rifle.
■UNITED STATES
Novak dies, aged 78
Political columnist Robert Novak, a feisty conservative advocate who was known as the “Prince of Darkness” for his pessimistic outlook, died on Tuesday after a battle with brain cancer that was diagnosed 13 months ago. He was 78. Novak’s wife of 47 years, Geraldine Novak,said he died at his home in Washington early on Tuesday. A household face in the US as co-host of CNN’s popular former program Crossfire, Novak had been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. “He was a Washington institution, who could turn an idea into the most discussed story around kitchen tables, congressional offices, the White House and everywhere in between,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.
■UNITED STATES
Boys unfit to stand trial
Two 10-year-old boys charged in the alleged gang-rape of an eight-year-old Liberian girl must be released from juvenile detention and placed in therapeutic foster-care homes rather than with their own families, judges ruled on Tuesday. Judge Aimee Anderson ruled that one of the boys is incompetent to stand trial and ordered him enrolled in a program that could render him fit for trial within six months. Two mental health experts found the other 10-year-old incapable of becoming competent to stand trial within six months.
■UNITED STATES
Family surprised by python
A Southern California family got a slithery surprise when a 3.4m python turned up in their front yard. Francisco Delgadillo, who lives near Lake Elsinore, said he was chatting with his sister on their porch on Sunday night when he saw an enormous snake moving across the fenced yard, KTLA-TV reported. The first animal control officer had to call for backup. Two officers then wrangled the 23kg snake into a truck and took it to a shelter.
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