MORE SNOW IN STOR FOR WASHINGTON
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for much of Washington state, with another 1 to 3 inches of snow forecast in Seattle and as much as 6 inches in the suburbs by early tomorrow. The weather service says that will be followed by slightly warmed temperatures and rain across Western Washington later on Christmas Eve. Occasional showers, overnight freezing and slight daytime thawing are forecast for Christmas Day and Friday in the Puget Sound area before rain arrives during the weekend. A much whiter Christmas is in store for Eastern Washington with forecasts for 5 to 8 inches of snowfall in Spokane, starting Christmas Eve, and up to a foot in areas to the north. Three of 7 inches are forecast for the eastern foothills of the Cascades, 2 to 5 inches in Wenatchee and lesser amounts in other areas.
    
OLYMPIA POLICE FATAL SHOOTING RULED JUSTIFIED
Thurston County prosecutors have ruled the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man by Olympia police on Nov. 15 was justified. The prosecutor's office said yesterday that no criminal charges will be filed. The ruling means three Olympia police officers can return to work. They were placed on paid administrative leave after firing a shot or shots that killed Jose Ramirez-Jimenez. The Olympian identified the officers as 38-year-old Paul Bakala, 46-year-old Mike Hovda and 54-year-old Chuck Gassett. Ramirez-Jimenez was shot after he led Olympia police on a chase. Police say officers had attempted to stop the car he was driving because it was similar to one that was involved in a shooting in Olympia. The car did not stop and the chase ended in nearby Lacey.
    
UNION SUES GREGOIRE OVER PAY RAISES
The state's largest employee's union has sued Gov. Chris Gregoire for suggesting that state workers' pay raises be dropped as part of addressing the looming state budget deficit. Gregoire wants to drop the raises for the workers, who recently wrapped up contract negotiations calling for average yearly raises of about 2 percent. The Washington Federation of State Employees sued yesterday in Thurston County Superior Court. The union represents 40,000 workers in state agencies and colleges. The lawsuit asks the court to compel Gregoire to submit a request to the Legislature to pay for the raises. Gregoire's budget director, Victor Moore, says the contracts were "concluded prior to the global financial market crisis in October and the November revenue forecast reducing state income by $1.9 billion."
    
WASHINGTON PRISON DOCTOR QUITS OVER DEATH PENALTY
The top doctor in the Washington Department of Corrections has resigned, saying the use of medical staff to prepare for an execution is unethical. Dr. Marc Stern of Olympia says physicians should not supervise the death penalty. He told The Olympian his only choice was to resign. The assistant secretary of the Corrections Department, Scott Blonien, says it respects Stern's decision. Taking part in an execution is voluntary for all employees. The state is preparing to execute Darold Ray Stenson at the Washington state Penitentiary at Walla Walla, although it's currently on hold. The 56-year-old killed his wife and business partner in 1993 at an exotic bird farm near Sequim.

TRUCK CRASHES ON I-5 EXIT AT KELSO
A semi-truck has crashed on an Interstate 5 exit at Kelso, trapping the driver and spilling fuel. KLOG reports the southbound semi with a loaded trailer came off the Allen Street exit just after 6 a.m. Wednesday, slammed into a retaining wall and rolled on its side. The exit is expected to be closed for several hours as crews handle the accident. Fresh snow in the southwest Washington interior Wednesday has made driving treacherous.

STARBUCKS MAY NOT MATCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO 401(K)S
Starbucks has told employees it may not be able to match their contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts in 2009 in order to keep costs down. The Seattle-based coffee chain says it will switch from matching contributions at a fixed rate and will instead decide whether or not to match an employee's contributions. The company currently matches between 25 percent and 150 percent of the first 4 percent of workers' pay. The percentage depends on how long an employee has worked at the company. Starbucks says it if does make a match next year, it may be at a different percentage than in 2008. The company has been attempting to cut costs and boost profits for months by closing nearly 600 underperforming stores in the U.S. and about 60 locations in Australia.
    
ACCOUNTANT SENTENCED FOR STEALING FROM DAUGHTER
A 58-year-old accountant has pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court in Vancouver to first-degree theft for stealing money from his daughter's college trust fund. David Owen Christensen of Battle Ground was sentenced to 40 days of partial confinement; 20 days of work crew and 20 days of work release. Court documents say Christensen admitted to using some of the $90,000 a grandmother gave to his daughter, Elizabeth Christensen. She was 17 at the time. Christensen received the $90,000 on Dec. 2, 2004, and was supposed to hold it for his daughter until she turned 21. But Battle Ground police found that within days, Christensen began transferring portions into his own funds, including an online stock trading account. His daughter did not know of the trust fund until shortly before she turned 18.
    
SEA-TAC AIRPORT BACK TO NORMAL, MOSTLY
The stranded passengers have moved out of Sea-Tac Airport, and a spokeswoman says operations are normal Wednesday even as more snow continues to fall. The spokeswoman, Terri-Ann Betancourt, says the last of thousands of passengers who had been stranded by weekend cancellations were gone by Tuesday. She says the only cancellations at Sea-Tac Wednesday are the result of delays or cancellations at other airports with problems. One minor problem at Sea-Tac is parking congestion at the garage because off-site lots have not been plowed. The spokeswoman says snowbound Seattle residents are in the odd position of wishing for rain from warmer temperatures.

CANADIAN MAN CONVICTED OF SMUGGLING DRUG INTO WASHINGTON
A U.S. District Court jury in Seattle has convicted a 30-year-old Canadian man of drug smuggling in a case in which federal agents found drugs with a street value of about $3.1 million. In February, Gurmit Singh Jassal was under surveillance when he and another man crossed the border into the United States on foot and walked into the Smuggler's Inn in Blaine to arrange a ride to the airport. Jassal was arrested Feb. 5 after he was seen by U.S. Border Patrol agents crossing the international border on foot carrying four duffel bags. When the duffel bags were searched, the agents found more than 90 pounds of ecstasy and more than 20 pounds of marijuana. Jassal could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge John Coughenour on April 10.
    
JUDGE FINDS STARBUCKS VIOLATED LABOR RULES
Starbucks says an administrative law judge has found the company engaged in unfair labor practices at several of its New York coffee shops. The ruling by Judge Mindy E. Landow was dated Friday. It states that work rules were unfairly imposed on Starbucks' workers who supported a union that has been attempting to gain a foothold at the gourmet coffee retailer. Starbucks says the company plans to appeal the ruling. The case began in March 2006 when the Industrial Workers of the World filed charges against the company alleging Starbucks interrogated employees, implemented new policies and disciplined or fired workers for supporting the union at four of its coffee shops in Manhattan.
    
SMASHED CURT COBAIN GUITAR SOLD FOR $100,000
A smashed guitar from the late grunge rocker Kurt Cobain has been sold to an unidentified private collector for $100,000. Helen Hall, a broker in England, says it's the second highest known price for an item of Cobain memorabilia. The seller was the
punk rocker Sluggo of The Grannies and Hullabaloo. The sale was confirmed yesterday by Jacob McMurray, senior curator at the Experience Music Project, where the taped-up Fender Mustang guitar in sunburst finish was displayed for a time. Agents of the buyer have contacted the museum. Sluggo says he traded a working guitar for the smashed one during the first U.S. tour of Cobain's band, Nirvana.

STATES MAKE STURGEON SIZE EASIER TO MEASURE
Fishery managers in Washington and Oregon are making it easier for anglers fishing for sturgeon to measure the fish to make sure they comply with state size limits. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced yesterday that the two states' fishery managers have decided to base official size limits for white sturgeon on "fork length" rather than the fish's full length. "Fork length" is the distance between the tip of a fish's nose and the fork in its tail. The change is designed primarily to make it easier to measure thrashing sturgeon, which often run four to five feet in length, said Brad James, a fish biologist for the department. A maximum size limit will be retained to protect large, breeding female sturgeon. The department announced the 2009 sport fishery for Columbia River white sturgeon will open on New Year's Day.
    
POLICE ARREST MAN AFTER CITY SNOW PLOW DRIVERS THREATENED
All that snow in Spokane is testing some of its citizens' tempers. Spokane police say they arrested a 53-year-old man for felony harassment yesterday afternoon after he threatened to kill city snow plow drivers and showed a handgun. Police say about 3:30 p.m., an elderly woman came out of her house and started yelling at city snow plow drivers because an ice berm was blocking her house. Then police say the man came out of the same house and also started yelling at the drivers while holding a handgun pointed at the ground. Police say a few minutes after that confrontation, an anonymous caller called the Spokane City Street Department and came down a street in North Spokane would be shot. Police say they used caller ID to trace the call to the man's house.
    
KING COUNTY DEPUTY NOT GUILTY IN ROUGH-ARREST CASE
A federal jury in Seattle has found a King County sheriff's deputy not guilty of charges he used excessive force in arresting a woman in 2005. The jury returned its verdict yesterday, after bad weather prevented it from convening for five days. Prosecutors alleged that following a car chase in the White Center neighborhood south of Seattle, Deputy Brian Bonnar kneed a woman in the head and slammed her against a police car before other deputies intervened to protect her. They said the woman had stopped resisting at the time. But Bonnar's lawyers told the court the arrested woman sustained no injuries to speak of, and that prosecutors were nitpicking Bonnar's actions in a heated, dangerous situation. Bonnar was suspended for 20 days by the sheriff's department. He was charged with depriving the woman of her civil rights, and with perjury over allegations he lied about his actions to a grand jury.