The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. — Republican State Sen. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane is announcing he will seek the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.

TACOMA, Wash. — A federal judge has fined a Longshore union $250,000 for its tactics in a Longview labor dispute.

COPALIS BEACH, Wash. — The director of the National Weather Service, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Congressman Norm Dicks are among the officials who gathered Thursday on the Washington coast to celebrate the operation of a new Doppler radar station.

They say it will help save lives and property by improving storm forecasts.

A number of concrete and steel bridges where built in Seattle in the 1930s, '40s and '50s - each designed with a 60-year lifespan.

The Seattle Transportation Department says 60 of the city's 137 bridges are more than 60 years old and would cost $1.1 billion to replace. The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reports  department Manager John Buswell told the city council's Transportation Committee this week that another Bridging the Gap levy might be needed.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Federal authorities say firearms dealers in states where medical marijuana is legal can't sell guns or ammunition to registered users of the drug.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington health officials say five people in the state got sick from eating raw oysters that were harvested from an area of Puget Sound's Hood Canal and distributed to 23 states.

EVERETT, Wash. — Hundreds of people who gathered Monday for the delivery ceremony of the first Boeing 787 took cover from rain under the wings of two of the new airplanes at Paine Field, near the factory in Everett, Wash., where they were assembled.

RICHLAND, Wash. — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun a special inspection at the Northwest's only commercial nuclear power plant.

The inspection centers on three events in which plant operators inadvertently drained reactor coolant from the plant's reactor vessel during a recent refueling outage. The outage began April 2.

The inspection also will look at two other incidents that occurred while the reactor was shut down.

BILLINGS, Mont. — Authorities say a hunter attacked by a grizzly in a Montana forest was killed not by the bear, but by a gunshot fired by a companion trying to save him.

Tacoma teachers have approved a contract that ends their strike with nearly 100 percent of teachers voting for the new deal.

Negotiators had reached a tentative deal last night in Olympia in the governor’s wing where they were called by Gov. Chris Gregoire to settle their differences. The strike was the first for the Tacoma district since 1978 and kept 28,000 students out of school for eight days.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire is calling lawmakers back for what she expects will be a "brutal" special session focused on cutting the budget.

Gregoire said Thursday that she wants the Legislature back in Olympia to start work beginning Nov. 28.

LONGVIEW, Wash. — The Cowlitz County sheriff says continuing labor strife at a Port of Longview grain terminal is straining nerves and budgets.

Three Seattle men face charges in federal court that they hacked into the computer systems of dozens of Washington businesses — sometimes choosing their victims simply by driving around and picking up their wireless Internet signals.

Striking teachers and school district officials in Tacoma could not come to an agreement by the deadline set by the governor, so they've filed into cars and headed to Olympia to continue bargaining this afternoon.

Gov. Chris Gregoire told both sides earlier today that she wanted them back at the bargaining table at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and if they don't have an agreement by 3 p.m. she would see them in her office.

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — A conflict over Longshore union jobs at the Port of Longview, Wash., grain terminal is flaring up again with the arrest of protesters blocking railroad tracks.