Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson is no longer seeking to create public safety positions in which a person would perform both firefighting and police duties. Freeman-Wilson first proposed the idea in 2015 and along with other city officials, including Samuel Abegg, who was then president of Gary Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 61, traveled to visit Kalamazoo, Michigan, to learn about its public safety department.
- PUB DATE: 10/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Northwest Indiana Times (nwitimes.com)

Officials say two people are dead after an Amtrak train struck a vehicle in southwest Washington. BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas says it happened at a private railroad crossing about 7½ miles north of Kelso at about 9:30 a.m. Friday. The train was heading from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle. Investigators are still responding.
- PUB DATE: 10/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

Two racing SUVs on Interstate 5 sped away from the scene overnight after causing a serious crash that ejected a teenager from a third SUV, the Washington State Patrol reports. The incident unfolded at about 10:10 p.m. Thursday in the northbound lanes of I-5 at 75th Street, north of Green Lake. Troopers and medics responded after receiving reports of a serious hit-and-run crash with one person ejected from a car onto the pavement, said Trooper Rick Johnson.
- PUB DATE: 10/27/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOMO-TV ABC 4 and Radio 1000

A Spokane political committee will pay $7,000 for failing to properly report some $94,000 it spent to help two city council candidates win in the 2015 municipal elections. Spokane for Honest Government, which got the bulk of its money that year from the local firefighters union and its political action committee, spent the money on independent ads backing council candidates Karen Stratton and Lori Kinnear, who were both elected.
- PUB DATE: 10/26/2017 5:51:56 PM - SOURCE: Spokane Spokesman-Review

San Juan Island Emergency Medical Services Chief Jerry Martin submitted his resignation at the Wednesday, October 25, 2017 San Juan County Public Hospital District #1 Board meeting. The PHD board, after selecting him from a group of 15 candidates, had voted unanimously to hire him on October 28, 2015.
- PUB DATE: 10/26/2017 4:44:17 PM - SOURCE: San Juan Islander