OREGON Fishermen giving away fish to protest against low prices

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OREGON Fishermen giving away fish to protest against low prices ASTORIA -- Columbia gillnetters are giving fish away rather than selling them at prices they say are too low to make fishing worthwhile. Fishermen gave 60 salmon to Dignity Village and homeless shelters in Portland on Friday. "We have to make friends with people we might be joining," said Paul Takko, a fifth-generation fisherman. More salmon are on their way to Olympia and Salem this week as the fishermen refuse to open their commercial season, which normally would have begun last week. Fishermen said the salmon symbolize the season's sour market and lack of tariffs on foreign farmed fish. The fishermen are hoping to pique the public's interest and rally a demand for the federal government to step up in their defense. Fishermen point particularly at the "impossibly low prices" for Chile's farmed fish. Chile accounted for 48 percent of the total year 2000 U.S. imports of farmed salmon. WASHINGTON Boy, 10, fatally shot by dad in target-shooting accident GREENWATER -- A 10-year-old Auburn boy was killed while target shooting with his father on Sunday near Mount Rainier, the Pierce County sheriff's office said. "The boy was downrange setting up some targets. I don't know how large the targets were, but the father assumed that the boy had returned and he fired one shot, heard the boy scream and then found his son," sheriff's Cmdr. Rick Adamson said. The boy was hit in the chest with a round from a .45-caliber handgun between 12 and 12:30 p.m., Adamson said. His father, 39, performed CPR, and the boy was taken to a Greenwater fire station. He was flown from there to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, arriving still alive at 1:01 p.m. The boy was pronounced dead at 1:24 p.m., Adamson said. The distraught father had to be sedated at the fire station. He was taken to Enumclaw Community Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Police seized weapons from the scene. No immediate arrest was planned, Adamson said. Pierce County prosecutors will determine whether charges will be filed. Greenwater is about 50 miles east of Tacoma. Crew finds body of hiker who died in fall from Chair Peak SNOQUALMIE -- The body of a climber who fell 600 feet to his death was recovered Sunday. The man, identified as 23-year-old Chad Engstrom of Richland, was climbing with his uncle on Saturday when he fell from Chair Peak near the Alpental Ski Area, near Snoqualmie Pass and about 40 miles southeast of Seattle. Engstrom's uncle had stopped lower down when the climb became too difficult for him, King County sheriff's Deputy Pete Sheridan said. Engstrom kept climbing, then fell down the 45-degree rock face. A military helicopter crew tried to recover the body Saturday but was hampered by the steep terrain. A search team hiked up on Sunday morning and carried Engstrom's body to a location where a helicopter could reach it. Lewis County struggling, but meth business booming CHEHALIS -- Lewis County, midway between Seattle and Portland on the Interstate 5 corridor, has a population of 68,600, a struggling economy -- and a booming methamphetamine business. Lewis County ranked first in the state last year on a per-capita basis for the number of residents admitted to state-funded programs for treatment of methamphetamine dependence. County officials blame meth for the growing number of children in foster care, and say meth-related crimes are straining their already threadbare budget. And Lewis County's not alone. Washington state had the second-most meth-lab seizures in the nation last year, according to federal Drug Enforcement Agency figures. While urban Pierce County is considered the center for meth use in the state, hundreds of meth labs are scattered across rural areas in the Okanogan, in the sagebrush lands past Yakima, the Cascade forests and ocean beaches. Federal and state officials say many meth-makers nationwide are turning to rural areas, which offer the safety of remote locations for manufacturing and a growing number of customers. Meth use in Lewis County dramatically increased during the 1990s, authorities say, when much of the region's public land was closed off to logging and mills were closed. Average wages, which were close to the statewide average 20 years ago, fell to about 70 percent of the average. "People get caught up in a sense of hopelessness, of watching their futures fall apart," said Lewis County Sheriff John McCroskey. In the past three years, authorities found 99 labs and chemical dumpsites in the county, including a few operations with ties to international trafficking rings. In the first six months of this year, 33 new sites were found.