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Wednesday morning's headlines

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured here in 2010, will be in Seattle for developers meeting.
Associated Press
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured here in 2010, will be in Seattle for developers meeting.

Scattered showers. Cloudy, with a high near 63. Forecast here.

Making headlines around the Northwest:

Patrols for illegal fireworks blasts begin soon

The booms and blasts of illegal fireworks are coming as people celebrate the Fourth of July. And South Sound law enforcement agencies are getting ready.

So-called “safe and sane” fireworks went on sale statewide Tuesday, though the laws on when or if they can be set off vary by city and county.

For example:

  • Starting Thursday, up to 20 Tacoma police officers will patrol the city.
  • Federal Way, 25 police officers will conduct special patrols Monday and into early Tuesday.

The Tacoma News Tribune has the full roundup of enforcement efforts.

Tech news: Online crochet empire; Zuckerberg in Seattle

  • Xconomy Seattle reports that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is heading north for a Wednesday visit to the social networking behemoth’s Seattle office, its first outside of California. Reports are that Zuckerberg and Facebook engineering VP Mike Schroepfer are heading to the Emerald City for “a Q&A with Seattle-area developers” at the downtown office.
  • Geekwire reports that MediaMall Technologies has begun testing a new service called PlayLater, which it is touting as the world’s first digital video recorder for online video. The company, with offices in Seattle and New York, says that the service is designed to allow users to record TV shows, movies and sporting events from online channels.
  • Laurie Wheeler calls herself Fearless Leader of the Crochet Liberation Front, she told the Everett Daily Herald. Last month, she had almost 250,000 visitors to the CLF Facebook page, where the talk is all about creating items from yarn. When she saw those looky-loo numbers, she was online at one of her favorite places, she said, the Camano Island Library.

Off the AP wire: Shootout in Seattle; Inslee has $100,000, and more

  • Police say an officer on patrol in south Seattle witnessed a shootout between two men just before midnight Tuesday after they left a lounge. Police say the officer fired on both suspects. One fled. One was taken into custody. Police have recovered two handguns. The officer is not hurt.
  • Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee has raised more than $100,000 to start his campaign for governor. Inslee said in a filing to the Public Disclosure Commission that he received the donations between Monday and Friday of last week.
  • A Seattle police spokesman says the department is embarrassed after officers left a police rifle unattended on a patrol car outside a busy downtown area. Spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb two people spotted the rifle on the parked car.
  • Vancouver police have tentatively identified a homicide victim found Monday night in a duplex. Sgt. Scott Creager says that based on witness interviews, detectives believe the woman is 57-year-old Deneace L. McSpadden.
  • A Kennewick man has been sentenced to more than 67 years in prison for fatally shooting a Pasco father and critically wounding the man's wife in 2008. Ramon Garcia-Morales was sentenced yesterday in Franklin County Superior Court.
  • President Barack Obama will welcome the WNBA champion Seattle Storm to the White House Rose Garden when he meets the press in his first formal news conference since March. The Storm swept the Atlanta Dream last September.

Bothell looks to annex more than 22,000 people

A massive northward expansion of Bothell's city limits is on track to appear on November's ballot, reports the Everett Daily Herald.

Snohomish County's Boundary Review Board voted unanimously on Monday to approve of the city's plans to accommodate more than 22,000 new people. While the four board members agreed that it's time to put the issue to a public vote.

"I'm delighted that this citizen-led initiative finally gets to see the light of day," said Bob Stowe, Bothell's city manager.