Enrollment up, community colleges report

BELLEVUE — With unemployment high and job prospects low, students looking to retrain or improve their skills are flooding community colleges in Washington state.

Almost 8,500 more students than expected showed up in community colleges this fall across the state, said Barbara Dunn, communications director for the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Some schools expect final fall enrollment counts to be up 12 percent over last year, said Lorna Sutton, communications director for the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Enrollment at Bellevue Community College — the state's third-largest college behind the University of Washington and Washington State University — has climbed 3 percent over last year and the final count for the fall isn't complete.

At Green River Community College in Auburn, 700 more students are enrolled in classes than at this time last year, said spokesman John Ramsey.

Bomb squad destroys device near Burger King

MILTON, Pierce County — A bomb squad destroyed a suspicious device found near the drive-through window of a Burger King restaurant yesterday afternoon, but the device did not contain explosives.

Unsure whether the 18-inch cylinder was a pipe bomb, police shut down nearby Meridian Avenue and evacuated the restaurant and every building within 300 yards.

The Federal Way bomb squad moved the device to a storage area behind the restaurant and destroyed it.

Milton Police Chief Steve McKeen said investigators do not know if it was a hoax.

Cigarette smuggling may cost Oregon even more

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon could be losing as much as $40 million a year from cigarette smugglers and tax scammers, and that number could grow after the state nearly doubles its cigarette tax next month from 68 cents to $1.28 a pack, experts say.

But a new task force — possibly the first of its kind in the country — is trying to fight back, generating 45 criminal cases and seizing 11,000 packs of untaxed cigarettes in the past five months.

No arrests have been made, but Oregon officials said indictments could be handed up by the first of the year.

Information is from the Seattle Times staff and news services.