The Seattle School Board has approved a new split contract for bus service.

The board last week gave First Student a deal worth $16.5 million to operate 345 vehicles and Laidlaw Education Services $4 million to run 75 vehicles. Since 2003, First Student and Durham Transportation have been the district's bus-service contractors.

Reopening the transportation contract saved the district just over $2 million in next year's budget, said manager Dave Anderson.

Everett

Victim identified in motorcycle crash

A man who died in a motorcycle crash in Monroe on Sunday has been identified as Chad Gaskins, 22, of Everett, county medical investigators said.

Gaskins was traveling with another motorcyclist near Bollenbaugh Hill and Woods Creek roads when the motorcycle slid off the road, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office reported.

Seattle

School Board race draws 3rd candidate

Another person has declared her candidacy for School Board member Jan Kumasaka's District 7 seat.

Linda Thompson-Black works for the national office of Communities in Schools, a network of community-based organizations focused on helping kids finish school.

Thompson-Black also has been an education adviser to former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice and president of South Shore Middle School PTSA. She graduated from Franklin High School in 1972 and received a master's degree in public administration from the University of Washington.

Kumasaka said earlier this year she wouldn't run for re-election. Two other candidates already had joined the race.

Fort Lewis

Stryker Brigade soldier dies in Iraq

A 22-year-old member of the Stryker Brigade Combat team based at Fort Lewis died in Iraq, federal defense officials said.

U.S. Army Sgt. Anthony J. Davis Jr. of Long Beach, Calif., died Saturday in Mosul when an apparent car bomb exploded near the Stryker military vehicle in which he was riding.

He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

Silverdale, Kitsap County

Crash victim named; driver, 17, arrested

A passenger who died in a car crash Sunday near here has been identified as Richard Doss, 22, of Bremerton, according to the State Patrol.

The 17-year-old driver, Sarah Anderson, of Silverdale, was traveling westbound on Silverdale Loop Road Northwest, troopers said. About a quarter-mile west of Northwest Anderson Hill Road, she apparently missed a turn and slammed into a tree, the Patrol said.

Doss died at the scene. Passenger Jeffrey Cloutier, 23, was airlifted to Harborview. He was in satisfactory condition yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Anderson and two Puyallup teens who also were in the car, Chadwick Atchison, 16, and Ashly Pfanenstiel, 17, were taken to Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, where they were treated for minor injuries and released, a spokeswoman said.

Anderson was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.

Kenmore

Rescue effort fails; cormorant dies

A cormorant tangled in fishing line died despite rescue efforts yesterday by the Bothell Fire Department, a cement company and PAWS, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society.

The large aquatic bird was tangled in fishing line and hanging upside down in a tree on the north shore of the Sammamish Slough across from Kenmore Park. Someone spotted it Sunday afternoon. PAWS helped coordinate the unsuccessful rescue attempt yesterday that lasted more than two hours.

Access to the area was difficult because Glacier Northwest, a cement company, stores gravel just behind the row of trees that line the slough. Employees at Glacier moved enough gravel to let firefighters maneuver their ladder truck close to the tree.

Even with the ladder extended, would-be rescuers couldn't get close enough to the bird to cut it free, said Mary Schilder, spokeswoman for PAWS.

Times staff and news services