Well-mannered Seattle frat in national spotlight

The University of Washington fraternity featured in The Seattle Times on Tuesday for an emphasis on good etiquette is enjoying a moment in the national limelight.

Two morning TV shows — "Good Morning America" on ABC and "Today" on NBC — plan to air segments on Sigma Phi Epsilon today. The frat has transformed a boozy past to embrace a new program called "Balanced Man."

Zach Meissner, who will take over as fraternity president next quarter, said a professor agreed to push back one of his finals so he could deal with the attention, which included about 60 telephone calls. NBC correspondent Mark Mullen, who was filming at the frat house Wednesday, said the students have been good sports.

Both ABC and NBC expect to air the segments in the first hour or so of the morning shows, which begin at 7 a.m. Another chapter of the fraternity, at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., also has made news after a fraternity brother was accused of robbing a bank.

Teen shot in face;

acquaintance sought

A 15-year-old girl was injured Wednesday after she was shot in the face.

The girl was shot in a home in the 21400 block of 33rd Avenue South where she lived with an adult couple who were not her parents, according to King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart. Deputies are searching for a female, who was visiting the home, in connection with the shooting, Urquhart said.

The girl is recovering from her injuries at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Investigators say the victim and the female, whose age wasn't released, knew one another.

Man, 29, stabbed;

suspect, 19, sought

A 29-year-old Bothell man was in serious condition after he was stabbed three times outside a Mill Creek condominium early Wednesday, according to Mill Creek police.

A little before 6 a.m., the man reportedly got into an argument with a 19-year-old Everett man after leaving the condominium in the 15400 block of County Club Drive, said Becky Erk, a spokeswoman for Mill Creek police.

As of Wednesday afternoon, police were still searching for the 19-year-old man they think may have been the attacker, Erk said.

79-year-old dies

after being hit by car

A 79-year-old Federal Way woman died Tuesday night at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after she was struck by a car.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Maria Gutierrez was walking on the road in the 31600 block of 20th Avenue South, said Federal Way police spokeswoman Stacy Flores. Gutierrez was not on the sidewalk when she was struck, Flores said.

Police are investigating. The driver, a woman in her 50s, has not been arrested, Flores said.

Senator to step down

at the end of his term

Steve Johnson, a senior state Senate Republican, will step down at the end of the term and is eyeing a bid for the state Supreme Court. Congressman Dave Reichert's brother, Steve, quickly announced for the Senate seat.

"I've come to the decision that it's time to seek a new challenge," Johnson said Wednesday.

That may well include a race for the state high court.

"I'm quite interested and I'm considering it, and I will make a decision and a statement in March after the legislative session is over," he told The Associated Press.

Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Justice Susan Owens and Justice Tom Chambers are expected to seek re-election. Johnson said he wouldn't file against Alexander, his old law-school buddy, but declined to discuss his plans further.

Johnson said he expects the Republicans to retain the 47th District Senate seat.

Police ID gunman

in triple slaying

An autopsy showed that Trevor Saunders killed two people and then himself at a condominium complex in Pullman last weekend, police said Wednesday.

Whitman County Coroner Pete Martin said autopsies on Louissa Thompson, 27, of Pullman, Peter Zornes, 25, of Oakesdale, and Saunders, 29, of Moscow, Idaho, found that all three died from a gunshot wounds to the head. Evidence at the scene clearly showed that Saunders killed Thompson and Zornes, then turned the semiautomatic pistol on himself, police said.

The three were found dead in Thompson's apartment about 7 p.m. Saturday.

Saunders was listed in the Idaho Sex Offender Registry as a felon convicted of rape in Latah County in 1996.

Detectives said Saunders and Thompson had previously dated and that Thompson was trying to end the relationship. They said Saunders appeared to have been stalking Thompson, according to interviews they conducted.

Zornes and Thompson were co-workers at a Pullman business.

Ferry worker's car

strikes pedestrian

A 55-year-old Washington State Ferries engineer critically injured a pedestrian Wednesday morning, running over the man with his car as he was leaving work at the Colman Dock in Seattle.

Just before 7:30 a.m., a 50-year-old man was walking in the crosswalk at the south end of the driveway that leads to the ferry terminal when he was struck by the other man's car, said Seattle police spokeswoman Debra Brown. It is possible the driver, who was stopped at a red light and was apparently trying to turn right onto Alaskan Way, was watching traffic to his left and didn't see the man approach from the right, she said. The pedestrian was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition.

According Susan Harris, a spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries, the 55-year-old works on the Kaleetan ferry that runs between Bremerton and Seattle.

Seattle

Pelz says he wants

to succeed Berendt

King County Councilman Dwight Pelz says he wants to be chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Pelz posted a letter announcing his plans on his Web site and Wednesday was telephoning party activists. He will face at least one opponent, former King County Democratic Chairman Greg Rodriguez, who announced last week.

Pelz made an unsuccessful run for Seattle City Council this year and will leave his county seat at the end of this month. Previously he was a state senator and headed the Democrats' Senate campaign committee. In that job he supervised the party's longtime Chairman Paul Berendt, who served as the Senate committee's campaign director.

Berendt announced last week he would resign mid-term. The 176 members of the party's state committee will elect a new chairman at a meeting in January.

Berendt said Wednesday he does not plan to make an endorsement in the race to replace him. He did say he and Pelz share many of the same positions on issues.

Times staff and news services