Standoff with man ends peacefully

Seattle

Police peacefully ended a standoff with a man who fired a gun and threatened suicide in a North Seattle home early Monday.

About 2:30 a.m. police received a 911 call from the home in the 200 block of Northwest 107th Street, said police Sgt. Deanna Nollette. The caller, another man who lives in the house, said the gunman had fired into the air, then put the gun to his head and threatened to shoot himself. The caller took the man's gun and left the house, along with a girl who lived there.

A SWAT and hostage-negotiation team was called because police knew other people still were in the home and that there could be other weapons, Nollette said.

After hours of negotiations, another man, a woman and a boy came out before the gunman surrendered. No one was hurt.

Seattle police arrested the gunman, 58, about 6 a.m. on suspicion of domestic violence and reckless endangerment.

Okanogan

6 arrested in raid on cockfight

Six people have been arrested and 25 roosters seized in a raid on a cockfight, Okanogan County sheriff's deputies said.

About 50 people fled from deputies who encountered the illegal cockfight on the north side of the Columbia River near Bridgeport while responding to a call Saturday afternoon, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Six were caught and arrested for investigation of animal fighting, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Portland

Gas prices in Oregon highest on mainland

You have to leave the mainland to find a state with higher gasoline prices than Oregon.

On Christmas Eve, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in Oregon sat at $2.69 — 25 percent higher than a year ago. Washington had the third-highest price at $2.67, and Hawaiians were paying $2.82. The national average was $2.34.

Oregon typically has high prices because it is far from the oil refineries where gasoline is made. But Elliott Eki of AAA Oregon/Idaho had no clear-cut answer for why the price has risen more than a dime in the past month.

"Some of the increase probably is the demand by drivers for the Christmas and New Year's weekends," he said. "But this is normally the time when gas prices are at their lowest level."

Oil-industry analysts say the main reasons for the increase are a rise in demand and the stabilization of crude oil at about $63 a barrel.

In Eugene/Springfield, the average price was $2.72. Salem and Portland motorists faced $2.69 a gallon.

Rescue station to aid sand-dune drivers

Off-roading in the sand has long been a popular way to play on the Oregon Coast. But it's certainly not the safest.

Ambulances responded to 52 accidents this year at the Umpqua Lighthouse entrance to the Dunes National Recreation Area, treating people for everything from broken legs to head traumas.

Now, a new rescue station is opening that authorities hope can get help to victims sooner and even help prevent some injuries.

The 3,500-square-foot, $280,000 rescue station includes a classroom for teaching dunes rules and driver safety, as well as bays for storing law-enforcement and other emergency vehicles.

Times staff and news services