Parents with children in the Yakima Valley School for the developmentally disabled see a bad omen in a consultant's recom-mendation that the school be downsized and ultimately converted to a community center with a limited number of beds.

A consulting group has recommended that Washington state close its smallest prison, the Ahtanum View Corrections Center in Yakima, to cut costs.

West Valley Church of the Nazarene will host a Fall Carnival from 6 to 8 p.m. today.

Both of the candidates for Yakima County Coroner say their background makes them best suited to lead the smallest department in county government.

A much-anticipated study issued today does not recommend closing the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe to help the state save money.

A new draft report recommends either closing the old buildings at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla or downsizing a facility on McNeil Island to a minimum-security prison.

A Yakima prison for elderly and infirm inmates, a juvenile-rehabilitation center in Thurston County and all of the state's intermediate-care facilities for the developmentally disabled have been placed on the chopping block in a state consultant's cost-cutting report.

A new draft report recommends either closing the old buildings at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla or downsizing a facility on McNeil Island to a minimum-security prison.

Wallace Nolen, left, and Fred Aylward pass the time in E-Unit, where the Ahtanum View Corrections Center houses its most medically challenged offenders.

Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved the first razor clam dig of the season, starting this Friday.

YAKIMA, Wash.- State Department of Correction leaders are taking measures to cut costs, which could result in a Yakima prison being shut down.

Fire authorities say a huge brush fire near Wapato Sunday was caused by power poles that shorted out.

Firefighters are mopping up a brush fire on Ahtanum Ridge that covered roughly 2,000 acres.

After cutting loose more than 8,000 offenders from probation in the past two months, the state Department of Corrections is considering an even more drastic cost-reduction measure: closing at least one prison.

The walk to and from school for kids in Union Gap may soon become safer. The state gave the city nearly a quarter million dollars for a new a traffic light on Ahtanum Road.