Washington state on Thursday sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, becoming the latest state or local government to file a lawsuit seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for a national opioid addiction epidemic.

Law enforcement agencies broke up a decade-old theft ring that stretched from California to Frederick, Maryland. The thieves used what’s called booster bags, shopping bags with liners to block anti-theft devices.

Authorities have ordered evacuations as a wildfire threatens crops and homes in a rural part of Washington. The State Fire Marshal’s Office on Sunday morning said one home and one outbuilding were lost.

The new distracted driving law goes into effect on Sunday, July 23. It means drivers will no longer be able to use a cell phone or any electronic device while driving, even when stopped at a traffic light. Deaths from distracted driving went up by 32% from 2014 to 2015.

A Washington state insurance agent has been charged with felony theft for a workers’ compensation scam. James C. Kooy, 53, has been accused of claiming he was too disabled to work while running his own insurance agency. Authorities say he fraudulently received more than $233,000 in benefits.

More than 8,000 firefighters across the West battled dozens of wildfires Thursday that forced thousands of local residents to pack up families, pets and personal treasures to flee the advancing blazes.

Legalizing recreational marijuana use in Colorado, Oregon and Washington has resulted in collision claim frequencies that are about 3 percent higher overall than would have been expected without legalization, a new Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) analysis shows.

A small plane that had just taken off from Paine Field crashed on a busy Mukilteo road Tuesday afternoon, sending a rain of fire down on cars parked in early rush hour traffic below.

Take a look at the thieves who broke into a home in Redmond in the middle of the day. King County detectives say the woman climbed through a window at the back of the home that had been left unlocked and then opened the door for her partner in crime.

A flipped semi-truck blocked all lanes traffic on Northbound Interstate 405 in downtown Bellevue Wednesday morning. At one point, traffic was backed up for at least 7 miles.

Surveillance video shows a gas pump burst into a ball of flames after being hit by an SUV on Monday night in North Seattle.
That crash ended a series of incidents in which another driver was seriously injured.

Damage to the crippled West Point wastewater-treatment plant in Seattle could cost more than $25 million to repair and might have happened after a power surge knocked out two pumps, resulting in major flooding, according to new details from King County.

An Auburn home was completely destroyed by fire Sunday morning, according to the Valley Regional Fire Authority. Firefighters received a call of smoke in the 30700 block of 124th Avenue Southeast about 6:15 a.m. and found a 5,000-square-foot two-story home fully involved, spokeswoman Kimberly Terhune wrote in a news release.

Marion Thomas has a hard time describing how he became the driver who on two occasions struck and killed a person in the roadway. The closest he gets is comparing it to lightning striking him twice.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska is searching for a fishing boat with six people that has been missing in the Bering Sea for more than a day. Ships and aircraft have looked through the night for the 98-foot-long F/V Destination, according to a news release from the agency on Sunday afternoon.