The permanent replacement for the collapsed Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge span reached a major milestone on Tuesday, as crews began setting eight enormous concrete girders that will support the new roadway.

Looks like the North Cascades Highway will be closed for a few more days. The highway was closed Saturday morning because of two mudslides, but according to Jeff Adamson of WSDOT, "By mid-day on Sunday, instead of two slides, we were dealing with 8 of them."

Police arrested for drunk driving a 73-year-old Guemes Island man in line at the Guemes Ferry after he repeatedly dozed off, then woke up and hit the car in front of him in line.

The Thursday afternoon ballot count didn't change the outcome of the Mayor's race. Laurie Gere outpolled Mayor Dean Maxwell 46 percent to 29 percent. Both will move on to the November general election. Mitch Everton and Brian Geer are out of the race.

Anacortes Town Crier Richard Riddell (center) beat out criers from Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Holland, to win the World Invitational Town Crier Competition in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the first American to win the event.

Restaurateur Laurie Gere took an early and commanding lead in the mayoral race with about 47 percent of the vote, with incumbent Mayor Dean Maxwell second in the four-person race with 30 percent of the vote. Gere said, "I'm so amazed...I felt I was strong, but not quite this level."