Dori is thrilled to hear the NBA might be coming back to Seattle, but as long as it's not at the expense of the taxpayer.

Home Assignment 1The hole keeps getting deeper...Since 2006, the state of Washington has paid more than 1,000 state employees to stay at home at taxpayer expense. That has cost taxpayers $13.5 million for the employees’ salaries and $3.7 million more in benefits, for a total of $17.2 million, according to KING 5's Susannah Frame.

Frame is the lead investigator in the ongoing investigation "Paid for Nothing" by KING 5 News that has uncovered millions of taxpayer dollars wasted to pay state workers to sit at home and do nothing for the state.

"To be fair of course, there's a reason. The reason is each of these employees have been accused of some kind of misconduct on the job it could have been threatening to kill a co-worker stealing from the state misusing a state resource like a state vehicle," says Frame.

Frame tells an incredulous Dori she was particularly amused and disgusted by the notifications ordering workers to remain at home during their regular shift.

And she says it is ridiculous some cases drag out for years, the longest taking 4 years to resolve.

"A murder charge doesn't take that long to bring someone to trial," Frame tells Dori in a live interview.

She says she's heartened the state is taking steps to address the problems raised in the ongoing investigation. But another story on Wednesday shows it shouldn't be that tough to fix the problem.

"It's not brain surgery sometimes. It's a simple fix and we could have saved millions long ago."

Listen to Paid to stay home: KING 5's Susannah Frame

-Josh Kerns/My Northwest.com

A motorcycle rider was 'clotheslined' while trying to perform a jump at a circus in Saginaw, Michigan on Sunday.

Josh Headford, 20, fell 25 feet and survived with a broken leg, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. He says he'll get back on a motorcycle when he can shove on his boots.

Ioana Spangenberg, 30, boasts a 20-inch waist. Ew.

model2

housefire

"Clearly, the pressure was mounting on Josh Powell," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist the day after Powell killed himself and his two sons in a home explosion.

"He felt like he was losing custody or control of his children."

Not only was Powell rejected custody of his kids a second time last week, a judge said she would require him to undergo a very intrusive psycho-sexual evaluation if he ever wanted them back.

Listen to Prosecutor Mark Lindquist's interview

"The interviewer goes into the person's life history, sexual history, personality aspects, they undergo an entire MMPI (personality test) and this is done with a polygraph test. So the subject is under pressure to not only answer, but to answer truthfully."

Powell probably saw himself in between a rock and a hard place, according to Lindquist. If he refused the test, he'd lose custody of his children and if he answered truthfully, he'd probably implicate himself and again, lose custody of his children.

Lindquist said Powell was trapped in a classic domestic violence scenario and thought 'If I can't have my kids, nobody else is going to either.'

Meanwhile, 97.3 KIRO FM Reporter Chris Sullivan spent the morning at the Powell home in Graham where teams are sifting through charred remains to find any clues about what led to the explosion.

Chris said neighbors reported hearing sounds like gunshots as the fire started, but Sgt. Ed Troyer said it was probably more like air bubbles and small explosions. But again, we'll learn more when the Medical Examiner releases a full report on the cause of death.

Listen to Chris' report

WP 000005
Photo sent from one of our listeners, who was a few miles away

By Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor

LOCAL:

1000: We told you this week about a woman named Balylonia Aivez, who made headlines for her wedding last Sunday. What did she marry?

2000: We told you about the worlds most expensive outhouse, built in Elbe, Washington. The cost to us all of us was about 4 million dollars. How many days of the week is the outhouse open right now?

3000: Bike morons and some lawmakers in this state are pushing to change all city road speeds to what?

SUPER BOWL:

1000: Who is playing in the Super Bowl?

2000: Rock and Roll Part II has been banned from the Superbowl. What is the name of the UK singer, also pedophile?

3000: I went 1 on 1 against the Nuns, Sister Kath and Sister Cele, picking games all season long. We've finally arrived at the Super Bowl, but out of the three of us, who finished in last place during the regular season?

POLITICS:

1000: Mitt Romney put his foot in his mouth earlier this week when he said that he wasn't concerned with what what type of citizen?

2000: Romney has been singing at many of his campaign stops this week. What song does he always sing?

3000: We told you this week about a clip from MSNBC and their coverage of the Presidential race in Florida. They referred to a specific belt of Florida's counties as what type of counties?

WILD CARD:

1000: What famous TV personality died this week from a self inflicted gun shot wound?

2000: We told you earlier this week about a music executive who passed away and left how much money to his Driver and Doorman, combined? Answer must be within 100K.

3000: A college student was surprised when she opened the book she ordered from Amazon and found what in between the pages?

Listen for the answers here.

Nick McKaig, 23, of Tallahassee, Florida is a genius in front of the microphone.

Check out what he did to the Simpson's and Office them songs.

According to the MailOnline, McKaig started singing when he was 10-years-old.

They can't name the vice president and they don't know how many stars are on the U.S. flag, they are the Lunch Scholars.

TheBlaze.com found this video on YouTube and we're nearly positive it features the fine students at Olympia High School.

Watch these kids try to figure out which countries border the U.S.

Now, the bigger question, besides, 'Why are these kids so dumb' is 'Who is responsible' for why these kids are so dumb. Is it the teachers? The parents? Or the high school students themselves?

And to be fair, not every high school student in Washington is this unintelligent. We all know who the 'not so bright kids' were in school and maybe this video features that crop.

Dori plans to contact the school district next week.

Next »


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