Deadly fire, indicted auditor top Washington stories

SEATTLE (AP) — A blaze that killed three firefighters in north-central Washington was voted the state's top news story of 2015 by Associated Press member editors.

Other top news items of the past 12 months included the criminal indictment of Auditor Troy Kelley on money laundering and other charges, the fatal crash of a Ride the Ducks amphibious tour vehicle in Seattle and the Seahawks' heartbreaking Super Bowl loss.

In August the state Supreme Court announced the daily, $100,000 fines because justices say lawmakers have failed to adequately pay to educate the state's 1 million school children and haven't met the requirements of a court ruling.

Lawmakers have allocated billions of dollars toward public schools, but critics say that's not enough to meet the requirements in the state Constitution that education be the Legislature's "paramount duty."

Xi Jinping spoke to business leaders in Seattle, visited the Boeing production plant in Everett and stopped by a Tacoma high school in September as part of his three-day swing through Washington state before he headed to the nation's capital.

Cases of the bacterial illness were traced to a handful of the casual Mexican food restaurants, but the company voluntarily closed down all of its locations in Washington and the Portland, Oregon, area as a precaution.