Lunch menus displaying a "Merry Christmas" message have been thrown out and replaced in the Federal Way school district south of Seattle. The December menus for the district's 23 elementary schools were recalled and reprinted with a "Happy Holidays" banner, the cost of which nearly came to $500.

A man accused of a hit-and-run violation is found hiding in a doghouse. Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux says that parents began calling police about 7 a. m. as a vehicle hit several cars in a neighborhood while children were getting ready to board a school bus in this town about 30 miles north of Seattle, according to AP reports.

A gunman, who police say opened fire inside a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington is now in police custody. He was holed up in a record store where an employee says he and others were taken hostage. At least six people were injured after the shots were fired, one critically. Tacoma Fire Department Deputy Chief John Lendosky told CNN authorities got a call about 12:15 p. m. Pacific time that shots had been fired inside the mall. State Patrol and police units from nearby agencies are clustered around an entrance at the south end of Tacoma Mall.

A new billboard campaign suggests tourists take a trip to Alaska before it's too late. The billboards, displayed in Seattle, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, largely suggest "Alaska B4UDIE'' - short for, Alaska, before you die. The Alaska Travel Industry Association launched the monthlong, $180,000 campaign Monday.

Seattle's city council will meet Monday to vote on new regulations at strip clubs that include the possible banning of lap dances and strategic placing of dollar bills in dancers' G-strings. The move follows a federal judge's ruling that a moratorium on opening clubs in the city was an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.