OLYMPIA -- Visitors to Washington parks will be admitted without Discover Passes Jan. 14-16, the three-day weekend ending with Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

It is the first of 10 state park "free days" scheduled this year. Other days are March 18 and 19; June 9; Sept. 29 and Nov. 10 to 12.

A Discover Pass still will be required for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department of Natural Resources land those days.

The Discover Pass is a $30 annual or $10 one-day permit required on lands managed by Washington State Parks, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Natural Resources.

Wild hogs unwelcome guests at Civil War site

Last year's frightening flooding of the Mississippi River didn't do any direct damage to the site of one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War. However, it did bring in undesirable new neighbors.

Park officials said a pack of wild hogs seeking higher ground moved in and are rooting up the landscape at Vicksburg National Military Park, where thousands of Union and Confederate troops fought and died in 1863.