Woman gets 5 years for UW lab arson

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY P-I REPORTER A Seattle woman was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison, and five years probation, for participating in an Earth Liberation Front/Animal Liberation Front rampage of arson that hit targets across the West. Jennifer Kolar, 34 -- while part of a notorious ELF/ALF group dubbed the "Family" -- was one of five people accused in the May 2001 firebombing of the University of Washington Urban Horticulture Center. The underground cell torched the lab based on the erroneous belief that genetic engineering techniques they reviled as dangerous to the environment were being used there. The building was destroyed along with precious samples of rare and endangered species of plants being cultivated for reintroduction into the Cascades. Kolar also targeted the Cavel West horse meatpacking plant in... [read full story]