From our newsroom's courts reporter Ian Ith, two Seattle companies are expected to finalize a settlement with Matthew Ammon's parents. Ammon, a 31-year-old lawyer at Microsoft, was killed in his apartment in 2006 when a crane in Bellevue collapsed on his building. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

The lawsuit against Lease Crutcher Lewis and Magnusson Klemencic Associates was set to go to trial, with Ammon's parents arguing the crane had been negligently installed and operated. A 210-foot crane fell on the Pinnacle Bellecentre, Ammon's building, and Plaza 305.

Our columnist Danny Westneat had a great commentary on it in March before the settlement. This is what Ammon's mother, Kathy Gaberson, told Westneat:

"Sometimes I'll go by a tower crane, and I become paralyzed," she says. "I can't move. I can't talk. I'll get a visceral feeling, a physical pain in my body. I just wish someone had listened. I wish the very earliest warning signs had been heeded."

(Photo credit: Mike Siegel, The Seattle Times)