Trio arrested after three-state chase
A traffic stop early Tuesday morning in Spokane County sparked a high-speed pursuit that involved authorities from three states and ended hours later with three arrests, according to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
Spokane County authorities stopped a vehicle around midnight and discovered that the driver, 22-year-old William A. Wilson, was wanted on a $50,000 warrant from Kootenai County, according to a news release. Wilson reportedly fled the scene, with Spokane County officers in pursuit to the state line.
When the white pickup truck entered Idaho, Idaho State Police and Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies took chase. The truck continued to Shoshone County, where officials there assumed the chase, and eventually into Montana.
Authorities in Mineral County, Mont., also were unable to stop the truck, but the truck was later spotted returning toward Shoshone County on Interstate 90. Shoshone County deputies made several attempts to pull over the truck, which exited I-90 and headed into Wallace, the press release said.
The truck was clocked at speeds of 60 mph through Wallace and as fast as 90 mph through neighboring Osburn, according to Shoshone County authorities.
The truck eventually became stuck on a rough patch of road near Terror Gulch. When authorities told Wilson to turn off his engine, he reportedly tried again to leave, so deputies shot out the vehicle’s tires.
At that point, Wilson and two passengers surrendered, according to the news release.
Wilson, a Liberty Lake resident, was wanted on a warrant for possession of a controlled substance. He and two other Spokane-area residents, 22-year-old Sara L. Jacobson and 18-year-old Travis J. Walker, were taken into custody.
Man robs Valley bank, flees with cash, dye pack
A Spokane Valley bank was robbed Tuesday afternoon, Spokane Valley Police reported.
A man walked into Bank of America, 8505 E. Sprague Ave., shortly after 4 p.m., said police spokesman Dave Reagan in a press release.
Without showing a weapon, the robber demanded money and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash, Reagan said. The teller also gave the robber a dye pack.
The robber was described by the teller as white and in his 40s with blue eyes and sunken cheeks. He was wearing a stocking cap and a puffy brown winter jacket.
Police ask anyone with information to call police at 242-8477.
Agency offers new plan for Alaskan Way
Seattle
Some state Department of Transportation designers have come up with a new idea for replacing the city’s crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct: a bridge along the waterfront.
The price tag: about $2.5 billion, roughly what it would cost to replace the double-decker highway and about $1 billion less than a tunnel the city wants.
“This is a very early concept, slightly beyond the cartoon stage,” said David Dye, the state’s viaduct project manager.
Dye’s design team came up with the idea for the “cable-stay” bridge after the state realized it may only have enough money to rebuild the viaduct.
A cable-stay bridge has taut wires that reach directly from the towers to the road deck. Preliminary plans call for the bridge to be 80 feet high, supported by 250-foot columns.
The plan could face stiff opposition from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. His spokesman, Marianne Bichsel, said the city is focused on “the preferred option, which is the tunnel. The time for considering alternatives has passed.”
Resort charged with building trails on public land
Boise
Tamarack Resort LLC has been charged with two misdemeanors in U.S. District Court, accused of building Nordic skiing trails on national forest land.
The U.S. attorney’s office filed the complaint, alleging that in April, Tamarack Resort built groomed ski trails on Payette National Forest land without a special-use authorization, contract or approved operating plan.
Scott Turlington, Tamarack’s director of external affairs, said he could not comment because it was an ongoing investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Lucoff also declined comment.
If convicted, Tamarack could be sentenced to five years probation and a $10,000 fine for each count.
The matter is scheduled to go to court on March 1, Lucoff said.
Bering Sea habitat proposed for right whales
Anchorage, Alaska
The federal government has proposed that the Bering Sea outside Bristol Bay and part of the Gulf of Alaska southeast of Kodiak become critical habitat for the endangered northern right whale.
A small number of North Pacific right whales, considered the rarest large whale in the world, have returned to the two zones every summer to eat small crustaceans and swim, according to a report by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
If the designation becomes official after public comment, the 36,750 square miles of marine habitat would get special scrutiny.
“It’s a clear victory for science and for the right whale,” said Brent Plater, an attorney with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.
“When you have critical habitat designated for (endangered) species, it becomes a lot easier to know when you have to be more careful.”
Right whales were considered virtually extinct until the 1990s, when biologists confirmed that a few animals were returning to the same areas just outside Bristol Bay every summer.
Since then, biologists have deployed listening phones and boat surveys to find groups of the whales, raising hope that people can help keep the species extinction.
Once numbering more than 10,000 in the North Pacific, the slow-swimming whales were slaughtered throughout the 19th century because they were easy to harpoon and they floated after they died.