Storms prompt road warnings

The first significant snow of the season created treacherous morning and evening commutes Tuesday, as hundreds of motorists slid into ditches, barriers and each other.

No serious injuries had been reported by late Tuesday.

Inland Northwest drivers can expect more slick roads. A winter storm watch has been issued for Thursday by the National Weather Service.

Roads in North Idaho became so treacherous Tuesday that the Idaho State Police issued a warning requesting all drivers to stay home. By 10 p.m. state officers had responded to 14 collisions with more than $750 in damage, several more than usual, police dispatch reported.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office responded to more than 200 snow-related crashes and slide-offs on Tuesday, spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said in a press release. Spokane Police also responded to numerous collisions Tuesday, said police spokesman Dick Cottam.

Rouse’s Towing and Recovery, which has trucks in Spokane, Spokane Valley and Cheney and Airway Heights, responded to 30 or 40 calls Tuesday evening, a dispatcher said.

“The first real snow is always terrible,” said Julie Andrews. “Normally we run half crews at night. Once winter hits we start running a full crew.”

Andrews said the calls had mostly been for drivers who slid off the roadway, and needed a winch-out.

Officials warned that roads likely will remain slick this morning.

“You get some people who don’t realize how long it takes to stop,” Cottam said.

NIC vice president to retire this summer

NIC Vice President Bruce Gifford announced Tuesday that he will retire this summer.

Gifford has headed student services at North Idaho College for five years and will end his tenure on June 30. He will move to Colorado to be closer to the family of his wife, Diana Gifford, director of special education for the Coeur d’Alene School District. She will retire at the end of the summer.

Bruce Gifford has worked in higher education for 35 years, including two decades at the University of Alaska in Juneau.

His major achievements while at NIC include developing a new student code of conduct, redesigning the student records system and implementing a new system for orientation, advising and registration.

NIC will begin a national search for his replacement, to be completed by the start of the academic year in July.

Arrest follows suspect’s dip in Spokane River

A man suspected of stealing a truck last week in Spokane County was spotted Tuesday by a Spokane police officer, prompting a chase and a plunge into the Spokane River.

Officer Tyler Cordis was following a 2001 Ford pickup about 11 a.m. when the driver tried to elude him, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

After a pursuit, the truck went into a construction area near People’s Park. The driver jumped out and ran toward the river, Cottam said. The man jumped into the water but immediately came out.

The suspect, identified as 25-year-old Levi Scott Stang, fought with officers who arrested him, then took him to an area hospital for treatment for hypothermia.

The hospital released Stang to the officers, who booked him into the Spokane County Jail on a charge of first-degree possession of stolen property, Cottam said.

Federal judge voids contributions law

Boise A federal judge has voided a 2003 Idaho law that sought to crimp union fund-raising for political activism.

The Voluntary Contributions Act, which GOP lawmakers pushed through on narrow votes and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed into law, banned all payroll deductions for union political activities, even if they’d been authorized by the employee. The measure also outlawed unions from using dues for political action, required them to pay for political activities out of separate, segregated funds, and restricted how they can raise those funds. It set out criminal penalties for violations.

The measure, HB 329 in 2003, was blocked by a temporary restraining order as soon as it took effect. Now, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has declared the law unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A group of Idaho unions including the AFL-CIO and unions representing firefighters and teachers challenged the law in federal court.

Attorneys for the state conceded in court that all but one of the law’s clauses were unconstitutional, and sought to defend only the ban on payroll deduction.

SWAT team arrests assault suspect

The Spokane County sheriff’s SWAT team raided a Mead home early Tuesday, arresting an assault suspect and recovering several guns.

The team executed a search warrant at 3316 E. Florence at about 5:30 a.m., sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said. Once inside, deputies arrested Chad Michael Materne, 33, who was a suspect in connection with an assault on Nov. 23, Reagan said.

On that day, deputies were summoned to a hospital where a male victim was being treated for chemical burns on his face and a cut caused by a blow from a shotgun, Reagan said.

The victim said Materne invited him to his Mead home where Materne and another man pointed guns at him while Materne sprayed the victim in the face and neck with an unknown liquid. As the victim retreated, Materne hit him in the head with the shotgun, Reagan said in a news release.

Doctors said the victim suffered second-degree burns on the left side of his face, neck and the exposed portion of his chest.

Materne is a convicted felon who is prohibited from owning guns. In Tuesday’s search, during which Materne tried to run, deputies found a .22 caliber pistol inside a safe, a second pistol in a drawer next to Materne’s bed and a 12-gauge shotgun.

He was booked into the Spokane County Jail on a second-degree assault charge from the Nov. 23 incident and is expected to face charges relating to the guns, Reagan said.

Judge Judy to decide Sacheen Lake dispute

A Spokane-area dispute will play out on a national stage today when an argument over lake property is decided by Judge Judy.

Hard-nosed judge Judith Sheindlin, host of the nationally syndicated courtroom television show “Judge Judy,” reviewed a land ownership case brought by Laura Schmitz of Lake Oswego, Ore.

Schmitz sold a Sacheen Lake cabin to John Kodi and Brandi Mather of Spangle with a stipulation that Schimtz be allowed to use the cabin twice a year, show spokesman Gary Rosen said Tuesday.

Sheindlin determined the matter in a Los Angeles-area courtroom during a taped episode to air at 4:30 p.m. on KHQ-6. The program’s spokesman would not discuss the outcome in advance.

U.S. relaxes restrictions on B.C. poultry

Washington The United States has relaxed a ban on poultry imports from British Columbia initially sparked by the discovery of bird flu in a duck raised in the Canadian province.

The strain of bird flu is now known to be low-pathogenic and poses no threat to human health, unlike the more virulent form in Asia that has killed dozens of people, the Agriculture Department said.

U.S. officials said they banned on Nov. 21 all poultry imports from British Columbia until their Canadian counterparts could identify the virus, later found on a second, nearby farm as well.

In the days after the Nov. 18 discovery of the virus, Canadian officials killed nearly 58,000 ducks and geese on the two farms, located outside Vancouver, said Brian Evans, Canada’s chief veterinary officer.

The Agriculture Department said it would maintain the import ban on birds from within a three-mile radius of the two British Columbia farms.