Storm, wind cause power outages

High winds in Western Montana sent a tree into a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line on Sunday, knocking out power to customers across a broad swath of North Idaho and Western Montana.

Electricity was restored by 5:47 p.m. to all areas.

Carrie Reese, a spokeswoman for BPA, said power was rerouted around the damaged line, which was isolated to a section between Yaak and Kalispell. A repair crew was dispatched to locate the break.

Power went out at 2:37 p.m. and was restored at 4:41 p.m. in Bonners Ferry, Moyie Springs and Boundary County, which are served by the Bonners Ferry Public Utility District and Northern Lights. No estimate was given for the number of people affected.

Service was also interrupted in Yaak and Troy and surrounding areas in Western Montana, Reese said.

Robyn Dunlap, a spokeswoman for Avista Utilities, said no Avista customers in Idaho or Washington were affected.

Seattle

Brawl sends officer to hospital

A brawl involving about 20 people outside Jillians nightclub early Sunday ended with two people in the hospital, including a police officer who had been hit in the face with a cell phone, Seattle police said.

When the first two officers got to Jillians, people outside the club were hitting each other and a few who were on the ground were being struck.

During the disturbance, one officer was hit in the face with a cell phone and required three stitches above his left eye. The officer, a five-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department, was treated and released from Harborview, police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said.

Police used a Taser stun gun to subdue two men. A 26-year-old man was arrested on a charge of investigation of assault on a police officer and the other man who was Tasered was taken to Harborview, Whitcomb said.

Portland

Police fatally shoot man

Portland police fatally shot a man during a confrontation outside a motel on Sunday.

Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, said officers went to the Hospitality Inn in southwest Portland after learning that a man wanted on a felony warrant was inside. Schmautz said David Earl Hughes, 52, had been wanted since Tuesday after failing to appear at his sentencing on arson, burglary and weapons charges.

Schmautz said Hughes was pushing his luggage from a second-floor window as police near the motel were developing a plan to approach him.

Hughes then jumped from the window and was in an area enclosed by a chain link fence. Police said Hughes yelled at the officers to kill him and ignored repeated commands to surrender. Three officers fired after Hughes put his hands in his coat, where he could have had a weapon, Schmautz said.

Police declined to release the names of the officers who fired their guns.

Hughes, who was unarmed, died either on the way to the hospital or at it, Schmautz said.

According to the Web site for KGW-TV, the station received a phone call Sunday morning from a man who said he was inside a room at the Hospitality Inn and the police were going to kill him.

He reportedly told the station that he had been on the run because the police wanted to put him in jail for five years. Roughly 10 minutes after the phone call, news of the shooting came over a police scanner at the station.

Lewiston

Veteran content to change goals

A soldier from north-central Idaho has lost out on his dream of staying in the military because of wounds he suffered in Iraq.

Kenneth Parham served with the Marines in the first Gulf War and with the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Engineer Battalion in Iraq, where he was hit three times by roadside bombs.

The third explosion left him with two herniated disks in his neck and one in his lower back – plus a collapsed lung, broken ribs, shrapnel in one leg and memory loss.

He’s hoping to swap his dreams for a career in the military for new dreams of becoming a head football coach in Lewiston or Clarkston. To get there, he’s helping coach at Asotin High School in Clarkston.

From staff and wire reports