McKenna: Little can be done about gas prices

Washington’s attorney general told Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession this week there appears to be little his office can do to remedy higher gasoline prices in Eastern Washington.

Attorney General Rob McKenna said his office would investigate the oil and gasoline industry if there was evidence of illegal collusion to maintain artificially high prices. In the absence of such evidence, the explanation for higher gasoline prices in Eastern Washington may be an economic one, McKenna said in a letter to the mayor this week. The state is limited in its ability to regulate prices, he said.

Hession earlier this month sent a letter to McKenna asking him to look into the matter.

The mayor joined U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell in questioning Spokane prices, which Hession said are the second-highest in the nation, even higher than those in Western Washington.

The Federal Trade Commission told Cantwell the disparity may be caused by market forces.

McKenna also cited the FTC in saying market forces may be at work. He noted that prices have been lower in Spokane than Western Washington at other times. Eastern Washington receives its supplies from Rocky Mountain refineries, while the Puget Sound area has several local refineries, McKenna said.

– Mike Prager

Spokane

Man sentenced for planning sex with girl

A man who told border agents he was visiting Canada to have sex with a 15-year-old girl he met over the Internet has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Michael H. Simonson, 51, of Tekoa, south of Spokane, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley after pleading guilty Tuesday to one count of travel in interstate commerce with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and one count of attempted enticement of a minor.

Simonson was arrested after being turned back by Canadian Customs officials at the Blaine port of entry April 15, 2005, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice said Wednesday.

A passenger on a Greyhound bus, Simonson told Canadian Customs agents he was on his way to meet a 15-year-old girl that he had met on the Internet.

Police later found the girl, a runaway, was waiting for him at the Greyhound bus station in Vancouver, B.C.

When he was arrested, Simonson was carrying condoms and Viagra tablets, a digital camera, “love letters” from the girl and a bottle of vodka, federal prosecutors said.

A warrant search of Simonson’s computer showed extensive research into Canada’s age of consent and Internet child luring laws.

Rice said the age of consent for sexual activity is 14 in British Columbia, but Simonson lives in the United States and was charged under this country’s laws.

Simonson, a forester who worked for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in Idaho, had deleted electronic files from his work e-mail after his arrest, Rice said.

– Associated Press