Dog departs for Down Under
Duncan is on his way to Australia.
The neglected black Russian terrier arrived in Cheney last summer when Lisa Rosier adopted him through a national rescue group. About the same time, Rosier’s ailing father visited Cheney from Australia, and man and dog formed a friendship.
When his vacation was over, 69-year-old Kevin Greer didn’t have the $4,000 needed to meet all the requirements for taking Duncan to Brisbane. Through community events such as Cheneyfest 2006, volunteers, including Rosier’s colleagues at the Cheney Police Department, raised the needed money after Greer left.
Rosier said Duncan left Monday morning for Los Angeles and was expected to fly today to Australia, where the dog will be quarantined until March 11. She and her husband plan to surprise her dad by flying down to see the reunion.
“I’ve had calls all day, people saying, ‘we think it’s wonderful, we think it’s great, we’re going to miss him,’ ” Rosier said Monday night.
– Staff reports
Spokane
U.S. land clearing nets $63,000 fine
A Snohomish man was ordered Monday to pay $63,000 after admitting he illegally bulldozed nearly eight acres in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area.
Gary L. Brown, 56, pleaded guilty in October to causing the damage to U.S. property, James McDevitt, U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, said in a news release.
Brown admitted clearing the land while developing a 66-lot subdivision overlooking Lake Roosevelt near Keller Ferry, upstream from Grand Coulee Dam. The restitution will pay the National Park Service for restoring the land, which was covered mainly in bitterbrush as tall as 10 feet.
– Associated Press
Olympia
Initiative requiring kids introduced
Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced an initiative that would require heterosexual couples to have kids.
Initiative 957 was filed by Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, which formed last summer after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Under I-957, couples wanting a marriage license would have to prove they can have children. And if they did not procreate within three years, their marriages would be subject to annulment.
“Absurd? Very,” the group says on its Web site, which adds it is planning two more initiatives involving marriage and procreation. “But there is a rational basis for this absurdity. By floating the initiatives, we hope to prompt discussion about the many misguided assumptions” underlying the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Supporters must gather at least 224,800 valid signatures by July 6 to put it on the ballot.
The alliance says it will introduce two other initiatives. One would prohibit divorce or separation when a couple has children, and another would make having a child together the equivalent of marriage.
Gregory Gadow, who filed I-957, said that if the initiatives pass, the Supreme Court would be forced to strike them down as unconstitutional, which he believes would weaken the original ruling upholding the ban on gay marriage.
– Associated Press