Man held in death of ‘pocket bike’ rider

Police have arrested 27-year-old Joshua W. Jackson, of Spokane, on suspicion of vehicular homicide.

Reports state Jackson was the driver of an SUV that collided with a red mini-motorcycle commonly called a “pocket bike” on Saturday night at the corner of Cincinnati Street and Princeton Avenue in north Spokane.

The driver of the motorbike, which resembled a miniaturized racing motorcycle, was 22-year-old Carlos A. Amaral. He died shortly after emergency crews took him to a hospital.

Drivers of the small motorbikes are not required to have a license; however, the bikes are not allowed to be ridden on highways or arterial streets.

The accident intersection is not marked with traffic signs or lights.

Police suspect drug or alcohol use may have contributed to the accident.

– John Stucke

Robber assaults store clerk

An armed robber pistol-whipped a 25-year-old clerk at the Maid O’Clover convenience store on East Francis Avenue late Saturday.

The robber was slender and dressed in black, and may have been a young woman or girl, between 5 feet 6 inches tall, and 5 feet 9 inches tall, according to Spokane police. An undisclosed amount of money was stolen.

Police reported that the clerk’s face was bruised.

– John Stucke

Fire destroys vacant building

Fire burned the roof of a business building at the corner of Third and Hatrch early Sunday.

The building was vacant, the Spokane Fire Department said in a news release. Flames reached 20 feet above the roof and neared the lines of a major electrical substation that serve much of the downtown area.

Firefighters stopped the fire from spreading to other buildings. The structure is a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

– John Stucke

Bremerton, Wash.

USS Lincoln repairs nearly finished

Several months of maintenance work on the USS Lincoln is set to wrap up this month at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and the aircraft carrier will then head home to Naval Station Everett.

The crew of about 3,200 sailors had expected to cast off from Bremerton in mid-March, about six months after it dry-docked for repairs. But about $142 million in maintenance and alterations proved more complex than expected, said the ship spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. John Filostrat.

“That plan was very ambitious,” Filostrat said.

The work included catapult repairs and upgrades to the carrier’s navigation equipment and defense systems. About a third of the work was handled by the shipyard, about a third by the crew and a third by contractors.

After sea trials and carrier qualifications for about a week, the carrier will tie up in Everett but then head out to pick up its air wing in San Diego before deploying early next year.

About half the crew members, many of them married, have been commuting four hours a day between the Everett-based carrier and their homes in Snohomish County. Other crew members either live on the ship or in the Bremerton area.