Rossi campaign offers election office number

Some Spokane voters looking for information on a Dino Rossi campaign event Thursday called a phone number that connected them with an unexpected location: the county elections office.

Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said her office got “more than a handful” of calls for information on the Rossi campaign after people received recorded messages about a “town hall teleconference.” Those unable to participate in the teleconference were told they could get campaign information by calling the Spokane Rossi office.

But the company that recorded the message read the wrong number from the Rossi Web site, which has the county elections office listed below the campaign office number. Some callers were puzzled and some were angry, wanting to know why the elections office was working for Rossi, Dalton said.

It’s not, she said. The correct number is (509) 413-2623.

Jim Camden

River Park Square probe topic of briefing

Two federal prosecutors will brief the media today on a federal yearlong investigation into the deal to redevelop River Park Square.

The River Park Square mall redevelopment was a controversial public-private partnership between the city of Spokane and the mall’s owners, companies owned by what is now Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Former city councilwoman Cherie Rodgers and Tim Connor, of the Web magazine Camas, last summer requested that the U.S. attorney’s office investigate whether the project violated federal corruption laws. They turned over records that they said indicated crimes had taken place.

The files were turned over to the U.S. attorney’s office in Western Washington after James McDevitt, U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, agreed to separate himself from the investigation because he was once a partner in Preston Gates Ellis, a law firm that represented the Spokane Downtown Foundation, which was involved in the project.

The briefing was announced Thursday in a news release. It did not indicate what decisions may have been made by prosecutors.

Jonathan Brunt

Inland Northwest

Man sentenced for LSD distribution

A man who sold LSD at Inland Northwest barter fairs will spend 66 months in federal prison, about half the time he could have faced after being charged with distribution of the illegal drug.

Allen Lint, 27, formerly of Yakima, also must complete five years of parole supervision after he’s released under the sentence handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley.

Lint pleaded guilty in May in U.S. District Court in Spokane to distribution of more than 10 grams of LSD and could have faced 10 years.

He and co-defendant Palmer Hanson were arrested in the parking lot at Spokane Valley Mall on July 26, 2007, a year after the Sandpoint Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration began an investigation.

Hanson is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.

Bill Morlin