In brief: Stimulus funds to bring upgrades to VA

The Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center will update its electrical, heating and ventilation systems thanks to more than $6.2 million in federal stimulus funds.

About half of the money appropriated for Spokane VA as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to replace two aging emergency generators, which currently cannot supply the entire campus in the event of a power failure, according to Cheryl Wood, chief of engineering.

Another $1.8 million will replace the medical center’s high-voltage substation.

Stimulus funds will also pay to renovate portions of the second floor to expand oncology and diagnostic imaging, upgrade ventilation on the same-day surgery ward and spruce up the dining room.

These projects are in addition to nearly $10 million in maintenance and minor construction, currently underway at the medical center, that will soon add parking and 10,000 square feet of specialty care and pharmacy space, Wood said.

Kevin Graman

Olympia

Law protects coverage for transplant patients

A bill protecting people needing organ transplants but who have their insurance switched has been signed into law.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the legislation Monday.

It was introduced after Fred Watley, of Spokane, was at first denied coverage for a liver transplant in 2007 when his employer switched carriers – even though he had already been on the waiting list.

The problems drew widespread attention, and Watley’s new insurer, Group Health, worked with lawmakers and Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler to close the insurance loophole.

Watley received a new liver last year at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Staff report

COEUR d’ALENE

Florida man sentenced for contact with minor

A Florida man was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison after he was convicted in U.S. District Court of engaging in “inappropriate sexual activity” with a Moscow, Idaho, girl over the Internet.

William Edward Stevens Jr., 52, of Melbourne, Fla., told the girl he was a 21-year-old law enforcement officer, both of which were falsehoods, according to a news release.

Stevens also tried to persuade the girl to give her mother Ambien, a prescription sleeping aid, so the girl could engage in “sexual activity and sex talk” without her mother’s knowledge, according to the release.

The girl was 12 when Stevens started the chats three years ago. He sent her pictures of his 21-year-old son and claimed the photos were of him, wrote Kristi Johnson, spokeswoman for Tom Moss, U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho.

The conviction on charges of using interstate facilities to transmit information about a minor and on conspiracy to use a minor to distribute a controlled substance was the result of an investigation by Moscow police and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is managed by the Idaho attorney general’s office, Johnson said in the release.

Stevens was sentenced Monday to serve 72 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge.

Thomas Clouse