Victims of Grant County fire identified as mother, two sons

The three people killed in a Grant County house fire have been identified as a mother and her young sons.

Francisca Cespedes, 35; Miguel Cespedes, 3; and Cristian Cespedes, 9 months, died from smoke inhalation at their home Wednesday in the 200 block of East Fourth Street in Mattawa, Wash., according to the Grant County Coroner’s Office.

The family lived in a single-wide manufactured home that had been converted into a duplex at a mobile home park, said Kyle Foreman, spokesman for the Grant County Department of Emergency Management.

Neighbors called 911 at 11:37 p.m., and a crew from Grant County Fire District 8 arrived at 11:54 to find the structure and two vehicles ablaze. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Charter school can’t use Bible as textbook, commission says

BOISE – Idaho’s charter school commission told a Nampa academy Friday it cannot use the Bible as an instructional text.

The Nampa Classical Academy is scheduled to open Sept. 8 with more than 550 students and had planned to use the Bible as a primary source of teaching material but not to teach religion.

But the Idaho Public Charter School Commission released a statement saying the state constitution “expressly” limits use of religious texts.

School board Chairman Kyle Borger said the school will follow the commission’s directive.

Prior to the ruling, academy officials said they wanted to teach Bible for its literary and historic qualities, as part of a secular education program.

Friday’s decision came after a religious advocacy group wrote a 15-page document citing the Idaho Constitution to defend a charter school’s plans.

Spokane man gets four years for stockpiling illegal weapons

A Spokane man who stockpiled an arsenal of illegal weapons will spend the next four years in prison.

Ronald L. Struve, 67, also was sentenced Friday in Seattle to two years probation and ordered to undergo mental-health treatment.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman said his arsenal posed “a huge danger to the community.”

Struve, a legal stenographer, was arrested in Spokane in January after federal agents raided a Bellevue storage locker, seizing 37 machine guns, 54 grenades, two grenade launchers and 7.5 pounds of plastic explosives.

The arsenal was discovered when rent wasn’t paid and the storage unit’s contents were auctioned last November.

Agents also searched a stored vehicle and two rental units at 2814 N. Napa St. in Spokane leased by Struve, seizing seven machine guns, a Russian sniper rifle, an AK-47 assault rifle and a host of machine gun parts that are illegal to own without federal licenses.

They also seized 33 other legal firearms for safekeeping from the north Spokane location, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say many of the weapons had been stolen from the military.

Grandmother is charged after dog attacks baby twice

BIRDSVIEW, Wash. – Skagit County prosecutors have charged a grandmother with third-degree assault, saying an infant in the woman’s care was attacked by a dog twice in two days. Prosecutors are alleging criminal negligence.

The dog that attacked the baby girl belonged to the woman, DeEtta Dezarn, 49.

The child was taken to a Seattle hospital on Aug. 2 after the more serious attack.

Authorities say the 9-month-old girl was hospitalized for nine days recovering from facial wounds and a skull fracture from bites on her head.

The girl’s family disputed the severity of the injuries detailed in the sheriff’s report but declined to be interviewed.

Injured ATV rider, 89, says dog fended off circling cougars

CENTRALIA, Wash. – An 89-year-old man who lay injured in the rain for two days after his ATV overturned said his big black dog protected him from circling cougars.

Raymond Orr’s niece Sue Schofield told KIRO-TV her uncle was riding on his property near Centralia earlier this week when he hit a log and crashed.

He broke several bones and was helpless until relatives found him Thursday.

Orr said his dog Jake saved him from cougars.

Erik Olson of the Riverside Fire Authority confirms that Orr said cougars had appeared and the dog fended them off. Olson said paramedics were initially skeptical – until they saw the cougar tracks near the spot where Orr had been stranded.

Olson said one of the firefighters is an avid hunter and confirmed the tracks were made by cougars.