In brief: Storms change holiday event

A Clark Fork community Christmas tradition will look a little bit different this year.

Each year, the Cabinet Mountain Calvary Chapel sponsors a community Christmas tree and holds a tree lighting celebration. However, this year the tree will not be lit.

Recent snows and high winds destroyed the lights in the tree and broke so many branches there are no longer enough to restring it.

By the time organizers discovered the tree’s condition, it was too late to make other plans.

But the celebration will go on.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Clark Fork High School, there will be holiday treats, coffee, carols, story time for children and a Christmas drama put on by the church’s drama team.

“We put on this program every year to remind people of the real reason why we celebrate Christmas,” pastor Scott Douglas said in a news release.

“The birth of Jesus often gets lost in the commercialism of the season, and even in the hustle and bustle of gathering with family and friends.”

Chelsea Bannach

Stabbing at house leads to arrest

A Spokane man is facing assault charges after a dispute with his housemate turned bloody.

Robert Aron Young, 30, was booked into Spokane County Jail Monday for first-degree assault in connection with a 9:31 p.m. stabbing at a home in the 2200 block of West Gardner Avenue, according to the Spokane Police Department.

The victim, Davis D. Botts, was rushed to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center but no condition report was available Tuesday.

According to police, Botts and his mother, Angela M. Durazo, who was dating Young, were watching a movie when Young came home and a verbal fight between Durazo and Young ensued.

Botts locked Young out, but Young reportedly crawled in through a window and during a scuffle stabbed Botts in the chest with a folding knife, police said. Young fled the scene, but police stopped his vehicle at Mission Avenue and Astor Street and he was arrested despite claims of self-defense.

Chelsea Bannach