In brief: Burn ban lifted in Kootenai County

Kootenai County fire chiefs lifted the summer burn ban Tuesday.

Residents may burn combustibles such as paper and cardboard if no solid waste collection is available, where allowed, and on the property where the waste was generated, according to a Kootenai County Fire & Rescue news release.

Residents are also allowed to burn yard waste if local ordinances allow it.

More rain is needed before it is safe to burn large piles of logging slash, so residents should check with the Idaho Department of Lands at (208) 769-1577 before doing so, the news release said. Garbage should not be burned.

Residents should check with their local fire department each time they want to burn. They should also check with the Department of Environmental Quality for air quality. Air quality status is available at (800) 633-6247 for Kootenai, Shoshone and Bonner counties.

Residents must obtain a burn permit if required by their local fire department and adhere to DEQ’s open burning rules. The rules can be found at www.deq.idaho.gov.

Teens sentenced for killing cats

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Three Clark County, Wash., teens have been sentenced in the shooting of dozens of cats and other animals.

Two defendants, 17-year-old Jaren Koistinen and 16-year-old Mitchell Kangas, were sentenced Tuesday to more than a year in a state juvenile institution. A third person, 17-year-old Riley Munger, will spend 30 days in juvenile detention. All are from the Battle Ground area.

The Columbian newspaper reports that each must also perform 100 hours of community service.

A prosecutor sought a sentence of more than two years for Koistinen and Kangas but Superior Court Judge Rich Melnick went with a lower penalty, saying, “I think they’re youth.”

Kangas and Koistinen pleaded guilty Sept. 14 to 12 counts of first-degree animal cruelty and drive-by shooting in a three-month spree earlier this year. Munger pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty. He says he participated in just one night’s shooting.

Man held in death of grandfathers

OAK HARBOR, Wash. – A 30-year-old Washington man has been ordered held without bail for investigation of homicide and kidnapping after his two 80-year-old grandfathers were killed and a great-aunt was bound with packing tape.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown has described Joshua D. Lambert as a suspect in one death and a “person of high interest” in the other. The arrested man remained silent during a Tuesday court appearance.

Lambert was arrested Monday after his paternal grandfather, George Lambert, and his maternal grandfather, August Eisner, were found dead earlier in the day at their respective Whidbey Island homes outside Oak Harbor. The sheriff says both men appear to have been stabbed.

George Lambert’s sister, Kay Gage, called to report his slaying. She told officers she had witnessed the killing after she was tied up with tape in his home. She was reported traumatized but unhurt.

Mudslide closes Amtrak route

An unseasonably early mudslide has forced Amtrak service off the rails for 48 hours between Vancouver and Tacoma.

The slide occurred about 3 a.m. Tuesday near Titlow Beach, 8 miles south of Tacoma, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway. Mud and rocks fell down a saturated 250-foot slope, covering one of two parallel railroad tracks and scattering debris on the other.

Freight service was disrupted for only about a half hour, but Amtrak, following safety guidelines, will not be able to use the tracks in that area for 48 hours. It runs its frequent Cascades service and the flagship Coast Starlight through the area, a total of 10 trips per day.

Amtrak will bus Cascades passengers to all stations between Portland and Seattle, and continue to run trains between Portland and Eugene, Ore., and Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., said spokesman Steve Kulm in Oakland, Calif.

Assuming there are no more problems with the track, normal passenger service should resume Thursday morning.

Pirates sentenced for seizing yacht

NORFOLK, Va. – A Somali pirate leader and an armed guard aboard a yacht where all four Americans aboard were killed off the coast of Africa were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.

The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Calif., along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay of Seattle, were shot to death in February several days after being taken hostage hundreds of miles south of Oman.

They were the first Americans killed in a wave of piracy that has plagued the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean in recent years.

Mohamud Salad Ali and Ahmed Sala Ali Burale are the fifth and sixth men who have pleaded guilty to piracy in the case to be sentenced.