In brief: Man’s body found in Spokane River

A fly-fisherman found a body in the Spokane River Tuesday afternoon.

Police said the body is that of a white or Hispanic male in his early 30s. It appears he died fairly recently.

The body was found near Main Avenue and Monroe Street – near the Spokane Club and west of the Monroe Street Bridge – on some rocks above the waterline near the south bank of the river.

Major Crimes detectives with the Spokane Police Department were investigating. Police got the call about 3:30 p.m.

Korean War armistice day set

OLYMPIA – The Legislature is setting aside July 27 as Korean War Veterans’ Armistice Day.

The Senate voted 48-0 Monday to approve HB 2138, which earlier passed the House 95-0. July 27 is the day in 1953 the armistice was signed after about three years of war on the Korean Peninsula.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, makes the day a “specially recognized day.” That’s not a state holiday but a day set aside for a special legislative mention, like Juneteenth, Pearl Harbor Day or Marcus Whitman Day. It’s also a day when the POW/MIA flag is to be displayed along with the U.S. and state flags.

President signs Quileute land swap

A law that orders a land swap between the National Park Service and a Washington state tribe to help move the tribe’s school out of a tsunami zone was signed Monday by President Barack Obama.

Under the law, which passed both houses of Congress by overwhelming margins, the park service will give the Quileute Tribe at La Push land from the Olympic National Park above the current reservation in exchange for access to the tribe’s beaches.

The tribe, which has a reservation of about one square mile on the rugged Pacific Coast, had sought higher ground for years, but the need was underscored last year by scenes of devastation from the Japanese tsunami.

Washington’s Pacific Coast has the same kind of geologic fault, known as a subduction zone, as Japan.

Parts of the reservation, including its grade school and some houses, are only a few feet above sea level. After surveying the land and developing plans, construction on the new property will probably begin in 2013.

A spokeswoman for the tribe called the signing of the law one of the most significant events in Quileute history.