In brief: S-R subpoenaed over blog commenters

Kootenai County Republican chairwoman Tina Jacobson has filed a subpoena seeking the identities of three anonymous commenters on a Spokesman-Review blog.

The news company intends to oppose efforts to obtain the information “to the extent that the law allows us to resist,” Editor Gary Graham said Friday. “We are disappointed that we have been subpoenaed in this matter.”

Jacobson filed suit late last month against “John and/or Jane Doe” after an anonymous reader posted a comment on the Huckleberries Online blog questioning whether money allegedly missing from the Kootenai County Central Committee might be “stuffed inside Tina’s blouse.” Two other anonymous readers posted follow-up comments.

Jacobson has asked Cowles Publishing Co., the company that owns The Spokesman-Review and spokesman.com, to provide “documents establishing the identity, email address and IP addresses” of “almostinnocentbystander,” “Phaedrus” and “outofstatertater,” the three commenters.

Cowles Publishing on Monday filed a motion to quash the subpoena, saying that it violates the right to speak anonymously protected under the First Amendment and that it infringes on the reporter’s privilege of blogger Dave Oliveria.

Forest Service names new regional forester

Faye Krueger is the new regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region, which covers 25 million acres in five states, including North Idaho.

A Forest Service employee since 1980, Krueger has held positions on the Caribou and Payette National Forest in Idaho, the Gallatin National Forest in Montana and other forests and grasslands in Utah, North Dakota and Alaska. She most recently worked in Washington, D.C., for the Forest Service.

Krueger replaces Leslie Weldon, who moved to the agency’s Washington, D.C., office last year. She holds a bachelor of science degree in forestry from the University of Montana.

State to pay $2.9 million to sexual abuse victim

TACOMA – Washington state has agreed to pay nearly $2.9 million to a woman who said she was sexually abused by her father following an inadequate investigation into her case by social workers.

The settlement was accepted in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday.

The woman, now 21, said she’d been living with her father in 2004 when he was arrested for investigation of child molestation. The Department of Social and Health Services investigated but closed the case as unfounded and allowed the father and daughter to be reunited – despite molestation claims from other children and warnings from concerned neighbors.

The girl eventually ran away in 2005, and her father was arrested and convicted.

Marysville boy charged in school bus assault

EVERETT – A 14-year-old boy has been charged with indecent exposure and unlawful imprisonment in an assault on a 13-year-old girl on a Marysville Middle School bus.

Court papers filed Thursday say the boy began tickling the girl March 1, pushed her down onto the floor, pulled down his pants and sat on her head.

Four other boys accused of holding the girl down are in a juvenile court diversion program.

The assault ended when another girl pulled the boy off the victim.

The Daily Herald said the incident was out of the driver’s sight but recorded on video.

Four boys were expelled and three suspended. After appeals, two remain expelled and two suspended.