In brief: Date Grape Koolaid daiquiri renamed by Spokane bar
The controversial name of a drink at a downtown Spokane hip-hop bar has been changed after weeks of protests and a boycott of the business. The Date Grape Koolaid daiquiri has been changed to Grape #Q-Laid at the Daiquiri Factory.
Protesters complained that the original name made light of date rape and asked that it be changed. They claimed that bar owner Jamie Pendleton, who also owns radio station 104.5 Jamz, instead mocked them on Facebook and Twitter.
The word “Date” is still on the menu but now has “banned” stamped across it. A representative of Kraft Foods, which owns the Kool-Aid brand, recently said the company would send the bar a letter ordering it to stop using its trademarked name.
Last week, Facebook took down the bar’s page on the grounds it violated company standards, but a new Facebook page for the business was created Wednesday. A picture of the new menu on the bar’s site shows that the non-alcoholic drink originally named Victoria’s Secret has now been renamed Veronica’s Secret.
The bar’s page also claims that #Q-Laid is a registered trademark of Pendleton Enterprises and the Spokane Downtown Daiquiri Factory.
Drive-by shooting puts victim in hospital
A man shot on the street Saturday afternoon in north Spokane underwent surgery at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, police said.
The shooter fled the scene on West Walton Street a block east of the Garland Theater. Witnesses told Spokane police officers they saw a blue or green SUV or truck leave shortly after the shooting just after 4 p.m.
“It sounds like the vehicle fled the area pretty quick,” Lt. Joe Walker said.
The victim, in his 30s, was conscious when police arrived, Walker said.
Investigators do not yet know if the shooting was random. Some witnesses told police they heard between three and six shots, Walker said.
Major Crimes detectives are investigating. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.
Alcohol, pot suspected in crash injuring three
A man suspected of being drunk and high on marijuana reportedly caused a head-on collision early Saturday on Government Way at Houston Road.
David J. Rogers, 29, was driving a Dodge pickup west on Government Way at 2:30 a.m. when the truck crossed the centerline and hit a Mitsubishi Outlander head-on, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Rogers and his 32-year-old passenger were ejected through the windshield and seriously injured. The 21-year-old driver of the Mitsubishi also received serious injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies believe Rogers was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, the Sheriff’s Office said. The crash is under investigation.
Transient sentenced to 14 years for stabbing
A North Idaho transient man who stabbed another transient man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Twenty-two-year-old Jayde Brown was sentenced in 1st District Court to three years in prison before becoming eligible for parole, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.
Brown pleaded guilty to battery with the intent to commit a serious felony. Prosecutors said Brown and the victim had an altercation over stolen property Oct. 2, and minutes later Brown rode by the victim on a bicycle and stabbed him in the chest as he passed.
Portland boy’s attackers carve swastika on head
PORTLAND – A 16-year-old Portland boy said he was lured into a shed, where three boys beat and robbed him, and one of them carved a swastika into his forehead.
The Feb. 10 assault ended when the boy was able to escape the shed and run to a nearby store, the Oregonian reported.
The boy told police he was lured to the shed by a 15-year-old girl. There, police said, a boy shot him with a BB gun three times.
A 15-year-old boy later confessed to using a box cutter to carve a swastika into the other boy’s forehead, police said.
A prosecutor said the girl and two boys will be prosecuted as adults. A third boy who is 14 will be prosecuted in juvenile court.
Cessna crash pilots were romantically involved
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Pilot error led to a fatal September 2011 mid-air crash involving a romantically linked couple flying next to each other over western Alaska, according to a newly released National Transportation Safety Board probable-cause finding.
Pilot Scott Veal, 24, died in the fiery crash of his Cessna 208B Caravan. His girlfriend, 26-year-old Kristen Sprague, walked away from a nose-down forced landing of her Cessna 207 on the tundra north of Nightmute.
Veal was flying alongside Sprague when he suddenly flew just above the much smaller plane and then clipped its wing on the way back down, according to the probable cause report issued Feb. 3.
The board in a Feb. 3 decision determined that Veal failed “to maintain adequate clearance while performing an unexpected and unannounced abrupt maneuver, resulting in a midair collision between the two airplanes.”
The crash occurred as Veal, who worked for Grant Aviation Inc., was returning to his Bethel base from Toksook Bay with an empty plane. Sprague was flying back to Bethel from Tununak for her employer, Ryan Air.
The pilots, described by their employers as having a “close, personal relationship,” agreed by radio to meet in flight and fly back together, investigators said.