NW today: Police say Elmira home invasion victim doused with gas
SANDPOINT, Idaho — Authorities say a 57-year-old Elmira resident shot in the face during a home invasion was also doused with gasoline.
Court documents obtained by the Bonner County Daily Bee say the man sustained a superficial wound on his cheek from a bullet and the gas wasn’t ignited during Monday’s attack.
Three men are in custody on a variety of charges.
Twenty-two-year-old Joseph Vencil Kluck Jr., a transient from Renton, Wash., is charged with attempted murder, armed robbery, second-degree kidnapping and resisting arrest. He is being held in the Bonner County Jail on $150,000 bail.
Eighteen-year-old Joseph Eugene Cleveland of Sandpoint is charged with second-degree kidnapping, robbery and resisting arrest.
Twenty-two-year-old Jonathan Lee Comstock of Sandpoint is also charged with robbery and resisting arrest.
Cleveland and Comstock are being held in the Bonner County Jail on $50,000 bail.
Elmira is about 16 miles north of Sandpoint.
Google chairman gives Portland professor $96,000
PORTLAND, Ore. — The unexpected email to Portland State University Professor Tom Shrimpton offering him $96,400 looked like a scam. But it turned out to be legitimate. The Oregonian reports Google Chairman Eric Schmidt decided to support Shrimpton’s research into overcoming online censorship. Shrimpton says he had held informal talks with a Google think tank about how to use his encryption technology.
3 Missoula women arrested during megaload protest
MISSOULA — Protesters say they stopped the movement of a large load of oilfield equipment for about 20 minutes in Missoula early Friday. Police arrested Carol Marsh, Debbie Florence and Gail Gilman on suspicion of disorderly conduct for sitting in the road to block the megaload’s progress. Northern Rockies Rising Tide said its members along with members of Indian Peoples Action and the Blue Skies Campaign protested the load as it traveled through Missoula. The load was able to finish its route and stop at Bonner. The load weighs about 750,000 pounds. It has traveled through Oregon, southern Idaho and will travel through northwestern Montana before continuing on to Alberta, Canada. It is the last of three loads that Omega Morgan was hauling from the Port of Umatilla, Ore., to Canada.
Police: 1 child hurt in Idaho school bus crash near Riggins
COEUR d’ALENE — State police say one child was injured in a school bus crash around the Idaho County town of Riggins. The one-vehicle crash occurred around 5:30 p.m. Thursday on a road in the area, located about 125 miles south of Coeur d’Alene. Police say 66-year-old driver Larry C. Barnard was carrying seven children on his bus when he was distracted by one of them. The vehicle drifted left and as the driver corrected to the right, tires went off the road and the bus eventually rolled on its right side. The state police dispatch office says one child was hospitalized with injuries, but declined to provide any further information. Barnard and the six other children on the bus were uninjured. The office says the Riggins man was cited for inattentive driving.
Disabled vet stunned with Taser sues federal agency in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. — A disabled veteran who was stunned with a Taser by federal security officers in Portland is suing the four officers and the federal government. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Portland, former Air Force Sgt. William Bayes accuses the officers of negligence, assault and false arrest. The Oregonian reports the 47-year-old who wears knee braces and used a cane was going to an appointment in December 2012 at a Disabled American Veterans office. He clashed with the security officers when they found a pocketknife as he was being screened. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Protective Service, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.