In brief: Driver in Route 25 crash

Three people were injured Tuesday evening in Stevens County when one driver failed to yield for another, the Washington State Patrol said.

The driver of one of the vehicles, Raul Olmos, 49, of Colville, likely will be charged with vehicular assault, the WSP said.

Olmos was headed west on a dirt road around 5:30 p.m. in a Toyota Tercel when he turned onto state Route 25 about a mile south of Marcus, Wasington. He collided with a northbound Honda CRV driven by Rhonda Yankus of Marcus.

Olmos and his passenger, Stephen Mullins, 55, of Colville, were taken to Mt. Carmel Hospital.

WSP said neither man was wearing a seat belt, and the driver likely was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Yankus, 50, was also injured but was not taken to the hospital, the WSP said. She was wearing a seat belt.

The road was blocked in both directions for about four hours.

Lawsuit takes issue with mine decision

Three environmental groups are suing the U.S. government over a proposed copper and silver mine in northwestern Montana.

Save Our Cabinets, Earthworks and Defenders of Wildlife say the Montanore project near Libby would harm threatened bull trout and grizzly bears.

The groups are suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which determined last year that the project would not jeopardize the species’ survival and recovery. They are asking a federal judge to rule the agency violated the Endangered Species Act.

The lawsuit disputes the agency’s conclusions about impacts to stream flow and the effectiveness of public education in reducing conflicts between grizzlies and humans.

The proposed mine holds an estimated 1.7 billion pounds of copper and 230 million ounces of silver beneath an area that includes the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness. It has received preliminary approval from the U.S. Forest Service.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

S-R staff win journalism awards

The Spokesman-Review captured eight awards in the 2014 Northwest Excellence in Journalism contest sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Winners were announced Saturday.

Winners were:

• First place for social issues reporting, a series on foster care by Jody Lawrence-Turner.

• First place for a short feature, a story on a family recipe for pierogis by Adriana Janovich.

• Second place for environmental and science reporting, a story on low-cost electricity by Becky Kramer.

• Second place for page design, for a group of front pages by Geoff Pinnock.

• Second place for a long feature, a story on restoring salmon by Becky Kramer.

• Third place for government and politics reporting, a story on alternative modes of transportation by Nicholas Deshais.

• Third place for feature photography by Colin Mulvany.

• Third place for arts and lifestyle, a story on mushroom hunting by Janovich.

Spokesman-Review entries were judged in the large newspaper category. Journalists in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska were eligible for the contest.

Suspect in car says drugs weren’t real

A man arrested for driving with a suspended license told a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy a bag of white crystals was “fake meth.”

Thomas Kammers, 42, is being held in the Spokane County Jail on a $5,000 bond after he was pulled over Monday afternoon near Stevens Street and Houston Avenue.

A Sheriff’s Office news release said a deputy “observed a 1992 Honda traveling on a completely flat tire” with license plates that expired in September 2014. The deputy stopped the car and arrested Kammers, who had the plastic bag on him.

Not believing the fake-meth story, the deputy field-tested the crystals for methamphetamine. They tested positive.

Kammers faces charges for drug possession and driving with a suspended license.