In brief: Two to run against CdA school trustee

Two women have filed to run against Coeur d’Alene School Board Trustee Terri Seymour in the May election.

Alicia Troye and Tambra Pickford jumped into the race by Friday’s filing deadline.

Troye has been a substitute teacher in the school district and has coached cross country at Sorensen Magnet Elementary School. She also is involved with the PTO and volunteers for the Coeur d’Alene Backpack Program.

“Considering my recent time in the classroom, I am running for school board with the teachers in mind and the students at heart,” Troye said in a news release.

Pickford could not be reached Friday.

Seymour was elected in 2011 to represent Zone 3. She is the payroll administrator and office manager for Great Floors in Coeur d’Alene.

Drivers improving after serious crash

One driver involved in a serious head-on crash on Trent Avenue near Harvard Road on Thursday afternoon has been released from the hospital and the other is listed in satisfactory condition.

Gerardo Martinez Rodriguez, 37, was driving west on Trent in a Chevy Silverado when he crossed the centerline and hit a dump truck driven by Shannon Coberly, 60, head-on, the Washington State Patrol reported. Both drivers were extricated from their vehicles.

Rodriguez was in satisfactory condition Saturday afternoon at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Coberly had been discharged from Sacred Heart.

Rodriguez faces a charge of negligent driving, the WSP said.

Boyfriend faces assault charges

Assault charges have been filed against a man who allegedly carried his unresponsive girlfriend out of their South Hill home and placed her into a car Thursday evening.

Spokane police sought help from the public in locating James A. Bench, his girlfriend and their two young children after a witness called in the report. They were located Friday morning and the woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment. The children were unharmed.

Bench, who was arrested on warrants for driving with a suspended license, is now facing a charge of second-degree domestic violence assault.

Police responded to the couple’s home five times last week attempting to check on the welfare of the woman after her family reported that they hadn’t heard from her in nearly two weeks. Each time officers got no response to their knocks.

The case is still under investigation, police spokeswoman Monique Cotton said.

Murray letter seeks answers on breach

Washington’s senior senator is demanding answers from the state’s largest health insurer on a data breach that could affect as many as 11 million people nationwide.

Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released a letter Friday to the president of Premera Blue Cross on the cyberattack on the company’s data systems that could have exposed personal information of its current and former customers. About 6 million are in Washington.

In a letter to Premera President Jeff Roe, Murray said she had serious concerns about the cyberattack “and the failure of the company to make this information public and begin notifying current and former policy holders for over six weeks.”

The security breach reportedly occurred last May, wasn’t discovered until January and was reported this week. Another large health insurance carrier, Anthem, also recently acknowledged a security breach and the committee is investigating the health industry’s preparedness for cyberthreats.