Benjamin Shors

Spokane County commissioners agreed on Tuesday to provide more than $800,000 to revamp children's mental health programs in Spokane during the next two years. The county will provide the money only if its community services department secures a $9 million federal grant that when matched with required local money could total $17.5 million over six years.

State environmental regulators have again fined a Grant County mint farm, this time after investigators found containers leaking hazardous material into the ground. The Washington Department of Ecology announced on Monday that it has levied $69,000 in new fines against Mike Brown and several corporations he owns, including B&G Farms, Inc. According to an agency press release, Brown was fined for mishandling hazardous waste and oil on a decommissioned missile site northwest of Royal City, Wash.

When Mayor Jim West was a state senator in 2002, a top aide from his office intervened with Child Protective Services on behalf of a woman now under investigation in the death of her 7-year-old adopted son. Brian Murray, a Senate aide to West at the time, told a social worker "he thought that (Carole Ann DeLeon) was a nice person and it was a shame that some 'scum-bags' have lots of children and we limit her," according to CPS documents released this week.

Top officials with Spokane County's public mental health system are considering a proposal that would effectively prevent its largest contractor from bidding on a contract it currently holds. The county officials said they are concerned that Spokane Mental Health, which holds several contracts to provide services in the region, may have a conflict of interest if allowed to refer mentally ill patients to its own services.

A bill rapidly moving through the Legislature would no longer require the state's background check database to record civil findings of abuse, neglect or exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. A state task force recommended the Legislature scrap the requirement after learning the Washington State Patrol database – used by the state's day cares, nursing homes and other care providers to screen tens of thousands of potential employees each year – was unable to effectively track civil findings. The database also cannot track findings by disciplinary boards, such as those that oversee Washington's nurses and physicians, unless the individuals agree to be fingerprinted or the cases are pursued criminally, according to state officials.

Early one morning last week, a group of Spokane mental health professionals gathered to hear the day's cases and wrestle with how best to handle them. Connie Tedrow, a mental health supervisor, opened the file on an elderly woman who had driven kitchen knives into her door frame to ward off the people she believed were living in her walls. After a brief discussion, the team moved on to a man who believed laser beams were being used to broadcast his negative thoughts. Then they discussed a mentally ill teenager who threatened to kill his classmates.

State regulators halted admissions at a Spokane nursing home after a resident died when her head became trapped in a bed's railing last month. The resident, who had suffered a stroke and had a terminal illness, died Feb. 28. Staff found the woman slumped on the floor with her head caught between the bed frame and the side rail.

The state of Washington has exempted more than 2,000 home-based care facilities that cater to the elderly as well as people with mental illness and developmental disabilities from a state policy that requires liability insurance for all state contractors. One month after writing the Aug. 1 policy, the state's Department of Health and Human Services created an exemption for adult-family homes. The policy requires state contractors to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance.

The family of an elderly woman who died at a nursing home after falling down a stairwell has secured a $150,000 settlement, according to sources close to the negotiation. But just a small fraction of that – less than $10,000 – will be paid by the company that operated Garden Terrace Nursing Home until state regulators intervened in 2003, according to attorneys in the case. The bulk of the settlement will be footed by taxpayers because Washington state regulators seized control of the troubled home in January 2003.

A former psychiatric patient at Eastern State Hospital who was allegedly raped by her nurse has filed a $750,000 tort claim against the state of Washington. An attorney for the 29-year-old woman said the alleged rape on June 10, 2004, had led to further emotional distress and anxiety.

A Post Falls man died after a propane heater apparently ignited a fire as he slept in a pickup truck early Saturday morning. Marty R. Christison, 45, died in the fire about 5:30 a.m. after he and his girlfriend became stuck in a snowbank near Athol, Idaho. Amber R. Gordon, 29, escaped the truck bed and was admitted to Kootenai Medical Center, where she was treated for smoke inhalation.

Dorothy Simpson, a former ticket agent for an airline, retired to the peace and beauty of Coeur d'Alene several years ago. Yet each week, she finds herself at an alternative high school, mentoring students and learning about the lives of modern teenagers. "It's a different world," Simpson said. "Kids today have so much pressure on them – being with the right crowd, wearing the right clothes. It opens our eyes."

PULLMAN – Nearly 40 years after Martin Luther King's death, his eldest daughter remembered both the father she knew and the leader the country has come to embrace. "My father was a buddy daddy," said Yolanda King, as she waited to take the stage Wednesday night at Washington State University's Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum. "My memories are full of a lot of love, a lot of laughter and a lot of fun. He was a real cut-up. He was a big kid."