Jim Camden

(From For the Record, Friday, June 23, 1995:) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons did not join a lawsuit against the Spokane Democratic Party. The NAACP's involvement in the matter was incorrectly reported Thursday.

Spokane County freeholders have a vision for a new combined government. But we can't see it just yet. Copies of the proposed city-county charter rolled off the presses and into libraries, city halls and government offices around the county last week. But anyone picking up a copy of the 16-page tabloid may notice a peculiar thing.

1. "It burned so much," said Hazel "Joy" Roberts of the bullet that hit her. "The blood was boiling." Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review. (This photo appeared in Spokane edition only). 2. "I'm too tough to die," says Rathdrum, Idaho, resident Omer Karns, who is back at his job, driving a van for the Disabled American Veterans. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review . (This photo appeared in Idaho edition only).

Good numbers are hard to come by in the debate over semiautomatic assault weapons. Gun-rights advocates say statistics prove guns such as the MAK-90 rifle, which Dean Mellberg used in his rampage at Fairchild Air Force Base last year, aren't the problem. They cite FBI crime figures showing rifles of all types are used in less than 4 percent of the nation's murders. Handguns are used in 56 percent. But gun-control sponsors say that's misleading because the FBI doesn't have a separate category for assault weapons. Some murders committed by the recently banned guns are listed under the rifle category; others are included under handguns. They say that the number of assault weapons found at crime scenes or confiscated from criminals has doubled in the last two years.

A series of bad policies and administrative failures shaped Dean Mellberg's mental illness before he went on his murderous rampage. One year later, the U.S. Air Force has changed some of its rules for monitoring and discharging mentally unfit airmen. The biggest flaws in the system remain, critics say.

Capt. Scott O'Grady will talk to Air Force survival instructors, meet city leaders and be reunited with old friends later this week in Spokane. O'Grady, the Spokane native who was rescued last week after being shot down over Bosnia, will return home for two days, Air Force officials said Tuesday.

Dean Mellberg scared people. Co-workers at a Fairchild Air Force Base laboratory joked he was the person most likely to return with a gun for revenge one day, "like some crazed postal worker." When Mellberg qualified as an expert with an M-16, they joked again.

UNPUBLISHED CORRECTION: The name of Dean Mellberg was misspelled in this story. Dean Melberg's identification card File/The Spokesman-Review

Congressman George Nethercutt addresses area chambers of commerce last week at the Red Lion Inn in the Spokane Valley. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Reps. George Nethercutt and Helen Chenoweth share a laugh at the Red Lion in the Spokane Valley on Wednesday. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Reps. George Nethercutt and Helen Chenoweth share a laugh at the Red Lion in the Spokane Valley on Wednesday. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Tom Foley will help supervise a possible end to one of the state's longest-running labor disputes this summer when a group of vineyard workers decides whether it wants to join a union. The former House speaker will head a five-member commission to oversee the first farm union election in Washington state. "He was flattered to have the confidence of both sides," Foley spokeswoman Janet Gilpatrick said Friday.

Brig. Gen. Gary Voellger will give up command at Fairchild Air Force Base in August. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

The U.S. Supreme Court didn't vindicate Tom Foley when it struck down term limits for Congress, the man who defeated the former House speaker said Tuesday. Monday's 5-4 ruling that term limits require a constitutional amendment will move the issue to the top of the agenda in 1997, U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt predicted.

FOR THE RECORD: (May 24, 1995): The Spokesman-Review incorrectly identified the position of Defense Secretary William Perry in Tuesday's editions.

Spurred by Susan Brigham and other members of the slain psychiatrist's family, Sen. Patty Murray is leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers in demanding the Air Force explain how the tragedy occurred. The group also wants some proof changes are being made. "We have concluded that significant mistakes were made and that the Air Force missed important opportunities in their handling of the Mellberg case," the 13 lawmakers wrote in a letter last week to Defense Secretary William Perry.

1. Susan and Thomas Brigham, with daughter Caroline. 2. Thomas Brigham's daughter, Caroline, and brother Billy share a quiet moment after memorial services last June for Fairchild shooting victims. File/The Spokesman-Review

Col. Pellerin

Air Force officials hurriedly rescheduled the court-martial over the fatal crash of the last B-52 at Fairchild Air Force Base. A spokesman for the 12th Air Force said late Thursday afternoon that the trial of Col. William Pellerin would begin this morning, rather than June 6 as originally planned.

Fred Schoch of the 8th Air Force Historical Society shows off his patches and pins Wednesday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The Department of Defense should conduct a full-scale investigation into events leading to the shooting of 26 people by a deranged airman at Fairchild Air Force Base last summer, more than a dozen members of Congress say. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and a bipartisan group from the House and the Senate want an explanation of how Dean Mellberg stayed in the Air Force so long after being diagnosed as dangerous, was given access to records he used to target the doctors who had recommended his discharge, then was released without a treatment plan.

Fairchild Air Force Base is all but certain to escape closure this year as the nation continues to scale back its military. A special federal panel compiled a list Wednesday of bases it wants to compare to the bases the Pentagon wants to close or shrink. Fairchild isn't on that list, or the earlier one from the Defense Department. "We believe that on this round we are in the clear," said Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, which was prepared to spend up to $175,000 in a fight to keep Fairchild open. "It's a great feeling."

1. Larry Lee served during World War II in Italy and Africa. 2. Larry Lee in a 1945 photo taken outside of Venice.

Foley