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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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News >  Spokane

Second man convicted in purse-snatching case

A Spokane County jury took only an hour and 20 minutes Wednesday to convict the second of two men who fractured 89-year-old Belle Ensminger's skull while snatching her purse in February. Jurors convicted 25-year-old Gilbert A. Hicks of first-degree robbery, drug possession and car theft in a crime that left Ensminger with permanent brain damage.
News >  Spokane

Stevens County jail, sales tax issues falling short

Proposals to build a new jail in Stevens County and raise the sales tax in the county to strengthen law enforcement were overwhelmingly failing in early election results. A $17.5 million bond measure to build a new Stevens County jail and courtroom building needed 60 percent support to pass, but was being rejected by a 2-1 ratio with most precincts counted. The measure would have cost property owners 55 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
News >  Spokane

Area dealers don’t expect run on guns

Local law enforcement officials and gun dealers anticipate little effect from Monday's expiration of the federal ban on "semiautomatic assault weapons." "For us, it hasn't been an issue," Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk said.
News >  Spokane

Candidates accused of misconduct

Two of four Republican candidates for a Stevens County commissioner position have been accused of misconduct by women. Incumbent Commissioner Tony Delgado, now seeking a second four-year term, was the subject of a sexual harassment complaint last year by a county employee.
News >  Spokane

New jail, courtrooms on Stevens County ballot

Stevens County residents are being asked to approve two money measures that county officials say are needed for public safety. A $17.5 million bond measure would build a 116-bed jail and courtroom building, and a 0.03 percent sales-tax increase would cover the increased operating costs and other law enforcement expenses.
News >  Spokane

Healthy addition

KELLER, Wash. – Residents of this isolated little community in a corner of the Colville Indian Reservation turned out Friday to celebrate the opening of their first permanent health clinic. Many of the 140 or so people who gathered at the new Sanpoil Valley Health Clinic had a hand in creating it – including Billie Jo Bray, a mother of seven who no longer has to remove her children from school for a whole day when they need medical or dental care.
News >  Spokane

Judge rules Appleway tax illegal

The Appleway Automotive Group's practice of tacking a "business-and-occupation tax overhead" charge onto the price of cars is illegal, a judge has ruled. If Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor's ruling survives an anticipated appeal, it could involve thousands of people and millions of dollars. Until then, the Appleway auto dealerships may continue assessing the B&O charge.
News >  Spokane

Mentally ill woman sentenced in killing

A Spokane woman who pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in February was sentenced Wednesday in a Pend Oreille County proceeding long delayed by the defendant's mental health problems. Jeannette M. Evans, 28, was to have been sentenced in March in a deal that guaranteed a prison term while sparing her the possibility of spending the rest of her life in a mental hospital.
News >  Spokane

Siblings in court for sex abuse

An Elk-area man and his sister appeared in court Wednesday to answer for bizarre sexual abuse involving incest and witchcraft rituals. Sean W. Buckhanan, 40, was sentenced in Spokane County Superior Court to at least 10 years in prison for first-degree rape of a 16-year-old girl, now 18, and for second-degree rape of another 16-year-old girl, now 17.
News >  Spokane

Two sought in Newport-area thefts

Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday for two Newport-area men authorities believe are responsible for a series of big-ticket thefts, including a $34,000 truck in which the thieves eluded officers. The Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office identified the suspects as Newport-area residents Mark Alan Stone Jr., 23, and Jonathan Alexander Kirkhart, 21. They are wanted for first-degree possession of stolen property.
News >  Spokane

Man can’t fish police computers for records

Citizens have no right to peruse government computers in search of records that public agencies say don't exist, according to a court ruling released Thursday. The Washington Court of Appeals made the ruling in the case of a man who wanted to sit down at a Spokane Police Department computer and look for prostitution-related reports he suspects caused him to be fired.
News >  Spokane

Small plane crashes outside of Chewelah

Two men escaped serious injury Friday when their small plane crashed into a field just north of Chewelah, Wash. "They walked away from it," Stevens County sheriff's Capt. Mike George said.
News >  Spokane

Van Patten cleared of all sex charges

A jury acquitted a Spokane man Friday of charges that he sexually molested three women while working as an unlicensed physical therapist. Another jury rejected three other sex charges, involving a fourth woman, earlier this year.
News >  Spokane

Woman granted divorce after long court battles

A Spokane-area woman who fled Greece to escape a husband she said was abusive is free of him after four years of court battles. Kristi Tsarbopoulos, 39, won an uphill, 1 1/2-year battle in federal courts to retain custody of her three young children. Then she found getting a divorce could be just as difficult.
News >  Spokane

Rural 7th District stands on its own

Northeastern Washington's largely rural 7th Legislative District is one of the most conservative and independent in the state. If a politician offers a helping hand, it had better not require more taxes or regulations.
News >  Spokane

Woman charged in shooting death

A Moses Lake woman will be charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death Saturday of a man she said attacked her at an apartment in northern Ferry County. District Court Judge Lynda Eaton found probable cause Monday to hold Doris M. Grisham, 46, on the murder count. Eaton set Grisham's bail at $100,000, and Grisham remained in the Ferry County Jail.
News >  Spokane

Man fatally shot during a quarrel

A 24-year-old man was shot to death early Saturday morning in a Curlew, Wash., apartment where authorities say he got into a quarrel after a night of drinking. The victim was identified as Benjamin S. Brown, whose last known address was in Nevada. Ferry County Sheriff Pete Warner said in a press release that Brown was shot by a woman who is being held in the county jail. Warner declined to identify her because formal charges had not been filed.
News >  Idaho

No need for program at parade

BLANCHARD, Idaho – The 150 or so residents of this bucolic North Idaho community know how to have a good time. Just about all of them were on the sidewalk in front of the Blanchard Trading Co. Saturday morning for the fifth Blanchard Daze parade. If they weren't there, they probably were in the three-block-long parade.
News >  Spokane

Man faces multiple charges of raping girl

A Deer Park real estate agent has been charged in Stevens County with nine counts of raping and molesting an 11-year-old girl over a four-year period. David Bruce Campbell, 57, is accused of having sex with the girl himself and with forcing her to have sex with her 10-year-old brother and with a dog.
News >  Spokane

Ex-parole officer sentenced in stabbing

A former state parole officer has been sentenced to three years in prison for stabbing a man while attempting to rob him at her north Spokane home. Crystal L. Benson, 41, also was ordered to pay $14,951 to the Crime Victims Fund when Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt handed down the minimum standard sentence Wednesday.
News >  Spokane

Ione gets money to fix aging dam

The town of Ione in northern Pend Oreille County will soon repair a small dam that used to provide the town's water supply and now threatens to flood several homes. The work, expected to take about a week, will begin early next month with a $3,500 grant from the Washington Department of Ecology and $875 of in-kind contributions from the town.
News >  Spokane

Man who knifed parents acquitted

A Pend Oreille County man was insane when he slashed his mother's throat and stabbed his father, a judge ruled Thursday. Superior Court Judge Al Nielson acquitted Bryan A. Lang, 25, of one count of first-degree assault and confined him to Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake for treatment.
News >  Spokane

Man charged in teenager’s 1982 strangulation

Formal charges were filed Wednesday against the suspect in a 22-year-old murder case. Arbie D. Williams, 61, was charged with first-degree murder in the September 1982 strangulation of 15-year-old Linda S. Strait. Williams was identified as a suspect last summer by DNA testing.
News >  Spokane

New primary throws judicial elections a curve

A last-minute proposal to quit electing Superior Court judges in primary elections is "not really workable," according to Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton. Like Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, Dalton says there isn't enough time to make any more changes in next month's already complicated primary.
News >  Spokane

Man gets 10 years for role in attack

One of two men accused of fracturing an 89-year-old South Hill woman's skull while snatching her purse has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. The sentence handed down Thursday by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O'Connor is twice the standard maximum that 33-year-old Michael G. Baldwin was facing.