John Craig

Lew Arnold lives in a studio apartment at the back of the newspaper office where he is a columnist. Photo by John Craig

McCoy

School officials here are investigating the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning after most of the Cusick Junior High girls volleyball team got sick on a bus ride. Parents and team members said up to 15 out of 19 people aboard the team bus suffered nausea and headaches on the way back from matches at Wellpinit on Thursday.

A man who eluded police in a car chase and later was shot to death while breaking into a house near Clayton, Wash., was mentally disturbed, authorities said Thursday. The man was identified as Duane E. Salsman, 35, a transient who had lived in Washington, Alaska and Illinois. Before suffering a breakdown four years ago, he had been known as a religious man with a home, family and no criminal history.

A rifle-carrying man who was shot to death while breaking into a Stevens County home Monday night may have eluded police in a car chase 21 hours earlier. Authorities were still waiting Wednesday for state Trooper Bob Fiorentino to determine whether the dead burglar is the same man he stopped for erratic driving. "There is a good likelihood that it may be the same individual," said Sheriff Craig Thayer.

Murderer-rapist Curtis Buckner will not get a new trial on grounds that he was improperly convicted here in 1989 with the first use of genetic evidence in a Washington court.

Colville High School will no longer use its "Indians" name or Indian images on new sports uniforms. School administrators took the action to ease tensions while the school board studies a request to eliminate Indian mascots entirely.

FOR THE RECORD (October 10, 1997): Clarification: Colville High School wrestling coach Monty Jones' temporary suspension in the last wrestling season was not because one of his wrestlers head-butted a referee during the previous season. The reason for the suspension has not been disclosed.

New legislation may spare Ferry County from the financial sledgehammer of the state Growth Management Act. County officials say they didn't realize the law would soon be relaxed when they defied it in July before the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board.

Republic residents reacted to news that a judge made Kevin Harris a free man by throwing a party Thursday night. "There'll be a lot of people here tonight, I'm sure," Ron Tatlow said as decorations went up in his Hitch-in Post Restaurant and Lounge.

Gerry Petitjean and his son Levi, 3, use draft horses to carry riders to vistas of Lake Roosevelt. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Absentee ballots failed this week to reverse an election-night upset in the Chewelah mayor's race or the defeat of a Loon Lake School District levy. Absentees succeeded, though, in validating a fire district levy adjustment that came up short in last week's Stevens County primary election. When 95 absentee ballots from Chewelah were counted, incumbent Mayor Gloria Davidson's last-place share of the votes remained virtually unchanged. Ron McCoy moved up to a dead heat with front-runner Lew Arnold.

Seventh- and eighth-graders at Kettle Falls Middle School will stay home again today because of a leak in their wing of the school during a re-roofing project. Superintendent Kurt Matter said fifth- and sixth-graders will be expected in class as usual. Except for one classroom, their portion of the building was not affected by the heavy rainfall that poured into three-fourths of the upper classes' wing Wednesday morning.

Absentee ballots will determine whether two tax measures were approved Tuesday in Stevens County. Voters strongly supported a two-year, $100,000 Loon Lake School District operating levy and a request by Fire District 5 to increase its permanent tax levy from 82 cents to $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. But the turnout for both measures fell short of validation requirements.

Spectators outnumbered the two prospective bidders at Stevens County's inaugural cat auction Wednesday. But the handful who gathered at the courthouse steps were denied the spectacle of Sheriff Craig Thayer hoisting cats in the air by the scruff of the neck to entice bidders.

Grocery store owner Floyd Pope and Dan Hite, a retired septic tank pumper, advanced Tuesday in their quest for the most coveted mayor's chair in northeastern Washington. Hite and Pope were among five men who wanted to be mayor of Stevens County's second-smallest town: Springdale, population 260. Both men are giving up seats on the Town Council to run for mayor.

Joyce Tasker shows off her new dog shelter, which neighbors say is still a nuisance. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Springdale, population 260, has enough mayoral candidates to field a basketball team. Throw in the seven candidates for Town Council, and there would be enough for a football team. Nearby Chewelah, in central Stevens County, also has a bumper crop of three mayoral hopefuls. Incumbent Mayor Gloria Davidson said this is only the second time anyone has run against her in the 22 years she has served on the City Council and as mayor.

Pend Oreille County District Court Judge Chuck Baechler leads a pack of Eastern Washington public-disclosure law violators. If disclosure violations counted under the state's "Three Strikes" law, he'd be out.

(From For the Record, September 10, 1997:) Incorrect identification: In a Sunday article on Page B1 about competing newspapers in Republic, Wash., a caption beneath a photograph of Panorama Examiner editor Brenda Starkey misidentified her. Rebecca Starkey began a second newspaper in Republic because "I thought there was a lot of news that wasn't covered." Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Indians and non-Indians seemed equally displeased Thursday with proposed changes in a 15-year-old settlement in a legal dispute over hunting and fishing rights on the Colville Indian Reservation. Non-Indian owners of private property on the reservation were angry that a deal worked out by the state and tribal fish and wildlife departments doesn't restore what they insist is their right to hunt big game on their own land.

Ferry County has been found in violation of the state Growth Management Act and eventually could lose hundreds of thousand dollars in state financial support. The three-person Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board says county officials have complied with many aspects of the law but have rejected its core requirement to prevent urban growth in rural areas.

The Colville Confederated Tribes are prepared to make some concessions to non-Indian hunters - but not to allow non-Indian landowners on the Colville Reservation to hunt big game. Joe Peone, tribal fish and wildlife director, said tribal and state wildlife officials have worked out a proposal that would allow some additional hunting by non-Indians. Initially, the expansion would be limited to establishing seasons next year for mourning doves and rabbits.

Tempers flared and T-shirts flapped before the Colville School Board voted Tuesday to continue studying a Native American request to get a new mascot for the Colville High School Indians. The decision came after 75 minutes of discussion that got so heated Chairwoman Sue Fogle ordered a temper-cooling recess.