John Craig

One of two men accused in the Jan. 11 murder of Elk area homeowner Steve Roscoe is expected to plead guilty today to first-degree murder. Jason V. Kukrall, 21, would serve a minimum of 26 years and four months with time off for good behavior if Pend Oreille County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson accepts the prosecution's recommended sentence.

Reid Riedlinger, Wellpinit School District superintendent. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Colville School District voters must decide Tuesday whether they want to restore programs cut by last year's double operating-levy failure. Elsewhere in rural northeastern Washington, five Lincoln County school districts have levies on the ballot Tuesday. Colville school officials made cuts totaling $665,704 after the district ran out of chances last year under state law to renew the local operating levy that supplemented the district's state funding.

Residents should be on the lookout for a pair of tree-trimming con men, the Stevens County Sheriff's Department warns. Spokesman Wayne Hulet said an elderly woman in Blue Creek, 13 miles south of Colville, was defrauded earlier this week by two men who charged her $2,500 for trimming a few branches and spraying what appeared to be used motor oil.

Above, the Chewelah Peak Ski Club in 1947-48: Joe LaVigne, Jerry Ziegler, Jerry Gaiser, Leo Kofler, Norm LaVigne and his wife Irene, and Priscilla Gess Richmond. Duane Estes isn't shown. At left, Norm LaVigne and boyhood friend Ernie Smith of Chewelah in front of the club's first cabin in 1935.

Despite arguing as eloquently as Perry Mason, a woman who was sexually assaulted in front of her 4-year-old daughter was unable to convince a judge to throw the book at her attacker Monday. Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson was impressed when the Colville substitute teacher cited numerous court cases to justify a tougher sentence than Prosecutor Jerry Wetle recommended. And the judge seemed moved when she told how David Robert Rickard, 34, also of Colville, stalked her, broke into her home and tried to rape her.

A woman says she faces a political prosecution because she slapped the son of a Newport city councilman. She said the boy directed vulgar language toward her.

Dawn Mining Co. got a license Tuesday to import radioactive uranium mill tailings to pay for cleaning up its abandoned uranium mill in Ford. The license allows Dawn to start making a deal with the federal government or other organizations that want to remove mildly radioactive tailings from urban areas.

Telephone customers in 12 Eastern Washington communities are being asked for their opinions on a US West plan to sell their exchanges to Pacific Telecom Inc. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. next Monday at Ritzville Elementary School.

The state Corrections Department says a fivetime felon with a history of stalking and harassing women would get off too easily under a plea bargain proposed by Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle. A Corrections Department presentence investigation says David R. Rickard, 34, should get roughly double the proposed 9-year sentence for an attack on a 34-year-old Colville substitute teacher.

Garbage bills are going up March 1 in unincorporated portions of Spokane County and southern Stevens County. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has approved rate increases requested by Waste Management of Spokane, Valley Garbage Service and Empire Disposal.

Left-turn lanes were popular at a meeting Tuesday in Deer Park to hear suggestions on how to spend almost $4.5 million to make U.S. Highway 395 safer. About 55 people attended the first two hours of the three-hour state Transportation Department open house at Deer Park High School, and many of them favored turn lanes over passing lanes.

Wanda Wilson didn't wait for the Newport City Council to get control of the rowdy juveniles business people claim have taken over Main Street, authorities say. The 46-year-old Newport-area woman took the law into her own hands when she thought she heard City Councilman Jim Kolthoff's 14-year-old son call her a sexually vulgar name, according to Police Chief Gary Markwardt.

A tavern may lose its license and two customers may lose their freedom because of incidents last fall that left a man dead and caused police officers to fear for their safety. The state Liquor Board wants to revoke the Twin Lakes Tavern's license for a Sept. 24 incident in which an angry mob of tavern patrons cornered a pair of tribal police officers in the parking lot.

From left, Rachel Divis, 7, Ella Kerner, 6, and Molly St. John, 7, learn beginning ballet in Chewelah, Wash., from instructor Ann Marie Benedict. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

(For the record Friday, February 17, 1995): A story Thursday should have said that the state Court of Appeals overturned two 1992 first-degree rape convictions against former Colville Confederated Tribes police officer Fred D. Bright because the evidence was sufficient only for a second- or third-degree rape conviction.

Springdale Marshal Jerry Taylor had smoke coming from his ears Wednesday after having to release a suspect in a drunken crime spree because the man was caught a few hours before his 18th birthday. Dawa Ortiz was about five hours away from his birthday by the time Taylor arrested Ortiz and another man on charges that they stole three cars, smashed two of them and broke into a grocery store to steal liquor.

Newport Mayor Kevin Murphy agreed Monday to back off temporarily on a plan he implemented last week to force Pend Oreille County to pay a large portion of the city's law-enforcement costs. After fencing with county commissioners for more than an hour, Murphy accepted Commission Chairman Karl McKenzie's offer to form a committee to discuss the city's request for a contract to transfer almost all of the city's law enforcement to the county.

Public officials from Asotin County to Olympia to Washington, D.C., are looking to Pend Oreille County for a way to put teeth into juvenile justice without taking a big bite out of taxpayers' wallets. U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, and the entire 7th District state legislative delegation are to tour the Pend Oreille County's innovative new juvenile jail today. On Friday, the visitors were two Asotin County commissioners and that county's Juvenile Department director and undersheriff.

Stackhouse

Pend Oreille County officials were seething Thursday after the city of Newport announced a plan to force the county to pay for prosecuting most misdemeanor criminal cases in the city. In a letter delivered to county officials Wednesday, Mayor Kevin Murphy said the city would no longer pay any of the costs of prosecuting people charged with crimes such as fourth-degree assault and drunken driving.

There's nothing to do in Newport, several young people protested Tuesday night when business owners demanded a curfew and other measures to reclaim downtown streets they say have been taken over by juvenile delinquents. "Why don't you give us a place to go like a youth center or something - or maybe some jobs?" 18-year-old Wayne Feltwell asked.

Except for school districts in Springdale and Republic, all special levies in rural northeastern Washington counties passed Tuesday. The Republic School District levy is too close to call, but it appears unlikely that still-uncounted absentee ballots can reverse the tentative defeat.

Photo of damaged sewer taken from an inspection video.