John Craig

Voters in Stevens, Lincoln and Pend Oreille counties will be asked Tuesday to approve special levies and bonds for schools, parks, roads and a hospital. Stevens County voters - and some in Spokane County - must decide on five operating levies proposed by school districts that serve Stevens County or both of the counties. Districts that include portions of both counties are Nine Mile Falls and Deer Park. The Nine Mile Falls School District, which also serves the Suncrest area, proposes a two-year levy that would collect $1.12 million in 1999 and $1.175 million in 2000. The estimated cost would be $3.64 per $1,000 of assessed property value in both years.

Two men face arraignment Thursday in connection with the bust of what authorities say was a methamphetamine lab and bomb factory. In addition to a pot of meth brewing on a wood stove, Pend Oreille County Sheriff's deputies reported finding pipe bombs in various stages of construction and several loaded weapons when they raided a compound of trailers on rural property about six miles south of Newport.

Spokane tribal Chairman Bruce Wynne, who complained to federal officials about state enforcement of traffic laws on the Spokane Indian Reservation, has been arrested on a drunken-driving charge for the second time in nearly four years. Wynne, 53, faces arraignment Feb. 5 in Lincoln County District Court on a charge that he was driving drunk on state Highway 231 shortly after midnight on Jan. 17. Wynne was arrested four miles north of Reardan, outside the reservation.

The northern squawfish

A Keller motorist pleaded innocent this week to a charge that he attacked a passenger in his car with a knife and gun, and then ran over a second passenger as she fled while the car was stopped at an intersection. Delbert C. Richmond, 45, remained in the Ferry County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail. He faces trial March 11 on two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of hit-and-run driving.

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, January 23, 1998): Correction Road plowed: Neighbors of a Clayton-area resident who is suspected of abandoning several dozen rabbits, ducks and dogs say their county road has been plowed regularly, contrary to a story in Thursday's paper.

Spokane County's hepatitis A outbreak shot up Friday to 53 confirmed cases since Jan. 1, and the supply of preventive medicine was nearly exhausted. "Our number of cases is continuing to rise dramatically," said Dr. Kim Thorburn, the county health officer. "That's many times more than we usually see in a year."

Pend Oreille County District Court Judge Chuck Baechler faces disciplinary action by the Washington State Bar Association. An association investigation cites three previously undisclosed grievances against Baechler's performance as a private attorney, and recommends he be reprimanded at minimum. "Aggravating factors" warrant more severe discipline than might ordinarily be meted out, bar disciplinary counsel Jonathan Burke said in documents that were made public Thursday.

Newport Police Chief Gary Markwardt has been placed on paid leave while insurance agents decide whether his management caused a "higher-than-average" number of improper-arrest claims. "It was not my decision," Mayor Dee Opp said Wednesday, her sixth day in office. "We were directed in that."

Stevens County officials hope residents will call state legislators with any complaints they have about county services that are about to be chopped. Among other painful cuts necessary to balance this year's budget, the Sheriff's Department is scheduled to lose four officers at the end of the month. Sheriff Craig Thayer said the loss of two road deputies, a captain and a jailer will have "a devastating effect on meeting basic public safety needs." With calls for service and jail bookings at a record high, he thought he needed four more officers - not four fewer.

Pend Oreille County District Court Judge Chuck Baechler has had trouble dealing with life outside the courtroom.

A man who was to have been arraigned Friday for the murder of an Orient, Wash., school bus driver was instead sent to Eastern State Hospital for a new round of mental testing. A previous evaluation at the state mental hospital in Medical Lake determined that James E. Iverson is not competent to stand trial. Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said hospital doctors haven't given an opinion on whether Iverson was legally sane at the time of the Nov. 25 homicide.

Stevens County is being sued for alleged failure to provide dog control that might have prevented a vicious attack that seriously injured a Colville-area woman. The victim, Patricia King, and her family seek unspecified damages from the county and neighbors Charles Hutson and DeLinda Jones, whose dogs attacked King last Feb. 17.

Tracey Williamson stands outside her fire-damaged Springdale home. She says a construction firm failed to make promised repairs. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Ferry County commissioners have set out to resolve a decades-old, nationwide dispute about overlapping jurisdictions on Indian reservations. Two of three commissioners want to sue the Colville Confederated Tribes to determine whether the tribal government can enforce its land-use regulations on non-Indians who own property within the Colville Reservation.

Stevens County commissioners threw another ingredient into Springdale's political stew Tuesday, opening the door for an annexation that could affect last month's cliffhanger municipal election. Commissioners unanimously approved an "interim urban growth area" that includes 80 acres the Town Council annexed in April. The annexation area includes a resident whose vote could turn the election on its head.

On Thursday, a floating crane on Lake Roosevelt lifts the wreckage of a light plane that crashed Dec. 1, killing three men. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Its flags frayed, the City of Flags may be looking for a new nickname. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Lack of insurance is hampering efforts to determine what caused a small plane to crash into Lake Roosevelt, killing all three men aboard.

Information leaked from the Stevens County Sheriff's Department during a heated 1996 judicial election cost one deputy his job and resulted in a criminal charge against another. An arbitration hearing is planned early next year in a Teamsters Union grievance over former Deputy Steve Troop's dismissal.

Two more bodies were removed Tuesday from the submerged wreckage of a small plane that crashed into Lake Roosevelt. Divers removed the body of Daniel C. Schoonover on Monday before darkness set in, and needed 4 hours Tuesday to recover the other two victims. One of those recovered was identified as the pilot, 45-year-old Richard W. Donley of the Onion Creek area north of Colville. The other was Michael L. Wooster, 41, of the Colville area.

Dawud Ahmad Abdur-Rahman. Spokesman-Review file photo

Odessa Mayor Denny McDaniel remains a legally registered voter in his city even though he lived in Airway Heights during most of his current term. The Lincoln County election canvassing board has ruled that challengers, including three of five town council members, failed to prove McDaniel wasn't living in the city in time to vote in this month's general election.

Stevens County Auditor Tim Gray breaks a tie Tuesday in the Springdale Town Council election. Gray ended up fishing candidate Lowell Peterson's name out of a cookie tin held by Prosecutor Jerry Wetle. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review