John Craig

A business teacher at Cusick Junior and Senior High School remains in the classroom despite being reprimanded for lewd conduct at a Spokane adult bookstore. Stewart Ailor, 67, was reprimanded by the state superintendent of public instruction after he was arrested Nov. 21 at an adult arcade at 305 W. Second. Under a Dec. 19 plea bargain in Spokane Municipal Court, the misdemeanor lewd conduct charge against Ailor will be dismissed if he commits no more offenses for a year.

Thirty-two candidates are running for seven positions on the 14-member Colville Confederated Tribes business council. The field will be thinned in a May 3 primary, and the top two vote-getters in each race will advance to the June 21 general election.

This winter's ice storms will produce a number of small salvage timber sales in the Colville National Forest, members of the Northwest Timber Workers Resource Council were told Tuesday. Andy Mason, ecosystem management officer for the forest, said officials aren't yet sure how much ice-damaged timber there is because there is still eight feet of snow at higher elevations.

Adam Wingo, one of many volunteer DJs at Republic (Wash.) Community Radio, dedicates many of the songs he plays to his wife. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Republic Community Radio is one of a growing number of low-power, unlicensed stations popping up in rural Eastern Washington and across the country. Its success inspired Lawrence "Grizz" Ries to launch a 10-watt station from Curlew, about 15 miles north of Republic. The transmitter of what Ries calls KGRZ sits on the workbench of his electronics repair shop.

A Republic man faces a new domestic assault charge after being acquitted of beating a Colville woman who later died of a gunshot wound. Ward F. Cromwell Jr., 44, was awaiting trial on a charge that he assaulted his former girlfriend, Diane E. Parrish, 37, when she died of a gunshot wound Nov. 6. Now he is accused of assaulting a new girlfriend, Dawn Taylor.

Pend Oreille County store operator Loren Miller was sentenced to 240 hours of community service Wednesday for holding an innocent family at gunpoint after mistaking them for shoplifters. District Court Judge Chuck Baechler suspended five months of jail and $2,000 in fines on condition that Miller commits no similar offenses for two years.

Pend Oreille Walleye Club leaders Myrna Struckman, Jim Volquardsen and Pete Aneff want more fish for the clubhouse wall. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Representatives of eight governments that claim jurisdiction within the Colville Indian Reservation agreed Thursday to try to patch up a crumbling agreement that so far has failed to replace confrontation with cooperation. Most seemed to agree that the chances for cooperation were improved by some blunt confrontation at their meeting here Thursday. They scheduled another meeting June 5.

1. Loren Miller listens to testimony during his trial on charges that he held a family at gunpoint. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review 2. Joy Russ

A consortium of nine Eastern Washington counties planned to break ground today for the Martin Hall regional juvenile detention center. The project to convert an old mental hospital dormitory at Medical Lake into a 52-bed lockup is expected to be completed by October at a cost of $5.5 million.

Other inmates are calling Randy Thomas "the BLT." Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Ferry County commissioners voted Monday to rescind an intergovernmental agreement designed to keep land-use peace between the county and the Colville Confederated Tribes. County Commissioner Dennis Snook said the "final straw" for the controversial agreement was the tribal government's unilateral declaration Feb. 6 of a development moratorium on all lakeshore property within the Colville Indian Reservation. Snook said tribal officials said nothing about the possibility of a moratorium on Jan. 24 when he and county Planning Director Lynnette Frits met with them. The agreement, signed in late 1992, calls for the eight participating governments to consult one another on land-use decisions in areas where more than one claims jurisdiction. It was designed to head off lawsuits over which government may regulate land owned by non-Indians within the reservation. Okanogan County joined Ferry County on Monday in a letter protesting the Feb. 6 development moratorium, but stopped short of pulling out of the agreement. Participants include the two counties, the tribal government and five cities. The southern halves of Ferry and Okanogan counties are within the Colville Reservation, and both are affected by the tribal ban on lakeshore development. "Such a moratorium may be needed, but it should be imposed only after careful review by our respective planning departments and then only if supported by scientific evidence," commissioners in both counties said in their letter to the tribal council. No tribal spokesman was immediately available for comment Monday afternoon, but commissioners hadn't yet announced their action. Commissioners were preparing a letter, included a five-page list of tribal actions they believe violated the cooperative agreement. Commission Chairman Jim Hall said the commissioners deliberately gave no advance notice because they wanted no help from strident critics of the agreement. "We kept it quiet because we didn't want people who are against the agreement in here feeling they were part of the decision," Hall said. "They weren't part of it." He said commissioners "do not bend to that kind of pressure," but the agreement wasn't working and something needed to be done to get the tribal government's attention.

Trash-talking Some people in Newport save their garbage in trailers or exposed piles for months before hauling it away. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane animal shelter faces possible civil charges for illegally obtaining prescription drugs, according to federal investigators. The Drug Enforcement Administration investigation has been forwarded to the U.S. attorney's office in Spokane for prosecution.

A Jenkins High School business teacher accused of seducing two male students was fired Wednesday night by the Chewelah School Board. The 35-year-old teacher, Gwyn Townsend, has been on paid suspension since Jan. 19, 1996. An arbitrator conducted a closed hearing last month and ruled the school district had grounds to fire Townsend.

Kevin Costner

Volunteers from local and Seattle dog rescue groups took in more than 200 of the animals confiscated in the raid of the Newport kennel. File/The Spokesman-Review

Pend Oreille County authorities will retain control of 205 allegedly abused dogs seized last month from a Newport-area kennel. Under an agreement prosecutors and defense attorneys worked out Friday, the dogs may be placed in "foster care." They may not be given to new owners unless the current owners, Jeanette and Swen Bergman, are found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges at their May 12 trial.

The Kalispel Tribe's proposed casino at Airway Heights has another obstacle: Spokane Raceway Park President Orville Moe. Moe said the tribe needs to get Spokane Raceway Park's approval for the casino under a joint-venture agreement between the racetrack corporation and the tribe. Tribal Planning Manager David Bonga said the tribe views the agreement as outdated and irrelevant. "As far as the tribe is concerned, it is dissolved," Bonga said. "The final wrap-up, I guess you would say, hasn't been reached." The joint-venture agreement was drawn up about four years ago, before a casino was planned. At that time, the parties envisioned a bingo hall and an automotive trade show building next to the track. Spokane Raceway Park sold 40 acres to the joint-venture company, which transferred it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA subsequently designated the land as part of the Kalispel Reservation, most of which is 60 miles away in Pend Oreille County. Bonga said the tribe decided to pursue a casino after a more conservative Congress was elected in 1993 and federal funding began to dry up for the social service center the tribe also planned to build on the property. "At that point," Moe said, "they just said, 'We don't need you,' but it takes a little bit more than that in the real world to dissolve a partnership." While Moe declined to say what he wants to settle the matter, he said Spokane Raceway Park spent more than $1 million on surveys and other work to develop the property. Bonga said Moe "has felt that he is entitled to 49 percent of anything that goes on the property," including casino revenues. That's the share spelled out in the joint-venture agreement. Moe said federal law wouldn't allow his company to share in the casino profits, so "if they want to put Indian gaming in, then we need to work out something that's agreeable." He suggested the transfer of the land to the BIA may be invalid if the agreement is thrown out. But Bonga said tribal and federal attorneys say the agreement imposes restrictions on use of the land and doesn't affect the transfer. "I have no idea what would happen if we get into a legal argument over it," Moe said, "but I don't ever see it going that far." He said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of reviving the original development plans if the casino falls through. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt is reviewing the casino proposal. If he determines that it is in the tribe's best interest and would not harm neighbors, Washington Gov. Gary Locke would have to give his blessing before the tribe could begin negotiating a regulatory agreement with the state Gambling Commission.

Joseph A. "Critter" Rowe, 44, turned himself in Tuesday on a charge that he murdered another Tonasket, Wash., man last year while shooting a cow. Rowe was charged last month with first-degree murder, five months after he allegedly killed Jack "Junior" Sherwood, 28, with two blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun.

1. Nick Thresher, five years after a bone marrow transplant, takes a break during a science test at Fort Colville Middle School where he is a fifth-grader. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review 2. Nick plays with Fiesta in his Colville home. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Authorities say two men who tried to kill James L. Peterson on Saturday decided it was "divine intervention" when their gun misfired - so they tried killing him with bacon instead. The suspects - Tracy S. Walter, 34, and Randy G. Thomas, 35 - stretched Peterson across the ground with his feet tied to one tree, his hands to another.

A two-year operating levy in Pend Oreille County's Newport School District was apparently defeated Tuesday, drawing the support of only 54.5 percent of voters. The unofficial tally Tuesday night was 785-655. But about 100 computerized ballots will have to be counted later by hand because they were filled out with pens instead of pencils, and 444 absentee and mail-in ballots hadn't been returned.