John Craig

This town of 260 people may have the hottest Nov. 7 general election contests in Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln or Ferry counties. Springdale voters must decide two Town Council races that could end several years of feuding between the town's executive and legislative branches.

Incumbent mayors face challengers in Colville, Davenport, Harrington and Republic in next month's general election. Also in rural northeastern Washington, two candidates are competing for the Kettle Falls mayor's job that Eric Weatherman resigned from on Aug. 15. Here is a look at the races:

A woman who had two husbands at the same time was blown out of court when she laid out a conspiracy claim involving a supposed third husband. Although she demanded $1 million, Kettle Falls resident Linda J. Erickson told visiting Superior Court Judge Phillip Borst of Lincoln County that all she really wanted was protection from the people plotting her death.

A 52-year-old Ephrata, Wash., man faces six charges of first-degree child molestation and is suspected of more than 150 sex acts with several boys. Michael D. Taylor is accused of molesting two boys, now ages 8 and 11, over the past three years at a cabin at Twin Lakes, near Inchelium on the Colville Indian Reservation.

A gold-fringed United States flag has been removed from the Ferry County Courtroom because the flag supposedly eliminated constitutional rights. With the help of a county commissioner and an American Legion official, constitutionalist Ralph Westlake replaced the offending banner earlier this month with a rights-respecting fringeless flag.

Dawn Mining Co. began pumping water out of a disposal pit, left, into one of five new evaporation ponds such as the one on the right. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

A 58-year-old Hunters, Wash., man has been charged with incest and rape of his 37-year-old daughter. The defendant, Dennis W. Williamson, says he did not commit second-degree incest or third-degree rape. He also denies a Stevens County sheriff's detective's report that he admitted having sex with his daughter.

Willy Hutchinson has brought softball, loud poetry and now Greek tragedy to this field. File/The Spokesman-Review

Kettle Falls High School students will take time today to honor three graduates who might now be parents of high school kids if they hadn't died in Vietnam two decades ago. Like many other students at the high school, student body president Tatum Marco knew little about the Vietnam War when veterans groups approached the school

Pend Oreille County Superior Court Clerk Winnie Sundseth pleaded innocent in her own court Tuesday on a charge of harboring a fugitive in her office. She is accused of lying to keep law officers from arresting Newport-area resident Randy Brown, 35, on a probation violation charge.

A credit to Colville: A giant crane grabs a load of logs at the Vaagen Bros. mill in Colville, Wash. File/The Spokesman-Review

Workers laid off at Vaagen Bros. Lumber and the now-defunct John Chopot Lumber Co., both of Colville, are eligible for federal benefits under the North American Free Trade Act, public officials said Monday. The state Job Services Office in Colville said federal officials determined that employees of both sawmill companies lost jobs because of competition from Canadian sawmills. Vaagen Bros. and Chopot said Canadian companies had an advantage because of low prices on timber from Canadian forests.

Town Council members, facing loss of insurance coverage, backed away last week from a plan to quit paying Marshal Jerry Taylor's salary. They choked, though, when Taylor's attorney slapped them with a $15,624 claim for wages that were withheld in January and February and for eight years of unpaid vacation and sick leave.

Stevens County residents will have another opportunity Monday - perhaps their last - to comment on the Shoreline Management Plan they were supposed to have adopted 23 years ago. The plan would establish controls on development within 200 feet of lakes of 20 or more acres and streams with flows of 20 cubic feet per second or more, a measure that includes nine large creeks.

Proponents of a library district for Stevens County hope to find out Monday whether there are more book lovers than tax haters in the county. Anyone who is interested in a library district is asked to meet at 7 p.m. at the Library of the Lakes, in the old Loon Lake School building.

A state Health Department review judge Thursday upheld the department's decision to allow Dawn Mining Co. to import radioactive uranium mill tailings to pay for cleaning up an abandoned mill at Ford, Wash. Review Judge Colleen Klein's action clears the way for a lawsuit by the Dawn Watch coalition of environmental organizations and the Spokane Tribe, whose reservation is next to the mill. Klein's ruling swept away the last of 20 arguments that a supplemental environmental impact statement was inadequate to support the Health Department decision. She dismissed 17 issues before conducting a hearing last month in Spokane.

Go to the fair and have fun, my editor said. Just don't spend any money. Fortunately, there's all kinds of cool free stuff at the fair. Start at the Spokane police booth and get a handy litterbag to carry all the stuff you'll want to collect.

The race to replace Kettle Falls Mayor Eric Weatherman is the hottest municipal primary in rural northeastern Washington. It would have been the hottest contest even without five candidates. No other city in Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln or Ferry counties has a primary race for council or mayoral positions.

The father of a mentally retarded teenage sex offender has been charged with shooting at one of the neighbors who sought court protection from his son. Even so, Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson said Thursday he is optimistic that the tense situation in the backwoods of southern Pend Oreille County will improve now that he has banished 18-year-old sex offender Shawn McIntyre from his parents' home.

About half of this 1936-1937 elementary class will attend the reunion. Photo courtesy of Northport Union High School.

A suspect in a Sunday night shooting north of Kettle Falls, Wash., was identified Wednesday as Jess M. Brown. Brown, 34, is believed to have fired several shots at a man who tried to help a woman who reportedly was being harassed by Brown's roommate. One of the shots Brown is suspected of firing caused a superficial wound in the back of 43-year-old Mark Friend's right leg.

Police officers in Colville and other small towns in northeastern Washington say new "stealth" technology is improving their effectiveness. Not only can they appear out of nowhere and catch bad guys in the act, they're better able to meet the good folks who pay their salaries.

Pend Oreille County Superior Court Clerk Winnie Sundseth faces a criminal charge for allegedly harboring a fugitive in her office. Special Prosecutor Clark Colwell announced Wednesday that he will file a charge of second-degree rendering criminal assistance against Sundseth later this week or early next week.

Friends and neighbors gathered Saturday to party and build an Old World-style timber frame house, without nails, for Kettle Falls-area resident James Fish. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review