John Craig

A federal judge's ruling Monday could settle a 23-year-old lawsuit between the Kalispel Tribe and the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District over flooding of tribal land. Judge Richard Bilby of Tucson, Ariz., filed an order in U.S. District Court in Spokane that requires the utility district to pay the tribe slightly more than $3 million for past use of tribal land and to make annual payments for future land use.

A young man who was a hero at age 7 is a convicted double murderer at 19. Shawn C. Ryan, of Sacramento, Calif., admitted Wednesday in Adams County Superior Court that there was enough evidence to convict him of killing two fellow drug dealers near Ritzville on June 16.

Margo Finnegan is the first person in the Spokane Tribe to go to law school. The Gonzaga student says scholarship money from tribal casinos made it possible for her to attend the law school. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

1. Ruben Rivas 2. H. Castaneda 3. Julio Castaneda

Jacqueline Bence refused a plea bargain Thursday and could become the first woman ever to be executed in Washington if convicted as charged in a murder this spring at Eloika Lake. Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger already has charged Bence with aggravated first-degree murder, which carries a minimum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Critics of plans to build a new airport here agreed after a two-hour public forum Monday night to seek a public vote on the city's portion of the estimated $4.5 million cost. About two dozen of the 33 people who attended the meeting appeared to be against the proposed airport along the Colville River just west of town. Environmental issues were high on their list of concerns, but cost, need and safety also were cited frequently.

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.