John Craig

Organizers of Omak's "World Famous Suicide Race" say a Seattle-area group is spreading misinformation in its perennial battle to stop the downhill horse race. The Progressive Animal Welfare Society announced this week that Wrangler, Cellular One, Sears, Pizza Hut, U.S. Bank and Wal-Mart "have withdrawn their support from the notorious race." The Lynnwood, Wash., group released a letter from a Cellular One Group manager who condemned the Suicide Race, which has killed three horses in the last three years.

Police figured Alan Rochek was up to no good when they found a commando-style arsenal on him during a routine traffic stop in February. Sure enough, they say, Rochek and Jacqueline Bence murdered a man at Eloika Lake a little more than a month after the unnerving traffic stop.

State Rep. Steve Fuhrman, R-Kettle Falls, has put up about 2,000 bales of hay at his 130-acre "hobby farm" since the Legislature adjourned May 26. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane residents Alan G. Rochek and Jacqueline Bence were charged Friday with aggravated first-degree murder in the clumsy and brutal execution of another Spokane resident at Eloika Lake in early April. Pend Oreille County Prosecutor Tom Metzger said no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty. The alternative, if Rochek and Bence are convicted as charged, would be life in prison without parole.

About 100 people, mostly from the northern end of Stevens County, shouted down a noise-control ordinance requested by suburban residents of the county's southern end. County commissioners scrapped the proposed ordinance after it received overwhelming opposition in a public hearing Wednesday. They directed county officials to write a new proposal from scratch.

The only tavern serving Inchelium has had its license suspended until July 1 for two incidents last fall that left one man dead and three police officers fearing for their safety. The Washington Liquor Control Board staff had recommended cancellation of Twin Lakes tavern operator James R. Finley's license for joining an angry mob that threatened three Colville Tribal Police officers on Sept. 24.

Sherri Hansen works at her office in Chewelah. She is the first woman president of the Washington Contract Loggers Association. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

1. March for Jesus participants fill Post Street in downtown Spokane on Saturday morning. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Barry Buchanan of Oakesdale, Wash., prays in Riverfront Park after carrying his 100-pound cross along the route.

Joe Redthunder stands next to a monument honoring his ancestor, Chief Joseph, in 1991. File/The Spokesman-Review

Stackhouse

A computer virus incident seems likely to fuel Ferry County's increasingly uncivil land-use debate. Sheriff Pete Warner promises to call in the FBI if there is another incident like one in which Curlew environmentalist Gary Woodmansee is believed to have presented a virus-infected diskette for use in a county computer.

Nespelem Elementary School second-graders Lauren Cawston, Leah Tank and Levi Picard huddled at Owhi Lake for a lesson on the Colville Indian Reservation's natural resources. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Tobias Stackhouse changed his mind again Thursday and announced he will go ahead with a plea bargain in the charge that he murdered Elk-area homeowner Steve Roscoe. Stackhouse, who backed out of the deal 10 days ago, now is scheduled to complete it next Wednesday.

Wild Goose Bill

The state Transportation Department has abandoned the idea of rerouting U.S. Highway 395 to Trail instead of Grand Forks, British Columbia. That's good news for residents of Williams Lake Road, near Colville. Dozens of them protested vigorously when the state announced last year it was considering rerouting the federal highway through their rural valley.

1. Inchelium High School students Debi Lemmon and Justin Lawrence look for tiny plants and animals in water samples as they cruise Lake Roosevelt. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review 2. Brad Frye of the National Park Service shows Inchelium High School students how to draw a water sample as part of a floating class on Lake Roosevelt. Students, from left, are: Zack Trudell, Justin Lawrence, Emmy Kohler, Clint Desautel, Chastity Watt, Melanie Seymour, and Kristi Tonasket. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

1. Forrest Campman, left, and Boyd Hunter say they're happy they won their lawsuit against neighbors who harassed them. File/The Spokesman-Review 2. Roger and Darlene Hayward and their daughter, Cheryl, moved away from Springdale in January. File/Spokesman-Review

Former Pend Oreille County sheriff's dispatcher Cathy Van Stedum was convicted Tuesday of vehicular homicide in the Halloween evening death of a trick-ortreater. A jury of six women and six men took about two hours to find Van Stedum guilty, and to conclude that she was drunk when she ran over Krissy Jones, 5. The determination that Van Stedum was intoxicated means she faces the sternest of three penalty ranges for vehicular homicide.

Tobias Stackhouse is backing away from a plea bargain in the first-degree murder charge he faces in the Jan. 11 shooting of Elkarea resident Steve Roscoe. The decision didn't sit well with his attorney - now his former attorney.

BLM wrangler Lloyd Mulholland, in black hat, needed help with this wild palomino. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Randy and Suzie Sage knew their dog Charkee was in trouble when they heard the 40-pound pooch screaming about 3 a.m. on the front porch of their rural home 3 1/2 miles west of town. "It wasn't a real bark," Randy Sage recalled. "It was kind of a scream for help."

A blood-alcohol expert who testified on behalf of Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood told a jury Thursday that Cathy Van Stedum may not have been drunk when she ran over and killed a 5-year-old girl last Halloween. University of Washington Professor Michael Hlastala said Van Stedum's blood-alcohol level may have been only 0.03 percent to 0.05 percent at the time of the accident, even though the level was measured at 0.17 an hour and 20 minutes later.

A Spokane resident who spent nine years on death row in California was sent back to prison last week after violating terms of his release as a sex offender in Pend Oreille County. Clay Hines, 56, was ordered to prison for the six years and nine months remaining on his suspended sentence for first-degree child molestation.

People in Hunters may not need an ark for the next "hundred-year storm" after all. Public officials are planning to put a giant drain through an abandoned 74-year-old earthen dam that has been declared the most dangerous dam in the state. A 6-foot-diameter pipe will let water pass through the dam before it can spill over the top and cause the structure to collapse from erosion.