Kip Hill

The Kettle Falls man shot by park rangers at a campground over the weekend had been standing alongside his 9-year-old son when the bullet tore into his torso, family members say. Few details of the shooting have been disclosed by the National Park Service or investigators with the Washington State Patrol.

Tensions caused by a gang dispute and the no-show of a rap artist at a Spokane music club erupted into Sunday’s fatal shooting in the parking lot, according to court documents filed Thursday. Kalen J. Bedford, 23, and Carlos A. Fuentes, 25, face charges of first-degree murder and first-degree assault in the death of 26-year-old Julian D. Morrison at The Hop music club late Sunday night. The two were arrested overnight Wednesday and booked into the Spokane County Jail. They are being held on $1 million bond.

The Spokane plumber facing manslaughter charges for shooting a car thief wants the court to help pay for the forensics experts needed to help prepare his self-defense case. Gail Gerlach, 57, made the request to Spokane Superior Court Judge Annette Plese this week, saying in court documents that he can’t afford the expenses himself. Documents indicate the judge has appointed experts to assist in Gerlach’s defense, but details of the appointments have been sealed.

With Congress eyeing the prospect of military involvement in Syria and another impending debt standoff, the likelihood of federal farm and nutritional support legislation passing this month is dwindling by the day. That’s bad news for the American taxpayer, according to Pacific Northwest wheat growers and one prominent Washington think tank.

A transient who terrorized a married couple at knifepoint in their South Hill apartment bedroom three years ago has been sent to prison for 19 1/2 years. Cody McDaniel, 38, pleaded guilty to burglary and kidnapping charges in August and was sentenced Friday.

A company hauling human waste from Spokane into Idaho as fertilizer has sparked a legal fight with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Gobers Pumping and Repair, with business partner St. Isidore Farms, will have to prove that injecting 54,000 gallons of sewage from septic tanks and portable toilets into a 150-acre patch of privately owned farmland just inside the reservation boundary near Plummer poses no health risk.

The Inland Northwest congressional delegation is treading softly as President Barack Obama seeks authorization to use a big stick in response to charges that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people. U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican serving on the Senate’s powerful Foreign Relations Committee, said he was reluctant to authorize any military action despite the “awful” and “horrendous” conditions in the country. During a committee meeting Tuesday, Risch questioned Secretary of State John Kerry about the country’s response if Russia, Iran, Israel and other regional actors embroiled themselves in the conflict.

Joseph Lachnit’s devotion to honoring those who gave their lives in service to the country began long before the Spokane-born Army Ranger’s epiphany in October. Before breaking bread each night, Lachnit’s 6-year-old daughter calls up a website listing the names of U.S. soldiers killed overseas. The family, including Lachnit’s wife and 2-year-old son, prays for the fallen and their families.

A trio of suspected residential burglars lifted championship hardware belonging to former Gonzaga basketball star Adam Morrison, according to court documents filed this week. Christopher Remington, Timothy Forslund and Kevin Heaton are being held in the Spokane County Jail on residential burglary charges. Court documents allege the three used proceeds, exceeding $70,000, from a July break-in to purchase three vehicles. Cash, jewelry and coins were stolen in the incident.

Spokane police on Tuesday released the names of four officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old man last week, as family and friends grieved and remembered a man who had foibles but who was on the mend. Lt. Kevin King and officers Robert Collins, Corey Lyons and Scott Lesser fired at Danny Jones, a felony hit-and-run suspect, around 6 a.m. Thursday. Jones, who was driving a white truck, twice struck another vehicle then led pursuing police to the parking lot of the Salvation Army complex at 204 E. Indiana Ave. According to police, responding officers made verbal contact with Jones, who began ramming parked police vehicles. Fearing for their safety, officers opened fire around 6:12 a.m., according to police. Jones later died from his injuries.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, said the GOP plans to pick away at President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation by targeting provisions she said are causing bipartisan headaches. “To get the entire bill repealed, or defunded, is probably not realistic,” McMorris Rodgers said Thursday following a spirited town hall discussion in Spokane Wednesday night in which the Affordable Care Act took center stage. “But I do think there are provisions in the law that we can get delayed, or provisions in the law we can get defunded.”

The crowd of about 400 who packed the Lincoln Center on Wednesday night as Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers held a town hall meeting at times resembled the partisan Congress the Spokane Republican will return to next month. “This debate is not that different from what you might hear on the House floor from day to day,” McMorris Rodgers said, closing an hour of impassioned questions from an audience focused on President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform legislation.