Week in Review
Colville authorities already knew something was amiss Monday evening when they received their third call in less than two hours about unconscious teens. By the time the night was over, 10 overdosed teens had come to Mount Carmel Hospital suffering the side effects of taking a high-powered muscle relaxant during an impromptu pill party at Colville’s City Park. One by one, they were taken by ambulance or helicopter to Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, some in critical condition. A 16-year-old “good kid” was arrested the next day for allegedly distributing the pills to the victims. He allegedly stole them from an acquaintance who is quadriplegic. The sheriff won’t say whether the suspect was among those hospitalized. Drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine are more commonly associated with overdoses, but authorities say prescription drug abuse remains a problem. “Lock up the medication,” one expert warned.
MONDAY
First Lt. Clayton Colliton of the Washington National Guard is helping create a civics curriculum to teach students in Iraq the concepts of democracy and civic responsibility. Colliton, who has been in Baghdad since March, is a Ferris High School teacher of economics, current world affairs and criminal justice.
“ Twenty-six young singers from Rwanda, Uganda and southern Sudan performed at Spokane’s Redeemer Lutheran Church. Many members of the African Children’s Choir have lost parents to AIDS or genocide and faced famine. They attend a Ugandan private school funded by donations to the choir.
TUESDAY
More than 150 Empire Health Services employees will be laid off or have their hours reduced. The cuts at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center are to help Empire stem million-dollar-a-month losses caused in part by patients who can’t pay their bills. Empire eliminated more than 100 positions in 2002, and cut salaries by 9 percent the following year.
“ Under a court order, a reluctant Spokane City Council voted 4-3 to loan $3.4 million from its parking meter collections to bolster the ailing finances of the River Park Square parking garage. “It pains me greatly to have to do this,” said Councilman Brad Stark.
“ A Spokane man who risked $3 at the Coeur d’Alene Casino while waiting for his tee time won more than $1 million. The man, whom casino officials wouldn’t identify, played a round of golf as scheduled.
“ For the fourth straight summer, “junior” water-rights holders in the Little Spokane River drainage have been told to stop watering lawns and agricultural fields. The shutoffs are triggered when the river’s flow drops to 115 cubic feet per second; it’s now at 90 cfs. Among those affected is Saint George’s School. Landowners with senior water rights are unaffected.
WEDNESDAY
The region’s largest hospital, Sacred Heart Medical Center, is planning layoffs. Details will be announced in mid-August by nonprofit Providence Health Care.
“ Lookout Pass Ski Area has begun a $600,000 expansion of its lodge. It comes a year after the ski area on the Montana-Idaho border doubled the acreage of its ski runs and saw business more than double.
“ Spokane County voters will decide in September whether to add the equivalent of 10 cents more tax to every $100 purchase. If approved, Spokane would join King, Kitsap, Snohomish and Pierce on the list of counties with the state’s highest sales tax, at 8.5 percent.
“ The ashes of Charles Christ Petersen, who died in 1924 at the age of 7, are finally in the hands of his family. Petersen went to live with a Spokane foster family because his mother was ill and couldn’t care for him. Until recently, some of his siblings didn’t know he had existed, and the rest didn’t know his ashes were being stored at Hazen & Jaeger Funeral Home.
“ A year after the county sheriff’s office formed the Spokane Valley Police Department, residents apparently are getting more attention from law enforcement. Officers respond to 9 percent more calls for service, and arrive more quickly.
THURSDAY
Retired Lt. Col. Donald “Herk” Taylor, who recently died in his sleep at the age of 82, piloted bomber missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He rose through the Air Force ranks to command the 325th Bomb Squadron at Fairchild Air Force Base.
“ A Spokane mortgage company owner and a real-estate agent were convicted of conspiracy to defraud young and vulnerable home buyers and lenders. The Century Mortgage scheme cost lenders $1.4 million and left many first-time home buyers owing more than their homes were worth.
“ After months of spirited debate, no one accepted the invitation to speak in the minutes before the Spokane School Board cut $5.7 million from the district’s budget. The cuts will mean fewer elementary school janitors, slightly larger class sizes and the end to a popular program that provided before- and after-school activities for middle school students.
FRIDAY
Although there have been few fires so far, wildfire conditions are extreme. The relatively wet spring created an abundance of brush that’s now being baked into flash fuels. Yet those spring rains weren’t enough to penetrate logs left parched by five years of drought. “The stage is being set” for catastrophic fires, said one Forest Service official.
“ The owners of River Park Square owe its former manager $6.5 million for work he performed on the downtown mall’s renovation, a jury has decided. An attorney for the mall development company said there likely will be an appeal.
“ Washington State Patrol troopers are paying extra attention to U.S. Highway 195 south of Spokane after three head-on collisions in a week claimed the lives of two people and sent others to hospitals. They’re looking for drivers who are speeding, driving aggressively or under the influence, or not wearing seat belts.
“ Spokane Valley officials want pet owners to shoulder more of the $1,000 daily cost of providing animal control services within the city limits. They’ve asked Spokane County Regional Animal Control and Protection Services to put more pressure on the 50 percent of dog owners and 80 percent of cat owners who don’t license their pets.
COMING UP
The late Norman Maclean immortalized the fatal Mann Gulch fire in his book “Young Men and Fire.” On Monday, read about a Spokane resident who is the last survivor of the 1949 fire.