Briefly

Deputies find stolen chemical truck

A truck stolen earlier this week that had enough chemical on it to make hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine was found Thursday in Kennewick, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office reported.

The truck was reported stolen Tuesday morning from Sprague Grange Supply in downtown Sprague. On it were 1,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia, which is used as a fertilizer by farmers.

After receiving an anonymous tip, Benton County sheriff’s deputies located the truck at a Kennewick address, Lt. Al Thompson said in a press release.

Investigators searched the property and found material often used for making meth and a small amount of the drug, Thompson said.

Kimberly Y. Breuer, 37, and Brent R. Smith, 28, were arrested on charges that include burglary, possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine.

West Side residents face fraud, weapons charges

Seattle Terrorism task force agents arrested more than a dozen Seattle-area residents on bank fraud, immigration fraud and weapons charges Thursday.

In addition, they seized computers, religious pamphlets and “Islamic training documents” from a south Seattle barbershop. The barbershop’s owner and two other men were charged last month in state court with bullying the manager of a downstairs restaurant into letting them use the restaurant for meetings.

Some of the men arrested Thursday were involved in a conspiracy to illegally bring Gambians into the country, court papers said. Other defendants were charged in a scheme to defraud banks, and still others were charged with weapons violations.

“This is one investigation that grew into three,” said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

The men made U.S. District Court appearances Thursday afternoon on the charges.

The five men accused in the immigration case were charged with providing or using fraudulent immigration documents. The charges involved a local business called Gambia International. The president of the company, Bubacarr Tunkara, and the vice president, Muhamed Njolo Tunkara, were charged along with Souleymane Camara with conspiring to provide Gambian nationals with immigration documents from Sierra Leone. Two others were charged with using such documents.

Prosecutors said it is easier to gain asylum in the United States as a resident of Sierra Leone because the country has been racked by war.

Gambia International employee Dembo Hatu, 28, attended the court hearing and said he didn’t understand why his boss, Bubacarr Tunkara, had been targeted. “He’s not a bad person,” Hatu said.

Appearing in the bank-fraud-conspiracy case were Karim Abdullah Assalaam, Attawwaab Muhammad Fard and Ali Muhammad Brown. A fourth man, Herbert Chandler Sanford, was not yet in custody at the time of the hearing, said U.S. Magistrate Support Clerk Heather Arent-Zachary.

Assalaam is alleged to have led a scheme to deposit more than $10,000 worth of bad checks into various accounts over the past several years.

Alaskans uneasy about shipping trash south

Juneau Officials in several Southeast Alaska cities are becoming increasingly uneasy about shipping trash to the Lower 48.

For more than 10 years, six communities have spent up to $2 million annually to ship their waste to Eastern Washington and Oregon. The communities that ship their trash are Ketchikan, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Craig and Klawock.

“Who’s to say that some legislators in Olympia will decide they don’t want to take our garbage? There’s nothing to prevent it,” said Jon Bolling, Craig city manager. Craig ships 1,100 tons south a year.

Concerns over shipping trash is driving a regionwide search for ways to reduce, recycle, treat and dispose of Southeast Alaska’s trash.

The Southeast Conference is driving the initiative to find a local solution.

“We’d still need to ship but it wouldn’t be as far,” said Rollo Pool, the nonprofit regional corporation’s executive director.

The conference, composed of towns, corporations and civic groups, has mulled over one idea for at least a decade: creating a regional authority to administer one or two regional dumps, with possible spin-off treatment and recycling businesses.

Driver heads wrong way down I-90 east of CdA

A man who was driving the wrong way down Interstate 90 east of Coeur d’Alene was arrested Thursday evening on suspicion of drunken driving, the Idaho State Police reported.

The car the man was driving collided head-on with another vehicle about 7:45 p.m. at Fourth of July Pass, ISP said. The driver of the other car was injured.

Further details were unavailable Thursday night.

High school athletes could win some moola

High school athletes who drink milk have a shot at a $7,500 college scholarship.

The National Milk Mustache “got milk?” campaign and USA Today have teamed to offer 25 scholarships to student athletes nationwide. Winners get to attend an awards ceremony at the Milk House at Disney’s Wide World of Sports and will appear in a milk mustache ad in USA Today.

Students can apply online at www.whymilk.com. The deadline for applications is March 4.