Briefly

Government may buy gorge land

Vancouver, Wash. A new federal spending bill will provide the Forest Service with $1 million to buy land in the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area.

That bill is now awaiting President Bush’s signature.

The money will be used to buy land from willing sellers, but falls short of the money needed to complete land purchases in the gorge, said Kevin Gorman of the Friends of the Columbia Gorge. There are additional lands that face development and logging threats, Gorman said.

Northwest senators and the governors of Washington and Oregon had sought $5 million for gorge land purchases in 2005.

Legislation passed in 2000 and sponsored by former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., provided incentives for gorge land owners to sell to the Forest Service. The Forest Service has spent $17.8 million to purchase 2,148 acres in the gorge since 2001. The agency identified 4,000 acres, valued at $35 million, as worthy of public purchase.

The legislation included a three-year window to negotiate the land purchases. Some landowners agreed to one-year extensions in hopes of additional funding coming through this year.

The $1 million will buy two high-priority parcels in Oregon.

Bridge project will pay to screen lights

Tacoma The Tacoma Narrows Bridge project is paying for a 400-foot-long screen to protect Highway 16 drivers from the nighttime lights of a golf driving range.

Work on the 32-foot-high screen is beginning after several weeks of delay.

Trees have been cut back to add additional traffic lanes as part of the project. In turn, the lights from the Performance Golf Center in Gig Harbor now hit eastbound drivers crossing the bridge, transportation officials said.

The screen will cost $247,500 and is being paid for from the state’s contingency fund for the bridge project. The state and the driving range agreed that the state will pay Performance Golf to build and maintain the screen for five years.

The screen contains nearly 1,500 yards of fabric. Crews will also be installing shields on the lights on the western side of the driving range, transportation officials said.

Weather permitting, the screen should be in place by mid-December.

Teenagers arrested in vandalism spree

Centralia, Wash. Three teenagers have been arrested in a vandalism spree that broke windows in a number of businesses.

Police say a slingshot was used to cause hundreds of dollars in damage.

An 18-year-old man, a 19-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy were arrested for investigation of first-degree malicious mischief. The three are accused of breaking windows along Tower Avenue, Pearl Street and Main Street, police said.

They were arrested Saturday.

“It was good old-fashioned police work, with snitches who would give up their mother for the right reason,” Police Chief Robert Berg said.

Police have been receiving calls about broken windows for a few weeks, but have attributed only a handful that have occurred since last Wednesday to the three teens.

Investigators are trying to determine whether there is a connection to a series of broken windows in neighboring Chehalis.

Funds approved for railroad shipping

Yakima Congress has approved $1 million to launch a new program that will allow produce shippers to use lower-cost railroad transportation next summer with additional refrigerated cars.

The Rail Car Pool Program was approved by the state Legislature last year.

The $1 million will go toward refurbishing 18 to 20 rail cars at a cost of $50,000 to $60,000 each. The cars will likely be based in Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Moses Lake, said Pat Boss, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission. Apple, potato and onion shippers have been asking for rail service, which is three to four times more energy efficient than trucking, said Stephen Anderson of the state Department of Transportation.

The $1 million is half of what U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings was seeking for the program, but said the money should be enough to get the program started.

Fatal crash near Chelan blamed on drinking

Chelan, Wash. A car crash that claimed the lives of a former supermarket owner and an entrepreneur who started a dinner cruise in a boat once owned by the late Dean Martin has been blamed on drinking and speeding.

Tests showed Cynthia S. Race, 37, had a blood alcohol level of .18, more than twice the legal limit, at the time of the one-car crash in which she and Gregory M. Goodman, 38, died on Nov. 7.

Investigators also determined that the Volkswagen Jetta driven by Race was going at least 66 mph when it went off a road and down a ravine.

Goodman, former owner of a local boat rental business, outfitted a 1956 Chris Craft once owned by Martin, named it the Innamorata and began offering dinner cruises on Lake Chelan last summer. Race, former owner of the local Red Apple Market, was an accountant for LaPorte Financial Alliance.

Court agrees insurer not liable in shootings

Seattle A state appeals panel has upheld a ruling that absolved Farmers Insurance Co. of Washington of liability for two shooting deaths in Everett.

The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with a Snohomish County Superior Court judge who held that the $500,000 Farmers homeowner’s policy did not apply because it excluded coverage for intentional illegal acts.

The policy was purchased by Dale B. Cramm, whose son, Dennis J. Cramm, was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Jesse Stoner and Jason Thompson.

Stoner and Thompson, both 18, were in the back seat of a car that was being driven away from the Cramms’ house following a prearranged fistfight that ended in gunfire. on May 30, 2000

The younger Cramm, 17 at the time, said he was shooting not at them but at someone who had fired in the direction of his father.

The parents of the dead teens sued the Cramms and others involved in the melee as well as Farmers.

A lawyer for the parents, Franklin W. Shoichet, argued unsuccessfully that although the younger Cramm did fire the gun intentionally, the exclusion should not apply because he was not trying to kill Thompson and Stoner.

Shoichet said last week he would continue with the lawsuit against the elder Cramm but had yet to decide whether to appeal the decision absolving Farmers of liability.

Inmate convicted of drug dealing

Boise A federal prison inmate doing two years for selling ecstasy has been convicted of continuing to deal drugs while serving his prison sentence.

Joshua Kilby of Seattle will be sentenced Feb. 7 in Boise. U.S. Attorney Tom Moss said the extent of the drug trafficking operation while Kilby was in prison will be used to justify an enhanced sentence. Moss did not indicate what the maximum sentence could be.

According to federal agents, Kilby arranged with an associate to continue his drug business while he was serving a two-year sentence in the Sheridan Federal Correction Facility in Oregon. Kilby put the associate in touch with his drug supplier in return for having a share of the profits sent to him in prison.