Briefly

Vault stolen from IHOP in Spokane Valley

A Spokane Valley restaurant was burglarized and a vault stolen early Tuesday.

Police were called to the IHOP restaurant, 5304 E. Sprague Ave., at 5:40 a.m. to find a back door had been kicked in. The restaurant’s safe and case from the register were stolen, according to the Spokane Valley Police Department.

Anyone with information about the theft should call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Two short power outages scheduled in Deer Park

Customers of Avista Utilities in Deer Park will experience two brief power outages next week so that upgrades can be made to transmission lines.

The outages will each last five to 15 minutes. One will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday and the other at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 9.

The outages are necessary to reroute power to allow the Bonneville Power Administration to work on a transmission line nearby, Avista said in a news release.

Anyone with questions or concerns should call Avista Utilities at (800) 227-9187.

NTSB releases report on fatal helicopter crash

The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on the helicopter crash that killed a Cheney man in north Spokane last month.

John J. Cooley, 57, died in the Aug. 17 crash. He was stringing power lines for the Bonneville Power Administration when his Bell 206B helicopter crashed on property owned by Kaiser Aluminum.

According to the report, Cooley was installing a wire at the top of a 220-foot-tall power line tower when the rope attached to the helicopter began to retract. The force of the rope pulled the tail of the helicopter down and the nose up, before sending the helicopter to the ground.

Cooley was a 29-year veteran BPA pilot who learned to fly during the Vietnam War.

Dean tells Group Health workers to stick together

Seattle Former Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean told nurses and other health-care workers Tuesday that the best way to handle their dispute with the Group Health Cooperative is to stick together.

“I don’t know the issues inside and out in this particular disagreement, but in general organized labor has stood up for people who couldn’t stand up as individuals, but could stand up for themselves together,” the former Vermont governor said.

“As a group of people, we are so much stronger than we are one at a time,” he said.

Speaking at a restaurant across the street from Group Health Hospital, Dean answered questions from workers upset by a proposed increase in the cost of their health benefits.

“In general, there is a terrible nursing shortage in this country,” Dean said. “So you probably want to be doing more for nurses, not less.”

Dean was greeted warmly by the members of Service Employees International Union Local 1199, which represents 1,700 Group Health workers. The workers staged a five-day walkout over the benefits issue last week at 18 Group Health facilities last week. Group Health officials say other unions in the health cooperative have accepted similar offers. No talks are scheduled.

Elementary school to open despite mold concerns

Burien, Wash. The Highline School District says it won’t close an elementary school that some parents suspect is contaminated with toxic mold and making their children sick.

Cedarhurst Elementary, which is about 50 years old, is scheduled to open Sept. 8. It had an enrollment of about 300 kindergarten to sixth-grade students last school year.

“If any families don’t feel comfortable, we are granting transfers to other schools,” district spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers said Tuesday. “But the school will be open. There’s no question about that.”

Experts hired by the district said they found that parts of the building weren’t adequately ventilated, that teachers didn’t open windows in one section and that a few air-filtering devices didn’t work properly.

Hygienist Larry Lee of Argus Pacific said he found air circulation problems, dust and small bits of mold spores, but not enough to create illnesses.

The school is scheduled to be replaced in three years, Rogers noted.

The building has a history of mold contamination; the district removed parts of the walls to clean mold in 1998. Since then, some parents said, their children have suffered headaches, fatigue and coughs.

District Superintendent Joseph McGeehan said experts couldn’t link the children’s ailments to building conditions.

Powell’s City of Books heads to Seattle for some shopping

Portland Powell’s City of Books, the massive bookstore that’s become a Portland landmark, is heading north to do some serious shopping.

The store plans to set up a temporary shop in Seattle from Sept. 9 through Sept. 19, and hopes to buy more than 30,000 used books. The idea is to build up its stock, and stay competitive in the hot used-book market.

“It’s an experiment,” said Kirsten Berg, a book buyer for Powell’s. “We need to replenish our inventory.” The move comes when used books are becoming increasingly important to the bottom lines of bookstores.

Demand for new books fell by 2 percent from April through December 2003, but demand for used books rose by 5 percent compared with the previous year, said Barrie Rappaport, chief analyst for Ispos BookTrends.

Used titles, which have a better profit margin than new books, account for roughly 50 percent of Powell’s sales, according to spokeswoman Arielle Gronner.

Powell’s buys books primarily from individuals who bring titles to Portland stores to sell.

Chief Executive Officer Miriam Sontz said the company will test the waters in Seattle to prepare for a “long string of short forays into other markets,” with roughly 20 towns in mind as potential places to buy used titles, including college towns such as Madison, Wis., and Charlottesville, Va.

The company has a handful of scouts trolling the East Coast for titles, along with one former employee who is based in Great Britain.

In Seattle, Berg said, the company wants to find subjects it doesn’t come across in Portland, such as military, martial arts, railroading and civil engineering titles. Powell’s will open temporarily in Seattle’s University District.

Pay scales for books are based on factors such as condition, edition, rarity and demand.