Briefly

Police report three commercial burglaries

Spokane police received three reports of commercial burglaries over the weekend, including one at a church.

Early Friday morning, an officer responded to Kids First Children’s Center, at 919 W. Nora, where the owner said her office had been ransacked.

Several items were missing, including a DVD player, two radios with CD players, a set of kitchen knives and items from a medical bag, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release.

Later Friday or early Saturday morning, someone broke into Brown Building Materials at 112 N. Erie, where someone stole three truckloads of aluminum doors. Others were stacked near a gate.

At about 7 p.m. Saturday, the Pentecostals of Spokane, at 3909 W. Rowan, reported a burglary at the pastor’s office. It had been ransacked and a laptop computer was taken, Cottam said.

Anyone with information about any of these crimes is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.

West may be out of hospital today

Spokane Mayor Jim West is progressing in his recovery from surgery for cancer last week, and could be released from the University of Washington Medical Center as early as today, city officials said.

West had two residual areas of cancer removed from his liver last Tuesday as part of an ongoing treatment for what began as cancer of the colon.

“He has recovered from the procedure rapidly and will be returning home to Spokane soon,” said Dr. Mike Sinanan, the mayor’s surgeon and a professor of surgery at the UW, in a press release from City Hall.

The mayor reportedly was hoping he could be back at his job for a few hours at the end of the week, and he extended thanks to all those in Spokane who have sent him well wishes, said Marlene Feist, the city’s public affairs officers.

West was diagnosed with colon cancer in the spring of 2003 and had about 20 inches of his colon removed, along with his gall bladder and some lymph nodes. He underwent chemotherapy and two follow-up surgeries prior to his most recent hospitalization.

Actor’s property concern alleviated

Actor Dennis Franz no longer has to worry about his Kidd Island Bay view.

Neighbor and local attorney John Magnuson recently bought 23.5 acres on the east side of the bay to stop Northwest Developers’ plans for 15 homes.

Franz and his wife, Joanie, wrote a letter to bay area residents in July asking them to oppose the developer’s plans. The Franzes are renovating the former 82-acre Camp NeeWahLu property. They argued the housing development was too dense, could have adverse effects on their quality of life and create aesthetic issues by removing forest to build 12 hillside homes. They also were concerned about the septic systems.

Franz is best known for his role as Detective Andy Sipowicz on the TV drama “NYPD Blue.”

42 cars of BNSF wheat train derail

Shelby, Mont. Forty-two cars of a 109-car grain train headed for Washington derailed Monday about six miles south of this Toole County town in north-central Montana, spilling tons of wheat along the tracks but injuring no one.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas said the derailment just north of the Marias River may have spilled as much as 5,000 tons of grain. He said each car was loaded with 120 tons of wheat.

Cleanup crews totaling about 60 workers were using special equipment and vacuum machines to clean up the grain, while huge tractors with side booms moved the cars off the tracks for salvage.

Melonas said the line, from Laurel to Shelby and on to Sweet Grass, might be cleared and reopened by this afternoon.

The railroad hopes to salvage as much of the grain as possible for milling, although spilled grain sometimes has to be downgraded and sold as feed. The train was traveling from Selby, S.D., to Kalama, Wash.

Lynn Senour, Seattle boat designer, dies at 89

Seattle Lynn Senour, a self-taught naval designer known for fuel-efficient tugboats and luxury yachts that were sold nationwide, is dead at 89.

Senour, who never owned one of many boats he designed for production by competing shipbuilders, died Sept. 19 after three weeks at a nursing home following a period of declining health, relatives said.

“He had a knack for drawing graceful and seakeeping lines,” said Tom Nelson, whose company, The Tomco Marine Group in La Conner, builds and sells the American Tugs line of high-end cruising yachts.

“Lynn was a real market analyst. He was always smarter than most of us in what the boat world was coming to,” said Jerry Husted of Silvana, a founder of the company that built Senour’s Nordic Tug line.

A native of Seattle, Senour began working in boatyards during summers while he was in high school and served on Navy patrol torpedo boats in World War II.