Pullman man held in child abuse case
A Pullman man was arrested last week for the alleged physical abuse of two children.
Bleu Jay Kenoras, 28, was booked into the Whitman County Jail Thursday night on a pending charge of third-degree assault of a child, a felony.
According to a press release from the Pullman Police Department, an investigation revealed that Kenoras forced two children — a 5-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy —to lie down on the floor while he whipped their backs with a willow stick for disciplinary purposes. The whipping led to bleeding and injury, according to the release.
Investigators also said they found that Kenoras had been assaulting the children for the past 10 months. Kenoras’ relationship to the children wasn’t stated in the press release, and the information wasn’t available from the police Saturday.
The investigation began Thursday after Washington Child and Family Services contacted police with allegations of abuse. Kenoras was arrested at 4 p.m. the same day, and the children were taken into protective custody.
Although Washington state allows children to be physically disciplined, police said the law requires that it be reasonable and moderate for the purpose of restraining or correcting the child. Unreasonable discipline is defined as any act that causes bodily harm greater than transient pain or minor temporary marks.
On Friday, Kenoras made his first court appearance and was held on $50,000 bail.
Police seeking alleged ‘bucket-shop’ operator
A reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of a man accused of operating an illegal business.
Jeramie Ray Davis, 35, is wanted for “maintaining a bucket shop,” said Spokane police spokesman Dick Cottam.
A bucket shop is a place where agreements about the sales of property, securities or commodities are made illegally.
Davis has 48 convictions in the Spokane area, including ones for conducting illegal gambling operations, burglary and forgery, Cottam said.
He is 6 feet tall and 160 pounds with receding brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information on Davis’ whereabouts can call Secret Witness at (509) 327-5111. Callers do not have to give their names to be eligible for the cash reward.
Snowy owl shot in wing, found dead on coast
Newport, Ore.
There was no mistaking the bird Tim Rodenkirk spotted in late November while walking his dogs on the North Spit at Coos Bay: big, white and majestic, it could be nothing but a snowy owl.
“It’s just the most striking bird you can imagine,” Rodenkirk said later.
But less than two weeks later it was dead – shot through the wing, a federal crime.
The bird was found in an area where hunters had been shooting ducks, but Rodenkirk, a hunter himself, said the hunters he knows wouldn’t do something like that.
The person who shot the bird could face up to a $15,000 fine and six months in jail, said Roy Lowe, project leader for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Complex.