Vandals hit Idaho marina

Vandals struck numerous boats in Bayview on Thursday morning.

About 30 vessels at Boileau’s Resort and Bayview Marina were broken into, said Jeff Barden, marina manager of Waterford Park Homes, which owns the resort and marina on Lake Pend Oreille.

“They didn’t really steal a lot,” Barden said. “They seemed to be more into breaking things than anything else.”

About 4 a.m. two males carrying what appeared to be pipes made appearances on the marina’s security tapes.

“Some (boats) they went in and completely tore apart,” Barden said. TVs and accessories were destroyed, windows smashed and gearshifts broken.

Others boats escaped with minor damage such as torn canvases.

Much of what was stolen was liquor.

“There just wasn’t much to steal to begin with” Barden said.

About 200 boats are stored at Boileau’s and Bayview, Barden said. A hundred or so owners came out to examine their boats Thursday.

“We called everyone if they had damage or not,” Barden said.

Kootenai County sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said anyone who saw any suspicious persons in the area early Thursday should contact the sheriff’s office at (208) 446-1300.

Kootenai County gets federal grant

Kootenai County recently got a $62,698 federal grant to supplement emergency food and shelter programs.

A local board will decide how to award the money to local food and shelter programs. The deadline for public and private agencies to apply for the emergency food and shelter program funds is Jan. 10.

A national board overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency chose Kootenai County for the grant. The national board includes representatives from the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Council of Jewish Federations, Catholic Charities USA, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and United Way of America.

For more information about the grant applications, call Lorraine Gilbert or Jeff Conway at United Way, (208) 667-8112.

Teacher’s bail set at $750,000

Olympia A Superior Court judge set bail at $750,000 Thursday for a Canadian teacher accused of videotaping high school wrestlers while they showered.

Chi Yung Luu, 29, of Delta, British Columbia, remained in the Thurston County Jail for investigation of 15 counts of voyeurism.

He had not been formally charged.

Prosecutors said Luu was a schoolteacher in British Columbia. Police said investigators found videotapes in his car from swimming and wrestling events around the region.

Luu was arrested Wednesday during the Tumwater Invitational tournament, which attracted wrestlers from 13 Western Washington schools.

Police were called after an athlete noticed a man with a camera, which apparently was concealed in a towel, Lt. Don Stevens told The Olympian newspaper. Two coaches detained the man until officers arrived, police said.

Lake Tahoe jet crash investigation begins

Truckee, Calif. Federal investigators began their probe Thursday into the crash of a private business jet heading from Idaho to California that went down in a fiery crash as it tried to land at an airport north of Lake Tahoe, killing both occupants.

Placer County Sheriff Edward N. Bonner said the victims had been tentatively identified, but positive identification was awaiting forensic testing.

The twin-engine Learjet 35 had taken off from Twin Falls, Idaho, and was scheduled to pick up two passengers at Truckee Tahoe Airport, said Bruce Nelson, a Federal Aviation Administration operations officer in Los Angeles.

The passengers were waiting in a car for the plane to arrive when it went down.

The plane is owned by R.S.B. Investments, based in Washington, Pa., a company that does business as Skyward Aviation, Nelson said. Skyward is an aircraft charter, sales and management company.

A company spokeswoman said she could not name the victims without the approval of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the probe.

The plane attempted to land during a rainy Sierra storm, with winds of 23 mph and gusts hitting more than 40 mph, officials said. The airport had issued a warning on its Web page saying pilots might encounter “turbulence, downdrafts and wind shear.”

Five injured in fire at rooming house

Seattle Fire ripped through a two-story rooming house in Seattle’s University District on Thursday, forcing at least one resident to jump out a window to escape the flames.

Five people, including one firefighter, were injured, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick.

The firefighter and three occupants – two women and a man – were admitted to Harborview Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said.

One of the women, in her 30s, was in critical condition with burns, Fitzpatrick said. In satisfactory condition were a man in his 40s with a fractured leg and a woman in her 20s with burns to her foot.

The man with the broken leg had jumped out a window.

The fireman, who suffered burns to his hands and arms, was in satisfactory condition, Gregg-Hanson said.

Also injured was a 70-year-old man with burns to his face and hand, Fitzpatrick said.

Twelve people lived in the home but only five were inside when the fire broke out at about noon, Fitzpatrick said. Flames were coming out the first-floor windows when fire crews arrived, she said.

The fire began in the basement and was ruled accidental, but the exact cause remained under investigation, Fitzpatrick said Thursday evening.

Damage to the structure and contents has been estimated at $375,000, she said.