Officials say diesel hasn’t reached river

Boise State and federal officials said there are no signs that a diesel spill along Idaho’s state Highway 12 has seeped into the federally protected Lochsa River.

About 1,600 gallons of diesel leaked into an icy, snow-covered ditch Sunday after a three-vehicle crash 33 miles from Lowell, Idaho, involving two tanker trucks and a pickup.

The Lochsa River is part of the Clearwater Wild and Scenic River Corridor, a federal designation to protect its pristine condition. Sunday’s spill was near the site of a November 2003 spill of 6,300 gallons of diesel that leaked into the river and forced months of cleanup work, including tearing up much of the asphalt and temporarily cutting traffic to a single lane.

The Lochsa also provides drinking water to at least three communities downstream.

The accident and resulting spill prompted renewed calls from some environmental groups to ban fuel-truck traffic along Highway 12, which connects southwestern Montana with southeastern Washington state via one of Idaho’s most remote regions.

Tim Marsano, a spokesman for the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security, said cleanup will begin today after equipment arrives.

The pickup driver was cited for reckless driving after trying to pass on a blind corner.

Man gets death for flight attendant’s murder

Boise A judge has sentenced Erick Virgil Hall to death for the murder of flight attendant Lynn Henneman.

Fourth District Judge Thomas Neville followed a jury’s recommendation when he ordered that Hall be killed for his crime. Neville also sentenced Hall to two life sentences for kidnapping, raping and murdering the 38-year-old woman on Sept. 24, 2000. Henneman, of New York, was attacked as she walked along a hiking trail along the Boise River while on a layover.

Hall is the first man in Idaho to get a death penalty recommendation by a jury.

Idaho’s system was completely revamped two years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries had to at least determine that sufficient aggravating factors existed in the crime to justify execution. State lawmakers, intent on eliminating any cloud over the death penalty’s legality, turned the entire decision over to juries.

Hall refused to make a statement during the sentencing.

“The court finds that this is that unusual case where a threshold has been crossed, and the death penalty is morally just and appropriate under the law,” Neville said.

Hall will return to court this spring to face murder charges in the death of Cheryl Ann Hanlon, whose body was found in the city’s foothills on March 1, 2003.

Man suspected of faking death to avoid charges

Santa Ana, Calif. A computer engineer who was suspected of faking his death to avoid charges of child molestation was arrested Tuesday in Boise, authorities said.

Daniel James Farinholt, 44, had been missing since May 2002, when his boat, which had been smeared with blood, was found anchored just off the beach near El Segundo.

Farinholt had been free on $200,000 bail while facing four counts of child molestation, and investigators suspected that he staged his death to avoid prosecution.

Authorities arrested him at his office at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Boise, where he was known as Donald E. Dudley, based on a tip received after the case was profiled on the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” the Boise Police Department said in a news release.

Farinholt was held without bail in Idaho pending his extradition to Orange County to face trial on four counts of committing lewd and sexual acts on a female minor.

Rancher with special permit kills wolf

Powell, Wyo. Using a special permit issued by the federal government, a Park County rancher shot and killed a wolf after wolves killed two of his cows.

Wyoming residents are only allowed to kill wolves if they have a rarely issued permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency only issues wolf kill permits if wolves cause damage to people or property.

There have been widespread reports of wolves causing problems in Park County this winter, F&W wolf biologist Mike Jimenez said.

The kill permit, issued to rancher Craig Griffith, is the first of its kind issued in Park County. Griffith is licensed to kill two wolves. He killed one last Friday.

F&W officials killed six wolves recently to help ease the problem, eliminating an entire pack of wolves, Jimenez said.

Explosive device found at park

An explosive device was discovered at Plantes Ferry Park on Monday by a man plowing the parking lot.

The device was placed inside a cardboard box in the parking lot at 12803 E. Upriver Drive.

“The plow driver stopped to pick it up and throw it into the Dumpster,” said Spokane Valley Police Department spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan.

Someone had filled an empty carbon dioxide cartridge with black powder and a fuse, Reagan said. The cartridge was of the type used in pellet guns and about the size of a man’s thumb. A burning cigarette had been placed under the fuse. “It just burned out without doing the fuse,” he said.

The Explosives Disposal Unit detonated the device rather than risking a close examination, Reagan said. Since the device was placed in an empty parking lot, there likely would not have been any damage even if it had gone off. “My hunch is it’s just somebody experimenting,” Reagan said.

However, construction of such a device is against the law, Reagan said.

Wasson joins S-R editorial staff

David Wasson has joined The Spokesman-Review as an assistant city editor in charge of politics and government coverage.

Wasson, who was raised in Spokane, returns to the Inland Northwest after five years with the Tampa Tribune in Florida. Most recently, he was capital bureau chief in the Tribune’s Tallahassee office, coordinating coverage of Gov. Jeb Bush’s administration, the state Cabinet and the Legislature.

He previously worked as a reporter in Yakima and Aberdeen, Wash.

Wasson, 42, replaces Anne Windishar, who left the paper last summer to pursue a master’s degree in counseling at Gonzaga University.

Guard suspends search for missing crabber

A crab boat from which a Spokane man was washed overboard Saturday will continue crabbing in the Bering Sea.

Manu Lagai, 33, fell out of the boat, the Sultan, about 150 miles northwest of Alaska’s St. Paul Island shortly before the crabbing season began at noon Saturday.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for Lagai around 9 p.m. Monday pending further developments, said Coast Guard operations specialist Dennis Mathers.

The five remaining fishermen aboard, including Lagai’s brother, were told that they did not have to continue, said Mike Shanahan, vice president of administration for Seattle-based Blue North Fisheries, which owns the Sultan. But they decided that Lagai would want them to stay.

“We are devastated,” Shanahan said. “Manu was well thought of by his fishmates.”

Shanahan said that Lagai had worked on crab boats for about eight years.

The crab season in Alaska will end once 19 million pounds of crab are caught, Shanahan said. That could happen as early as this weekend.