I-90 crash victim dies of injuries

A Western Washington man died early Friday from injuries suffered during a crash on Interstate 90 in June.

Robert D. Epperson, 32, of Lake Stevens, was pronounced dead at Sacred Heart Medical Center about 2 a.m.

Epperson was one of two people ejected from a westbound Chevrolet station wagon that rolled June 16 on Interstate 90 near the Lincoln County-Spokane County line. The car rolled after it had left the roadway and the driver overcorrected, the Washington State Patrol said.

Epperson and Miranda Zitting, 22, were taken by helicopter to Sacred Heart with critical injuries. Zitting has since been released, a nursing supervisor said Friday.

WSP officials were not certain which occupant was driving or if either was wearing a seat belt. The crash remains under investigation.

West Nile test proves inconclusive

Test results on the first probable case of West Nile virus in Washington state, reported last week by the Spokane Regional Health District, came back inconclusive Friday from the Department of Health in Olympia.

The health district plans to request an additional sample from a north Spokane woman whose initial test at a local hospital was positive for the mosquito-borne virus.

The patient appeared last week at the hospital, complaining of headache and fever, said Dr. Kim Thorburn, Spokane County health officer. The woman had been bitten by mosquitoes and had not gone outside Spokane County within the period of possible infection.

Eight out of 10 people bitten by mosquitoes infected with West Nile virus show no symptoms, the health district said. Two out of 10 experience symptoms including headache, nausea and fatigue. Very few people with West Nile infection become seriously ill.

West Nile virus has killed 362 people in the United States since 2003, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Washington is the only state in the lower 48 not to have a confirmed human case.

Spokesman-Review columnist is honored

Associate Editor D.F. Oliveria of The Spokesman-Review won his second runner-up award in three years in the national Herb Caen Memorial Notes/Items Contest for his Monday Huckleberries column.

Oliveria, who also writes editorials and blogs an online version of Huckleberries weekdays, has won the contest once, in 1999, finished second twice, placed third twice, and received an honorable mention. The contest is named after the late Herb Caen of the San Francisco Chronicle, who mimicked the three-dot column style made famous by the late Walter Winchell for decades after World War I.

Smiley Anders of the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate won the Caen contest for the second year in a row, Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News finished third, and Catherine Bigelow of the San Francisco Chronicle received an honorable mention.

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists announced the awards this month at its national convention in Grapevine, Texas.

Power outage hits Otis Orchards

About 560 Avista customers lost power Friday night in Otis Orchards after the weather changed from clear skies to rain.

The cause was thought to be a transformer that shorted out shortly after the rain started falling, said Jessie Wuerst, a spokeswoman for Avista.

Wuerst said the outages were reported about 9:40 p.m. Crews were en route to repair the transformer about 11 p.m.

She expected customers to have their power restored within a couple hours.

Montana commission OKs bison hunt

Billings Six months after canceling a planned bison hunt because of concerns about bad publicity, Montana’s wildlife commission has approved a revised hunt of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park, beginning this fall.

The hunt will allow up to 50 bison to be killed over a three-month period in southern Montana, a spokesman for the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Friday.

In January, the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission canceled an abbreviated hunt – which would have been the state’s first for bison in over a decade – after Gov. Brian Schweitzer expressed concern about potential damage to the state’s reputation.

Officials plan to take public comment on the plan.