Senate Republicans stall election law overhaul

Olympia

Republicans in the Democrat-controlled Senate used their limited power Friday to defeat an earlier date for the state’s primary election, and hold up action on a second election reform bill.

Democrats have been thwarted all week in efforts to pass legislation moving the primary election earlier in the election season, and overhauling election laws. The primary bill was defeated 22-26 Friday night with four Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Republicans.

Republicans said Democrats were refusing to negotiate on amendments they offered. Some Democrats agreed.

“I haven’t had any constituents ask me to move the primary,” said Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, one of four Democrats who voted against the bill. “If we can get some real election reform we can come back to this issue (the primary date). My constituents want to see real reform.”

Both measures were supposed to have early floor votes Friday morning, but even after negotiations across the aisle, they were bogged down.

“We want to give the other side the opportunity to negotiate in good faith,” Senate elections chairman Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, said earlier Friday. “We’ve crossed all those roads, and now it’s time to bring it to an end.”

The Senate continued to meet late Friday night on the second reform bill.

City police car in noninjury wreck

A Spokane police car was involved in a noninjury collision Friday night.

The police corporal was driving north on Monroe Street about 9:45 p.m. when his gray police car collided with a westbound Subaru on Boone Avenue, said Cpl. Brad Hallock, who was investigating the crash.

One person was taken to a hospital as a precaution, police said.

Hallock said the collision likely was caused when one of the drivers committed a traffic light violation. The accident was under investigation Friday night.

The Subaru slammed into a concrete bench and pushed it into the side of REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), 1125 N. Monroe St. The front of the police car was significantly damaged

Names of those involved in the crash were not released Friday night.

Grocery holdup suspect arrested

A man accused of holding up an east Spokane grocery was arrested outside the store Thursday after he was tackled by employees, court records say.

Allen W. Mason, 48, was taken into custody outside Sonnenberg’s Market & Deli, 1528 E. Sprague Ave., about 4 p.m.

Store employees reported to police that Mason told a cashier that he was robbing the store while he pointed his hand in his coat pocket in a way that indicated he had a gun, court documents say. The clerk placed money from the register in a brown paper bag and gave it to Mason, employees told police.

Sonnenberg workers followed Mason out of the store, tackled him and held him until police arrived, records say.

Mason remained at the Spokane County Jail on Friday on a $50,000 bond.

Suspect in shooting arrested

Spokane police have arrested a man wanted in connection with a shooting that hospitalized a 22-year-old last month.

Police believe one of three people who attempted to rob an apartment at 6901 N. Wiscomb Street on Feb. 20 shot William W. Bedford in the abdomen with a shotgun.

Bedford, who was at the apartment with his girlfriend, told investigators that the people who tried to rob him probably were after crack cocaine that he was selling, according to court documents.

Sampson O. Tesfamariam, 28, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on Wednesday. He faces a count of attempted first-degree murder.

Two other people are wanted in connection with the shooting. They are Amber J. Bridge, 20, and Shawn J. Nason, 23.

Man booked in assault case

A man was booked into a jail Thursday on charges that he allowed a kidnap victim to be viciously assaulted.

The alleged victim, David Vernoy, had just escaped the basement of a home at 917 E. Rockwell Ave., where he was held for about 12 hours starting on Feb. 8, according to court documents.

Vernoy told police that his captors accused him of causing Wendy C. Iwanow to be jailed on fraud charges. After Vernoy escaped the home he went to an apartment at 6109 N. Colton.

Police believe that Jason E. Childs, 31, repeatedly struck Vernoy with a hard object at the apartment and that Darren M. Andersen, 34, helped Childs without actually striking any blows.

Andersen was arrested Thursday. He is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree assault. He remained in jail on Friday on a $100,000 bond.

Legislators in town hall meetings

Olympia

Six state lawmakers – half Democrats, half Republicans – will hold two town hall meetings in Spokane today to talk about issues affecting the Spokane region and the rest of the state.

For the Republican side, Reps. John Ahern and John Serben as well as Sen. Brad Benson will be at the Health Sciences Building, Rooms 110 A and B at Washington State University’s Riverpoint campus in Spokane from 10 a.m. to noon today. The address is 310 N. Riverpoint Blvd. All three represent the sixth legislative district.

The Democratic perspective comes from state Reps. Timm Ormsby and Alex Wood, plus Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown. Their meeting will be from 1 to 3 p.m. at the West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt St., in Spokane. Ormsby, Wood and Brown represent Spokane’s urban 6th district.

The meetings are free. No reservations are necessary.

Teen convicted in coach’s death

Kennewick

A jury Friday convicted a 17-year-old boy of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a popular teacher and coach at a Benton City school.

Robert Suarez is scheduled to be sentenced March 23 in Benton County Superior Court. Jurors deliberated less than three hours before returning the verdict Friday morning.

Bob Mars, 44, of Richland, was stabbed late Sept. 4 after returning to Kiona-Benton Middle School after a football game. He was a sixth-grade teacher at the middle school and assistant football coach at Kiona-Benton High School.

Trial is pending against another teen accused in the case, Jordan Castillo.

Castillo, 15, is accused of stabbing Mars while Suarez encouraged him.

Mars was stabbed in the stomach in a hallway of the middle school. His body was discovered the next day.

Prosecutors say Mars was killed during a robbery and that Castillo and Suarez were trying to gain status in a gang.

Senn asks McKenna to withdraw

Seattle

Democrat Deborah Senn, who lost her race for attorney general to Republican Rob McKenna, asked McKenna on Friday to remove himself from a legal fight over who backed a series of anti-Senn campaign ads.

The advertisements were among the most severe campaign commercials aired in Washington state leading up to last fall’s election. Dark and ominous, they suggested Senn had been responsible for a statewide crisis when she served as insurance commissioner. As piles of cash flashed across the screen, a narrator asked, “Who is Deborah Senn looking out for?”

Five months after being defeated, Senn is still trying to figure out just who provided $1.5 million to pay for the ads. The money went to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which gave it to its front organization in Washington state, the Voters Education Committee.

That committee and the state Public Disclosure Commission have sued each other in King County Superior Court, seeking to establish whether the advertisements were “issue advocacy” ads or “express advocacy” ads, which require greater disclosure.

McKenna’s attorney general’s office represents the state commission. But Senn contends he should take himself off the case because he ran in the same election and because her attorneys hope to question his former media consultant.

McKenna refused, saying his only involvement in the case has been to receive periodic updates from lawyers more closely involved.