Spokane campers cited with trespass

Seven men and women who had been camping on city property since Monday afternoon were cited with trespassing Wednesday, Spokane police reported.

Sgt. Dennis Walter said Dave Bilsland, 48; Ebony Johns, 28; Dennis Smith, 37; Robert Snow, 34; Joseph Cook, 29; Joanna Wood, 23; and Kenny Wyrick, 38, were cited at 7 a.m. Wednesday after camping across from the office of the Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs building on East Stone Street.

Three of the campers listed addresses.

Bilsland, who lives in a subsidized apartment in Spokane, said the group was showing its disapproval of the city’s transient shelter ordinance. Police told them Monday to move within 24 hours or face a fine of up to $1,000, receive a maximum 90 days in jail or both.

When police came back Tuesday afternoon, only Bilsland’s tent remained, Walter said. When another check was made Wednesday morning, five tents were set up, leading police to write tickets.

Walter said representatives from the Spokane Homeless Coalition offered the campers a place to stay and food Monday, but some said the offer was “slave labor and demeaning.”

Bilsland, who organized last summer’s protest against a newly established ban on camping, had said he hoped to be ticketed this week so he could “fight it in court and prove the ordinance is unconstitutional.”

Three signs reading “Warning No Camping. Violators will be prosecuted” were posted Wednesday on the East Stone lot.

Injured officer’s wife sues shooter’s estate

Carrie Kralicek filed a lawsuit this week on behalf of her husband, Coeur d’Alene police Officer Michael Kralicek, seeking at least $10,000 from the estate of Michael Madonna.

Michael Kralicek was shot in the neck last December during a police standoff with Madonna. In the gunfire exchange, Madonna, 39, was killed by a Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy.

In the lawsuit, Carrie Kralicek asserts that Michael Kralicek sustained serious and permanent injuries in the Dec. 28 shootout. He’s recovering in a rehabilitation center in Colorado and due to return home in June.

The Kraliceks are seeking at least $10,000 to cover their emotional suffering and lost earnings while Michael Kralicek recovers.

Breach of child support records accidental

Washington state’s Division of Child Support reported to law enforcement this week that a Washington State University student may have hacked into its computer database.

Adolfo Capestany, a spokesman for the state agency, said it now believes that the student did not access the internal records but simply logged onto an online payment database established by the state. Because the student’s actions did not appear to be intentional, no discipline was planned.

Capestany said an e-mail prompted the brief investigation. He did not disclose the contents of the e-mail.

“At the time we got the e-mail, we weren’t quite sure what it meant,” Capestany said.

Capestany said secure child-payment records are accessible only by staff – not via the Internet. He said the agency is satisfied that no private records were breached.

Severed phone cable slows traffic

Traffic on Monroe Street in downtown Spokane was reduced to one lane at the intersection of Third Avenue on Wednesday after a construction crew severed a buried phone line.

Traffic restrictions are expected to continue at the intersection through much of today, city spokeswoman Marlene Feist said. Workers have torn up Third Avenue for installation of a new water line in preparation for reconstruction of the road between Division and Cedar streets. The total project will cost about $4 million.

Following the break of the phone cable, traffic was stopped on Third Avenue and limited to one lane on Monroe. Drivers are asked to seek alternate routes or prepare for delays and detours.

Food vendors must keep distance from schools

Seattle The Seattle City Council wants to keep school kids from buying pizza, hot dogs or other greasy foods from mobile vendors.

Or at least it wants to make them walk to get it.

The council voted Monday to ban mobile food vendors within 1,000 feet of school campuses in what members saw as a move to protect teen health as well as the pay and benefits of cafeteria workers. The cafeteria workers’ compensation is based in part on the number of meals served each day, and the union representing those workers had asked the council to expand the current no-vending zone around schools from 200 feet to 1,000.

“At a minimum, they’ll have to walk some of the calories off,” said Councilman Richard Conlin.

The prohibition is largely symbolic since vendors who operate around schools often don’t have the required city permits and could be cited under current ordinances, said David Westberg, business manager for Operating Engineers Local 609, which represents 300 school cafeteria workers.

But Westberg said city officials have failed to cite some of the vendors despite repeated complaints.

“If one of them ever actually got fined, I believe this activity would stop,” he said.

Woad taken: No more cash for weed bounty

Pocatello, Idaho A program that paid people cash for bags of a weed that’s spreading rapidly across southeastern Idaho was so popular officials halted it prematurely after participants claimed $37,000 in bounty money in just six days.

Bannock County’s “Bag of Woad” program paid people $10 for every 40 pounds of Dyer’s woad brought to a local landfill beginning May 9, part of an effort to eradicate the invasive plant that crowds out native species, clogs drainage ditches and reduces roadside visibility.

The $25,000 project was scheduled to continue until Friday, but officials ended it last Saturday after going more than $12,000 over budget.

The county will use money from a trust account to make up the difference, and next week plans to send out checks worth $37,000 to pay off the IOUs people were given when they brought in the bags of weeds they pulled.

Dave Hallinan, the county’s noxious weed supervisor, said some people made as much as $3,000 gathering woad. Last year, officials spent $60,000 on the program, now in its fourth year.

Dyer’s woad, or Isatis tinctoria, is a yellow flower originally brought to the United States from Europe and Asia to use for dye.