Man charged with assault gets another month in jail

A Spokane man got an unexpected month in jail Tuesday for running down his estranged girlfriend with a car.

Ian Michael Harris, 33, bargained for a sentence equaling the 32 days he had already spent in jail, but Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins gave him an extra month.

Harris had been charged with first-degree assault for his May 6 hit-and-run attack on Wendy J. Leavitt, but was allowed to plead guilty to riot.

According to court documents, Harris called Leavitt on a cellular telephone to tell her he was near the home in the 5400 block of North A Street where Leavitt had been staying since breaking up with Harris. Leavitt went outside and saw Harris speeding toward a 1994 Ford Mustang belonging to Shane J. Wiggins, another ex-boyfriend who also was visiting in the home.

Leavitt yelled for Harris to stop, but he ran her down and smashed into the Mustang. Witnesses said Leavitt suffered severe scrapes and cuts on one of her legs, but Harris drove off and left her sprawled on the ground.

Police looking for information on three separate burglaries

Spokane police are seeking information on several burglaries reported Monday morning.

More than $1,000 worth of copper wire was stolen from a construction site on the 600 block of North Cincinnati, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a news release. The theft was discovered about 6 a.m. Monday, and area recycling companies have been notified to be on the lookout for anyone trying to sell the wire.

Also Monday, a digital camera was reported stolen from the Les Schwab Tire Store at 2528 W. Northwest Blvd. The store manager said someone broke a glass door to get into the store. The intruder knocked over computers and went through cabinets, but nothing else was missing, according to the release. The store’s burglar alarm was tripped shortly before 6 a.m. Monday.

The third report involved a break-in at H.J. Burns Company at 711 N. Superior which was reported about 7 a.m. Monday. A lock was cut from a metal cabinet and several bottles of welding gas were stolen, Cottam said.

Cottam said that although the thefts were reported about the same time, there’s no reason to suspect they are related.

“There’s no relationship except for people trying to take something that isn’t theirs,” he said.

Anyone with information on the burglaries is asked to call the TIPS line at (509) 242-TIPS.

Design ideas sent to U.S. Mint for Washington’s state quarter

Olympia

No Bill Gates, Bigfoot, slugs or steaming lattes, but other familiar Washington images have been proposed to grace a new quarter coin honoring the state.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and an advisory commission headed by her husband, Mike, have forwarded five ideas to the U.S. Mint:

•A salmon, Mount Rainier and an apple within an outline of Washington state.

•An apple inside the map silhouette.

•An outline of the state with Mount Rainier centered inside.

•A salmon breaching the water with Mount Rainier as a backdrop.

•A Native American stylized killer whale.

The committee also suggested including the script “The Evergreen State” in some of the designs.

The Mint will design multiple renderings of all five nominations by December, possibly 25 or 30 altogether, said Mark Gerth, spokesman for the state Arts Commission. After consultation with the Washington committee, the Mint will then develop three to five final design choices. The state committee will then post the finalists on a special Web site next April, so people can vote on their favorite.

The winning design will be announced next May, and the coins, part of the 50-state series, will be available in March 2007.

TV choppers watch on fleeing driver during Seattle-area rush hour

Kirkland, Wash.

Instead of their usual 5 p.m. TV news fare, Seattle-area viewers watched aerial footage of a man speeding through East Side rush-hour traffic in a succession of stolen cars.

Police agencies also kept tabs on the fleeing man by watching TV as all three network affiliates tracked the driver by helicopter.

“We were watching the live feed from the news to help direct our assets,” Bellevue police spokesman Michael Chiu told KING-TV.

The whole episode began with a crime spree that may have involved several homes in the Lake Hills area of Bellevue, Chiu said. Details were not immediately available.

Traveling first in what police said was a stolen silver Honda, then in a blue Subaru the man broke into while TV news helicopters hovered overhead, the driver traveled surface streets and Interstate 405, sometimes veering into left turn lanes or even oncoming traffic lanes.

While the man was involved in several fender benders as he forced his way through congested traffic, no serious injuries were reported.

The wild half-hour drive moved from Bellevue through Kirkland, Woodinville and Bothell – where he drove through the Wayne Golf Course – and back to Kirkland.

Finally, he drove into a residential dead-end street, pulled into a driveway and got out of the car. The man dropped to the ground as police vehicles closed in and officers surrounded and arrested him.

The man was not immediately identified.

PETA angry over goldfish stunt by teens at school assembly

Federal Way, Wash.

Two high school boys got a stern talking to after swallowing goldfish at a school assembly. Animal rights activists think they deserved harsher punishment.

After learning about the stunt late last month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urged Federal Way Public Schools to adopt a districtwide policy prohibiting the use of animals in school functions.

“We feel certain you’ll agree that killing fish in the name of school spirit is unacceptable,” wrote Jennifer O’Connor, an official with the Norfolk, Va.-based group.

“If the reports we received are accurate, this cruel spectacle has no place in Federal Way public schools. Given the proliferation of violence in the schools, it is imperative that we teach compassion for all living beings rather than publicly encouraging cruelty to animals,” O’Connor added.

Federal Way Schools Superintendent Tom Murphy replied that he asked one of his deputies to “reiterate to all our principals that this type of activity is never appropriate and should never occur in our schools.”

Since then, the district has instituted a policy requiring school principals to review student presentations to be made during school assemblies, a duty that was previously handled by a teacher or adviser.

School district spokeswoman Diane Turner said the boys, whom she would not identify, pulled the stunt Sept. 20, apparently after promising to eat live goldfish in front of the entire student body if one of them got elected as a class officer.

Tonasket Ranger District opens some roads to all-terrain vehicles

Tonasket, Wash.

The Tonasket Ranger District has opened about 100 miles of U.S. Forest Service roads to all-terrain vehicles on an experimental basis.

The district posted signs in the four areas where recreational vehicles will share roads with other vehicles, and maps will soon be available showing the new dual-use roads, said Michael Alvarado, Forest Service spokesman in Tonasket, about 90 miles north of Wenatchee near the Canadian border.

Alvarado said the district is attempting to offer recreational vehicles more opportunites in areas with little traffic. If recreational vehicles become a law enforcement problem, damage resources or pose a risk to existing traffic, the roads will not continue as dual use, he said.

The areas include Wagon Camp roads southwest of Conconully, from Salmon Meadows to Longswamp Campground northwest of Conconully, Mount Hull northeast of Tonasket, and Bannon Mountain in the Aeneas Valley east of Tonasket.