Armed robbery trial ends with hung jury

The trial of a Spokane man charged with participating in a May 31 armed robbery at the Bayou Bar & Grill in Spokane Valley ended Thursday with a hung jury.

Kenneth Harold Crause, 35, may be tried again on charges of first-degree robbery, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of car theft.

The robbers, who held three people at gunpoint during the holdup, were masked. Authorities are relying on circumstantial evidence to link Crause to the robbery in the bar at 4511 N. Barker Road.

Hanford ‘cocooning’ work past halfway point

Richland A decades-long project to decrease risks at nine nuclear reactors along the Columbia River by “cocooning” them has passed the halfway point, officials said Thursday.

Hanford’s H Reactor, which operated from 1949-1965, is the fifth former Hanford Nuclear Reservation plutonium-making reactor to be cocooned.

The Reactor Interim Safe Storage Closure project — called cocooning — involves demolishing nonradioactive portions of the reactor buildings down to the four-foot-thick concrete shield walls around the reactor cores. All openings in the core building are sealed and a new roof is constructed. Temperature and moisture sensors remotely monitor conditions inside the “cocoon.”

Demolition of the H Reactor’s auxiliary buildings began in December 2001.

The nine plutonium reactors operated along the Columbia River from 1945-1986.

The 586-square-mile nuclear reservation was created as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Today it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to continue until 2035.

The C Reactor was the first to be cocooned in 1998. The DR, F and D reactors came next. The K West and K East reactors are scheduled to be demolished by 2011 and the N Reactor is scheduled to be cocooned in 2012. A decision on whether to cocoon the B Reactor, the first operating reactor at Hanford, is pending while authorities consider whether to preserve it as an interpretive center.

High court to hear Ten Commandments case

Boise The Idaho Supreme Court will hear arguments Dec. 2 in a Boise case dealing with a Ten Commandments monument.

Last year, a group called Keep the Commandments gathered more than 18,000 signatures in support of an initiative that organizers had hoped to place on the November 2004 general election ballot. The initiative asked voters to return a Ten Commandments monument to Julia Davis Park — after a 40-year-old monument was removed in March 2004.

Mayor Dave Bieter, who supported removing the religious monument from the park, refused to schedule an election, and a 4th District Court judge agreed with him on grounds that initiatives apply to legislative actions, not administrative decisions.

Bryan Fischer, co-director of Keep the Commandments, said his group is hoping the state Supreme Court will overturn Judge Ronald Wilper’s ruling so the issue can eventually go before voters.

ISU administrators volunteer to return raises

Pocatello, Idaho Eight Idaho State University administrators have volunteered to give back part of the pay raises they received earlier this year. A flap over the raises led to a no-confidence vote by faculty leaders and prompted the early retirement of President Richard Bowen.

Michael Gallagher, acting ISU president, told the Idaho Board of Education about the administrators’ offer earlier this week. The school released details Thursday.

On average, each of the eight will return $8,772. The largest voluntary reduction was $23,961. The money will be used for freshman scholarships.

“This gesture demonstrates that ISU administrators care deeply about this institution,” Gallagher said in a statement. “They deserve to be paid the same as their peers, but felt the well-being of the university was more important.”

Police seeking convenience store robber

After four holdups in one week, Spokane police are looking for a white, mid-height man in his 30s with a keenness for convenience stores and a fear of folding stepladders.

Three robberies and one attempted robbery occurred at night and all of the cashiers described a similar-looking man, about 5-foot-7 with a medium to stocky build and short brown hair. Detectives believe the incidents could be related, said Spokane police spokesman Lt. Dick Cottam.

On October 13, a man walked in to Empire Foods at 5434 N. Nevada and took cash from a register drawer. The man’s face was covered with a bandana and he held his hand under his sweat shirt as though he had a weapon, Cottam said.

Three days later, on Sunday, a knife-wielding man sharing the description of the earlier robber demanded cash from the Conoco convenience store at 3219 N. Nevada.

On Tuesday, a similarly-described man demanded money at Monroe Qwik Stop, 2202 N. Monroe, Cottam said.

The clerk refused, and when the robber asked again, the clerk brandished a folding stepladder from behind the counter and raised it above his head, Cottam said. The would-be thief fled.

Thirty minutes later, a man walked into the Conoco Mini-Mart at 2020 W. Francis, displayed a knife and demanded money. After grabbing some cash, the man ran, Cottam said.

Despite the number of crimes, the robberies netted only a small amount of money, Cottam said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS line at 242-TIPS.