In brief: Police still seek missing woman

Post Falls police continued Saturday to look for a woman reported missing last week.

Lorrie Ann Timmins, 34, was last seen at her home at 706 E. Mullan Ave. about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Her husband thought she had gone to bed, but she was gone when he went to check on her.

Neither Post Falls nor Spokane police could confirm television reports that Timmins had called Spokane police to report she was OK.

Timmins is described as 5 feet 4 inches tall and 155 pounds with shoulder-length brown hair. She has 8 to 10 piercings in each ear, gold rings on most fingers and tattoos on her neck, shoulder, chest and back. She was last seen wearing a purple pajama top, police said.

Anyone who has seen Timmins or knows where she is can call the police at (208) 773-3517 or leave an anonymous tip at www.postfallspolice.com/tip.htm.

Spokane

Holiday closures announced

The following offices and services will be affected by the New Year’s holiday Monday:

“City, county, and state offices will be closed.

“There is no garbage service Monday, and service will run one day late all week.

“Parking meters do not need to be plugged.

“Banks will be closed.

“State liquor stores are closed New Year’s Day. They are closed Sundays.

“Buses will run on the holiday service schedule Monday.

“Post offices will be closed.

“County and city libraries are closed Sunday and Monday. City libraries are also closed Tuesday.

“Schools are closed for the holidays.

“In addition to the New Year’s holiday, several government offices will be closed Tuesday in honor of former President Gerald Ford, who died Tuesday.

“Spokane county offices and the crime reporting center will be closed Tuesday, although the Public Safety and Broadway Center buildings will remain open.

“Spokane superior, district and municipal courts, as well as the Valley Precinct District Court, will all be open Tuesday and their scheduled dockets heard.

“Spokane Regional Health District offices will be closed Tuesday, as will Spokane Valley City Hall.

“Tuesday’s Spokane Valley City Council meeting has also been canceled, although a special meeting has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday for ongoing discussions of the city’s new development code.

“Offices in Liberty Lake and Spokane will remain open on Tuesday, and their public meetings will be held as scheduled.

“In Idaho, government offices of Kootenai County and the cities of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls will also be open Tuesday.

Jerome, Idaho

Senator: Changes coming for elk farms

By this time next year, Idaho’s 80 or so elk farms will probably look a whole lot different.

According to state Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, as many as nine bills on domestic elk farms are being prepared for the coming legislative session. They reflect a growing concern that the number of domestic elk in Idaho could contaminate the gene pool of wild elk.

Elk breeders contend their industry has unfairly taken heat following the August escape of 160 elk escaped from an eastern Idaho farm.

Cameron says breeders should brace for new regulations.

“I think it’s unreasonable for you to expect nothing to change,” Cameron said at a meeting with the Idaho Sportsmen’s Caucus Advisory Council last week.

He wouldn’t give details about the proposals, but many hunters have called for a ban on the operations, which are illegal in Montana and Wyoming. Gov. Jim Risch has said he supports a gradual phasing out of the farms.

NEAH BAY, Wash.

Advocate of traditional whaling dies

George Cecil Bowechop, a former Makah Indian chairman who helped guide the tribe during its controversial move to revive traditional whaling in the late 1990s, has died at 85.

Bowechop died last Sunday – Christmas Eve – of heart failure at the Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.

The Makah are the only U.S. tribe whose treaty guarantees the right to whale.

Bowechop was director of the Makah Whaling Commission when the tribe got clearance from the International Whaling Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service and killed its first gray whale in decades on May 17, 1999. Challenges from animal rights groups have since kept whaling on hold.

The whaling panel met pretty regularly over the past month, and Bowechop expressed frustration with the lack of progress, tribal Chairman Ben Johnson said.

“It’s a treaty right we have; he wondered why we didn’t just go whaling. I supported that. I felt the same way,” Johnson said.

A lifelong Neah Bay resident, Bowechop was born April 16, 1921, to Augustus and Annabelle (Butler) Bowechop.

He worked as a log-truck driver for Crown Zellerbach and as a certified public accountant. He was a founding member and executive director of the Inter-Tribal Timber Commission, and an elder and ordained pastor of Neah Bay Assembly of God Church.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho

Trooper’s fund has raised $11,000

Police across the state have helped raise at least $11,000 for Idaho State Patrol Trooper Chris Glenn, who was shot in the neck while trying to apprehend an armed robbery subject.

Money continues to come in to a Wells Fargo Account set up for Glenn and his family. Doctors have said that Glenn suffered damage to his trachea, esophagus and spine, and he will likely be paralyzed from the chest down.

The donations will pay for adjustments to Glenn’s home and mortgage payments, said Cpl. Fred Rice, a trooper who has helped coordinate donations. Glenn likely will need special accommodations, like widened doorways for a wheelchair.

Adam Mower, 24, of Twin Falls, shot Glenn on Dec. 20, police said.

Compiled from staff and wire reports