Legislative budget coordinator named

Cathy Holland-Smith, an Idaho legislative budget analyst since 1994, has been named the new state legislative budget director.

Holland-Smith, who worked in accounting and finance for the Air Force before joining Idaho’s legislative staff, will start her new job Aug. 1, when current budget director Jeff Youtz will move up to director of legislative services.

Longtime legislative services director Carl Bianchi will retire Aug. 1.

Youtz said of Holland-Smith, “She is highly regarded by the Legislature and her experience, professionalism and leadership skills will be a great asset to the Idaho Legislature’s nonpartisan budget staff. She will provide a seamless transition in leadership.”

Spokane

Woman allegedly pulled gun on clerk

A District Court judge set a $200,000 bail Wednesday for a 41-year-old Spokane woman who allegedly pulled a gun on a clerk who caught her trying to pass a forged check.

Cassandra Jean Gardipee was arrested Tuesday after police said they searched her home and found checks and numerous other items taken in a weekend burglary of Jean and Donald Lartz’s home in Coeur d’Alene. Gardipee remained in the Spokane County Jail Wednesday on suspicion of forgery and first-degree identity theft.

Search warrant documents indicate police found checks allegedly belonging to several other people as well when they searched Gardipee’s home and car at 2503 N. Madelia St. Officers also reported finding two handguns, two shotguns and four rifles allegedly stolen from the Lartzes, and equipment and paperwork related to manufacturing false identification documents and forging checks.

Several sets of keys also were seized in Gardipee’s home. Court documents say a number of keys were taken from the Lartz home, including keys to Ramsey Elementary in Coeur d’Alene.

Spokane police quickly zeroed in on Gardipee when James Winder, a clerk at the Safeway store at 933 E. Mission, reported a woman threatened him with a small handgun about 5:45 a.m. Tuesday. Winder had challenged what he described as obviously fake identification that the woman presented with a check purportedly signed by Jean Lartz.

Police seek robbery witnesses

Spokane police appealed Wednesday for people who witnessed the robbery last Thursday of a Japanese exchange student to come forward.

Officer Jennifer DeRuwe said detectives in the Major Crimes Unit need to hear from three witnesses who left the crime scene near the Shadle Park Wal-Mart store before police arrived.

Police said the robbery occurred about 6:20 p.m. at a bus stop across Wellesley Avenue from the Wal-Mart. Two men – one white, one black – approached four young women who were waiting for a bus, and snatched a shoulder bag from one of them, police said. The women were students at Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute.

Two men in what appeared to be a white construction company van saw the robbery and followed one of the suspects to a nearby house. They gave the address of the house to the victims, but didn’t identify themselves, DeRuwe said.

Also, she said, a teenage boy witnessed the robbery but left before police arrived.

DeRuwe asked those witnesses and anyone else who saw the robbery to call (509) 622-6489.

Compiled from staff reports