DNR land exchanges to be discussed

Land exchanges proposed by the Washington Department of Natural Resources will be presented in an open-house meeting 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lakeside Middle School in the Suncrest area at Nine Mile Falls.

Parcels of DNR land scattered throughout the state are proposed for exchange with corporate land companies in order to consolidate DNR lands on the East Slope of the Cascades.

DNR officials in Ellensburg say they can no longer effectively manage their timberlands with the current “checkerboard” ownership pattern, in which public land sections are mixed with private timber lands that are under pressure to be developed.

Sportsmen’s groups, such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, back the DNR land exchange program, and Washington Department of Wildlife officials have said that the proposals are critical to the future of elk herds in the Yakima and Ellensburg regions.

– Rich Landers

Coeur d’Alene

Center to host reception, auction

The Human Rights Education Center in Coeur d’Alene will close its “Anne Frank – A Private Photo Album” exhibit and monthlong series of events with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

The reception will feature dinner, live music, an auction and a door prize.

Auction items include a guided fly-fishing trip, a cocktail cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene and dinner for eight at a private home prepared by Bonsai chef Tony Chandler.

The reception will be the last opportunity to view the Anne Frank exhibit, on loan from The Anne Frank Center USA in New York City.

It includes 70 black-and-white photos taken by Otto Frank of his daughters, Anne and Margot, before they were killed in the Holocaust.

The exhibit, open Monday through Saturday, is being viewed by every eighth-grade class in school districts 271 and 273.

Tickets for the reception cost $30. Youths and students get in free.

The Human Rights Education Center is in the northeast corner of City Park. For information, call (208) 292-2359.

– From staff reports

Brewster, Wash.

Man thought dead will be charged

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers says he plans to seek an arrest warrant for a supposed drowning victim who turned out to be in California instead of at the bottom of a pond.

Rogers said 21-year-old Roberto Izucar-Reyes was believed at first to have drowned with two other men when their van plunged into a large pond near Brewster, Wash., on Sept. 20.

Subsequent investigation indicated Izucar-Reyes was driving the van and that he survived and fled to California, Rogers said.

He said alcohol and reckless driving are believed to have contributed to the accident.

The sheriff said he plans to ask Prosecutor Karl Sloan to charge Izucar-Reyes with two counts of vehicular homicide.

Rogers said the men who died were Irineo Tapia-Cacho, 20, and Roberto Lopez-Sanchez, 19, both of Brewster.

A fourth occupant of the van, 20-year-old Brewster resident Gerardo Rodriguez-Trujillo, was found at a nearby orchard camp a few hours after the speeding van skidded into a box of apple bins and careened into Gebbers Pond.

– John Craig