Police probe alleged assault
Spokane police are investigating the alleged assault of two men who tried to stop another man from beating a woman.
Adam Loren Hankins, 38, is suspected of threatening the two Good Samaritans with a pistol and an aluminum baseball bat. The bat slipped from Hankins’ grasp, missing Michael Reed and hitting a car, according to court documents.
Detective Don Giese said in a search warrant affidavit that Reed and John Russell were in the Shadle Wal-Mart parking lot shortly before 8 p.m. Nov. 1 when they saw a man – later identified as Hankins – punch a woman after trying to pull her by her hair out of a U-Haul truck.
Giese said Hankins aimed a pistol at Reed and Russell and threatened to “blow off” their heads when they tried to intercede.
Russell and Reed ran for cover, but Reed again approached Hankins, fearing he would shoot the woman, Giese said. Hankins then tried to club Reed with the bat before fleeing in the truck, according to Giese’s affidavit.
Two Washington State Patrol detectives found the truck last Tuesday and arrested Hankins on unrelated charges. Giese found a BB gun in the truck Monday. Hankins was being held at Spokane County’s Geiger Corrections Center on Monday on a no-bail probation violation charge as well as suspicion of eight theft, drug, malicious mischief and driving charges.
Hanford session tonight
State and federal environmental officials will answer questions about cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation at a meeting tonight in Spokane.
A “State of the Site” meeting, with officials from the U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Ecology, will start at 6 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park, 303 W. North River Drive. Also at the meeting will be members of Heart of America Northwest, a citizens group monitoring the cleanup. After a one-hour workshop, the public will have a chance to ask questions.
The Hanford site, where nuclear weapons were produced from World War II through much of the Cold War, is one of the most heavily polluted nuclear waste sites in the country.
Admissions tax action delayed
The Spokane City Council on Monday postponed for two weeks action on an ordinance to beef up collections of the city’s 5 percent admissions tax.
Council members said they want to make sure nonprofit groups, smaller venues and youth entertainment are not harmed by proposed new tax requirements.
Treasurer Ellen Dolan has been seeking authority to make venue owners and lessees jointly responsible for paying the 5 percent tax charged against admission prices and normally collected as part of the ticket cost. Some promoters had not paid the tax and the city is losing an estimated $32,000 annually out of a $880,000 yearly revenue source.
Dolan said the city offers tax exemptions for the first $20,000 in ticket proceeds collected by nonprofit organizations and for all proceeds for nonprofit arts organizations.
Council members said they want to consider exemptions for smaller venues. Also, the council is considering an amendment that would allow venue owners and lessees to avoid liability for the tax by simply reporting the names and addresses of promoters of ticketed events prior to the shows. The city treasurer’s office could then get in touch with promoters to collect the tax.
Compiled from staff reports