Services proposals sought

Spokane’s city Human Services Department is seeking proposals from social service agencies for grants to help low-income residents, elderly, youth and those who can’t afford medical care.

The city recently implemented new priorities for allocating nearly $800,000 in annual grants to agencies and is offering a workshop session today at 10:30 a.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall to help agency official match their services to those priorities.

Deadline for submitting proposals for next year’s round of funding is Oct. 25. They should be submitted to the Human Services Department at City Hall.

Diabetic reported missing

Spokane police Thursday asked residents to be on the lookout for a medically frail 79-year-old man whose family fears he is lost in the woods in northern Spokane County or Stevens County.

Eugene J. Grandinetti, who suffers from diabetes and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, was last seen about 10 a.m. Thursday near 5700 N. Birch Lane.

He might be driving a tan 1998 Ford Explorer with Washington license 285-VMA.

Relatives noted that Grandinetti frequents the McDonald’s restaurant near Francis and Monroe.

Police released a decade-old photo of Grandinetti and described him as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 180 pounds, and partially balding with salt-and-pepper hair.

Anyone who sees Grandinetti should call 911, police said.

Car fire burns man’s hands

A man who was working on his car suffered second-degree burns on his hands Thursday when gasoline leaking from a fuel line ignited.

The 4:30 p.m. fire quickly burned itself out but ignited the man’s coveralls, according to Mike VanHeel, deputy chief of operations for Fire District 9 in northern Spokane County.

The victim, whom VanHeel declined to identify, burned his hands removing his coveralls. There was little damage to the car and none to the garage in which the victim was working at his home in the 16100 block of East Foothills Road, VanHeel said.

Firefighters don’t know what ignited the gasoline, he said.

Coeur d’alene

Officer allegedly attacked

A Post Falls man is facing aggravated assault and methamphetamine possession charges after he tried to run over a Coeur d’Alene police officer with his car, according to the Coeur d’Alene police.

Sgt. Bill Tilson found James Frederick Fitzgerald, 50, unconscious in the driver’s seat of his black Mitsubishi Eclipse about 2:34 a.m. Thursday after a woman called 911 claiming a dark-colored car had followed her to her residence in the 1000 block of North 21st Street.

Tilson smelled marijuana and alcohol after he opened the driver-side door, and Fitzgerald became combative when he was awakened, according to police.

Fitzgerald refused to exit his car and tried to drive away, trapping Tilson’s left hand in the car door when he shut it.

Tilson freed his hand and jumped out of the way as Fitzgerald spun the vehicle, accelerated and headed straight toward him, according to police.

Fitzgerald sped off and was later arrested at his home in Post Falls, police said.

sandpoint

Thurlow found guilty

A jury has convicted Kenneth Eugene Thurlow of first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of 25-year-old Christopher Elliott West last year.

The Bonner County jury reached the decision Wednesday after about five hours of deliberation. Prosecutors claimed Thurlow, 46, and Christopher Alan Lewers, 23, both participated in West’s slaying on Aug. 21, 2005.

West was shot in the back of the head. His body was discovered at Evergreen Towing yard in Sandpoint.

Lewers is still awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree murder. In Thurlow’s case, the jury was not asked to conclude whether Thurlow was the person who pulled the trigger or whether he helped carry out the slaying.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, but Thurlow faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Seattle

No criminal charges in spill

No federal charges will be filed for a crude oil spill that fouled central Puget Sound beaches nearly two years ago, while negotiations on civil penalties continue, a lawyer said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Oesterle would not elaborate Wednesday on the reasons for declining federal prosecution of ConocoPhillips for the spill, estimated at 1,000 gallons.

The spill, first reported by a tugboat operator in Dalco Passage about 1 a.m. Oct. 14, left residue on 21 miles of beaches.