Deputies examine 7-month-old’s death
The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare are investigating the death of a 7-month-old boy who was found in a bathtub at a Cataldo-area home early Monday.
Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds said a small child called 911 around 9 a.m. and said something was wrong. When authorities arrived at the home at 1249 CCC Road, the infant was found in the bathtub. They began performing CPR on the infant and took him to Shoshone Medical Center. He was pronounced dead an hour later, Reynalds said.
An autopsy is scheduled for this morning. No details were available.
Spokane
Man hit in crosswalk expected to live
A man hit by a car Saturday night in Spokane was still hospitalized Monday but is expected to survive.
Spokane police Officer Glenn Bartlett said he visited the man Monday and found him in stable condition and likely to be hospitalized for some time.
The man was hit while trying to cross Browne Street near Second Avenue. Cars in two lanes stopped to let him use a crosswalk, but a third car did not.
The man’s injuries were earlier described as life-threatening.
Details sought on wanted man
The Secret Witness organization is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of a man wanted for rendering criminal assistance, vehicle theft and a number of counts of methamphetamine possession.
Cory Clint Hayes, 29, is 6 feet 6 inches tall, weighs 300 pounds and has brown eyes and hair. The last address he gave to authorities was 1430 E. Grassland Court.
To collect the reward anonymously, call Secret Witness at (509) 327-5111 and use a code name or number.
Sex offender moves into downtown
Spokane police warned Monday that a level 3 sex offender, the kind considered most likely to commit new sex crimes, is living downtown.
Chris A. Silva Jr., 32, was convicted in 1995 of third-degree rape of a 24-year-old woman. He is under supervision by the state Department of Corrections.
Silva is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes.
OLYMPIA
Gregoire sees viaduct vote as empty
Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday that Seattle’s coming vote on replacing the quake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct will be flawed and without credibility, but she rejected GOP calls to shift billions of dollars in state financing to other mega-projects.
House Transportation Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, said the March 13 advisory vote will be largely irrelevant as Olympia moves inexorably to approve a rebuild of the elevated highway along Seattle’s downtown waterfront. That would cost about $2.8 billion, most already approved by the Legislature.
Seattle leaders prefer a tunnel, with a price tag of $3.4 billion – a scaled-backed version of a $4.6 billion, six-lane tunnel the city had promoted until recently.
Gregoire acknowledged the passion of some Seattle leaders for the tunnel, but said, “We need to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayer. I’d also prefer a Mercedes, but I can’t afford that, either.”
The governor was biting in her comments Monday about Seattle’s handling of the vote and said it’s no wonder that some lawmakers are lusting after the billions in viaduct money to use on other projects.
Republican transportation leaders in the House and Senate said Monday that while the viaduct question is being sorted out, the money should be redirected to projects where initial phases are ready to go, such as a new Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington and expansion of Interstate 405 east of Seattle.
Tacoma
Chlorine leak forces evacuations
A chlorine leak Monday night at a chemical plant on this city’s waterfront prompted the evacuation of a nearby industrial area, a fire official said.
An unspecified number of people were transported for medical treatment but Deputy Fire Chief Jolene Davis said she did not have a precise number or know their conditions.
KIRO-TV reported 12 people had been sent to hospitals.
The leak at Pioneer Americas Inc. occurred as workers were filling a 1,000-gallon tank with liquid chlorine shortly before 7 p.m., Davis said.
Firefighters evacuated workers and others from an area roughly bordered by 11th Street, Milwaukee Way, Highway 509 and Port of Tacoma Road, she said.
Normally a gas, chlorine becomes liquid under pressure. It is toxic and causes respiratory problems if inhaled.
Compiled from staff and wire reports