In brief: Woman critically hurt in cycle crash
A Chewelah woman was in critical condition Wednesday after taking a curve too fast on a motorcycle near Usk, according to a Washington State Patrol report.
Nancy M. McCormick, 44, was riding east on McKenzie Road near state Route 20 about 12:30 p.m. when the motorcycle veered into a ditch and landed on top of her. No other vehicles were involved, the report states.
McCormick was wearing a helmet, according to the report. She was taken by ambulance to Newport Community Hospital then airlifted to Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane.
Police seek man on probation
Police are looking for a man who they say violated the terms of his probation by driving with a felon and carrying a butterfly knife.
Twenty-three-year-old Ronald Eugene Davis was arrested on July 15 after Spokane police stopped a car he was riding inside.
According to a Secret Witness release on Davis, he violated his probation because the Jeep’s driver was a felon, and Davis was carrying a butterfly knife. When he was released from jail, the Washington Department of Corrections issued a warrant for his arrest.
Davis has been convicted in the past of assault, auto theft, riot with a deadly weapon, burglary and driving with a suspended license.
He is described as 6-foot-4, 275 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair. He has no known address.
Anyone with information about where Davis may be located can call Secret Witness at (509) 327-5111.
Post Falls
Ecuadoreans will sing at Julyamsh
Musicians and singers with the Quicha Tribe from Ecuador will take part in this weekend’s Julyamsh powwow in Post Falls, adding the culture of South America to the largest outdoor powwow in the Northwest.
Hailing from the Andes Mountains, the group’s music includes guitars, flutes, drums and singing in their native language and Spanish. The 12 musicians will perform in the Greyhound Park pavilion throughout the three-day festival, which begins Friday. They also will perform today at the Julyamsh Art Show in Post Falls.
“We have truly become an international event,” said Cliff SiJohn, cultural affairs director at the Coeur d’Alene Casino and the Julyamsh events coordinator.
“We will be reminded that Indian Country extends throughout our hemisphere, from the Arctic to the Antarctic,” SiJohn said.
The powwow is hosted by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel.
Seattle
Two women shot in graveyard
A 93-year-old woman fatally shot at a Seattle cemetery was the widow of a man buried on the grounds, police said Wednesday. A 60-year-old woman, believed to be the older woman’s daughter, was shot and seriously wounded.
An employee of Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery found the two women Tuesday evening in a car on the grounds, both with gunshot wounds to their heads, police said.
Police spokesman Mark Jamieson confirmed the older woman’s age Wednesday and said she was from Seattle.
Police continued their investigation but think the younger woman fired the handgun that killed her mother, then turned the weapon on herself. She was in Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
A gun was recovered and police were trying to determine who owned it.
The King County medical examiner’s office did not release the dead woman’s name Wednesday, pending notification of relatives.
St. Maries, Idaho
Cleanup plan issued for site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued a cleanup plan for a former pole treating facility adjacent to the St. Joe River.
The Record of Decision addresses cleanup of creosote contamination on the 5-acre site in St. Maries, Idaho. It calls for excavation and treatment of the top 20 feet of contaminated soils, and chemical stabilization of deeper soils and groundwater, all to the point that no health hazard remains. The state of Idaho and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe have concurred with the plan, which was adopted after a year of public comments and a public hearing.
Initial investigation and cleanup work at the site began in 1998, when an oily sheen was spotted in the river. Further research done by the EPA, the city of St. Maries and Carney Products Company Ltd. found that soils, sediments and groundwater had been contaminated with creosote, a wood preservative derived from coal tar, and its cancer-causing constituents, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs.
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
Mudslide closes park entrance
Heavy rains Wednesday afternoon triggered a mudslide at a construction zone just east of Sylvan Pass, leading to the temporary closure of the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
The slide, which occurred about 5:30 p.m., is 50 feet long and varies in depth from 1 to 5 feet, park officials said. No vehicles were trapped in the slide and no one was hurt.
The road was also temporarily closed at the Pelican Creek barricade near Fishing Bridge.
Rangers, park maintenance staff, a representative of the Federal Highway Administration and employees of H-K Contractors Inc. were at the site. They scanned the debris with a metal detector for unexploded ordinance used for avalanche control in the winter and then removed the mud and rocks from the road.
Park officials said they did not know when the East Entrance Road will reopen.
From staff
and wire reports