Funeral to be held for paratrooper
A funeral is scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Colville for a 21-year-old paratrooper killed earlier this month by an explosion in Iraq.
The service for Spec. Ryan Bell is set for 1 p.m. at the United Methodist Church, 930 S. Elm St.
Bell, a rifleman and medic, is one of six members of the 82nd Airborne killed on March 5 near Samarra when an improvised explosive device was detonated near their vehicles.
Born in Portland, Bell attended grade school in Valley and Chewelah, Wash., and graduated from the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Fla.
He enlisted in the Army in 2004 and served with his unit in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before being sent to Iraq. He trained as a medic and had hoped to attend college through ROTC and eventually go to medical school.
He is survived by his wife, Teri, at Fort Bragg, N.C.; father and stepmother Mike and Ginger Rhoades Bell, both of Colville, and mother Sheryl Vickery, of Spokane.
Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of patriotic motorcyclists, will set up a flag line to honor Bell near the church.
“We will be there,” Joel Oestriech, the state captain for the group, said Monday.
Spokane
17-year-old girl rescued from river
A 17-year-old girl was rescued Monday morning after she slipped into the Spokane River near the Post Street Bridge.
The homeless girl was camping with a group of teens and young adults when she fell just before 6 a.m., said Spokane police Cpl. Tom Lee.
She held onto a rock while several people ran up the hillside to flag down a Spokane Street Department crew. Other friends pulled her from the river before police arrived, Lee said.
The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
Lee said the group camped there to stay out of the elements.
It’s a place they can hide and not risk being victims of street crime, he said.
At least one other person fell into the Spokane River last week in the same place. Lee said police will ask the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department to prevent further camping at the spot.
The group that camped there Sunday night has moved on, Lee said.
Paul, Idaho
Resident contests seat belt violation
A judge is pondering a possible loophole in Idaho’s seat belt law.
Paul resident Larry Olson was ticketed nearly a year ago for speeding and failing to wear a seat belt. Olson paid the speeding ticket and contested the seat belt violation, saying Idaho Code permits him to ride unbelted because his pickup has a gross vehicle weight rating of 11,500 pounds.
But Minidoka County Prosecutor Jason Walker says that while the weight rating is higher, Olson’s pickup actually weighed about 6,800 pounds on the day of the violation. Idaho’s law states that anyone riding in a vehicle with a weight of less than 8,000 pounds must wear seat belts.
Walker says that applies to gross weight, or the weight of the vehicle itself along with any cargo it is carrying. Olson maintains the law applies to the amount of weight a vehicle is rated to carry.
Fifth District Judge John Melanson took the issue under advisement Friday.
Olson said some lawmakers are on his side. After receiving the ticket in May 2006, he spoke with both Rep. Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, and then-speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley.
“They both said the law was written using the gross weight rating so a vehicle would not have to be weighed when a ticket was given,” Olson said. “The magistrate judge told me that if I entered a conditional guilty plea, I could appeal it to the district court, so that’s why it’s here.”
Compiled from staff
and wire reports