Man dies after car crashes into wall

A 20-year-old Spokane man died in a fiery crash Sunday when the car he was driving crashed into the entrance at a gated community in Suncrest.

The crash happened shortly before 1 a.m. at the corner of Lakeside Drive and Greenfield Road, according to a release from the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a witness, the car hit a decorative rock wall outside the gated community and burst into flames before onlookers could help the man inside. Police are withholding his identity until the man’s family can be notified. He was alone in the vehicle.

The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the crash.

Spokane

Photo Red would require officer

The Spokane Police Department would need to hire a new police officer to manage a planned Photo Red program.

Assistant Police Chief Jim Nicks told members of the Spokane City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday that the red-light camera program would be large enough to require full-time oversight from one officer. The program would use cameras to catch motorists running red lights at intersections and mail them tickets.

The cost of that officer, including benefits, would be about $80,000 to $90,000 a year. The position is not in the Police Department’s existing 2008 budget proposal but could still be added before the budget is passed or sometime next year.

Turkey dinners distributed today

Two Spokane charities will give away about 7,000 turkey and “all the fixings” today.

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the Salvation Army will hand out more than 5,000 turkeys and meal preparation items in Spokane County’s largest Thanksgiving dinner distribution at the Salvation Army Community Center, 222 E. Indiana.

More than 200 Salvation Army staff and volunteers will distribute the items from Rosauer’s and Second Harvest Food Bank to family members with identification and proof of address.

Meanwhile, St. Vincent de Paul will distribute 2,000 turkeys and other food items to families who have signed up to receive a Thanksgiving meal.

Personnel from Fairchild Air Force Base and the Department of Corrections will assist in the distribution at 722 N. Regal between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

GU needs helpers for Turkeypalooza

Volunteers are needed at Gonzaga University to help with 500 Thanksgiving dinners for low-income Spokane residents.

Those seeking to help may be called upon to cook meals or deliver meals for Turkeypalooza 2007, the annual Thanksgiving event of the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga.

Monetary donations in lieu of labor may be made at www.campuskitchens.org/ donate through PayPal. A $10 donation provides a homebound senior with a complete meal. A $50 donation provides a family of four a Thanksgiving meal, said Rebecca Teichmann, the Campus Kitchen coordinator.

The Campus Kitchens Project is a national hunger relief program. Its mission is to provide nutritious meals to disadvantaged families, individuals and homebound seniors. Since 2001, the project has served more than 519,000 meals nationwide, Teichmann said in a press release.

For more information, call (509) 323-6939 or e-mail Teichmann at ckgu@campuskitchens.org

Robber holds up Conoco station

A robber made off with an undisclosed amount of cash early Monday morning after threatening a clerk at a North Side Conoco.

The robbery happened shortly after 6:36 a.m., when a man described as black and in his 20s entered the store at 3219 N. Nevada St. and pressed a hard object into the back of the clerk before demanding money, police said.

The suspect was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood over his face, according to a witness. There is no surveillance video of the robbery.

Deer Park

Deputy finds drugs after stop

A Deer Park traffic stop early Sunday morning turned into a mobile drug raid when a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy found methamphetamine, drug scales, Vicodin and other paraphernalia inside the car.

The 2:45 a.m. stop began when Deputy Robert Brooke ran the license plate of a car parked at a Chevron and found its registered owner has a suspended license.

When the driver left the gas station, Brooke pulled him over, arresting 39-year-old Christopher Wayne Helgerson of Chattaroy for driving with the suspended license and on outstanding warrants.

A search of the Honda Accord turned up seven baggies of methamphetamine, drug scales, syringes, Vicodin and other drug paraphernalia.

Brooke arrested Helgerson and passenger Dawn D. Gibson, 33, of Addy, who said she owned one of the drug bags. A search of Gibson’s purse then netted $950 cash. Both Helgerson and Gibson were booked on drug charges.

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.

Farmer’s lawyer urges open minds

The lawyer for a pig farmer accused of being Canada’s worst serial killer opened the defense’s final arguments Monday by denying the man ever confessed to killing six women.

Robert “Willie” Pickton went on trial last January on the first six of 26 first-degree murder charges filed against him in the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood.

Prosecutors said early in the trial that the 58-year-old Pickton told an undercover officer he killed 49 women and was caught before he could reach his goal of 50.

Lawyer Adrian Brooks urged jurors to keep an open mind and reject the prosecution’s interpretation of what Pickton said

“This is nothing like a confession. It is not a confession at all,” Brooks said.

The defense has acknowledged the remains of the six women Pickton is accused of killing were found on his farm outside Vancouver, but it denies the farmer was responsible.

CHEYENNE, Wyo.

Feds miss deadline on snowmobiles

The National Park Service missed its own deadline Monday for issuing a decision on the future of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks.

Al Nash, spokesman for Yellowstone, said the agency had hoped to issue its final decision on the contentious issue on Monday. Doing so would allow the public a 30-day comment period before the scheduled start of the park’s winter season on Dec. 19.

Nash said discussions were still ongoing between staff at the parks, the agency’s regional office in Denver and its headquarters in Washington over the final language of a new winter-use management plan for the parks.

Despite missing the deadline, Nash said the agency still believes the park’s winter season could still open as scheduled Dec. 19. Although there’s not enough snow in the park yet for snowmobiles, most of the park’s interior roads was closed to wheeled vehicles earlier this month.

“We still believe that we can get a record of decision signed, get a rule published, and open as scheduled, despite the fact that we did not meet today’s deadline,” Nash said, adding the 30-day comment period is a policy, not a regulation, and could be shortened.

From staff and wire reports