In brief: Schmick named state representative

Joe Schmick, 49, will replace Rep. David Buri, R-Colfax, in the Washington state House of Representatives.

County commissioners from Spokane, Whitman, Adams, Asotin, Franklin and Garfield counties voted Monday for Schmick out of a pool of candidates recommended by district Republican precinct committee officers.

Buri stepped down recently to take a job with Eastern Washington University.

Schmick got 11 votes.

There were six votes for Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove and one for Cheney’s Tedd Nealey, according to Mary Beth Becker, clerk for Whitman County commissioners.

Schmick owns a 900-acre wheat, barley and bean farm, as well as a vending-machine business in Spokane and Whitman counties. He ran unsuccessfully for the House in 2006.

An EWU alumnus (accounting), he has served on the state barley commission and farm bureau and is former president of the Whitman County Farm Bureau.

– Richard Roesler

Spokane

Pair still hospitalized for carbon monoxide

A 13-year-old girl and her 21-year-old cousin remained hospitalized Wednesday after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning that killed three children Monday night in Grant County.

Katya P. Rodriguez is in critical condition, said John Turley, Grant County Sheriff’s chief deputy. Her older cousin, Jazmin E. Ramirez, has been upgraded to serious. Both are being treated at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Killed were Katya’s siblings: 4-month-old Alan Y. Acosta Ramirez, 2-year-old Yadina Acosta Ramirez and 8-year-old Jose Gilberto Acosta Ramirez.

The poisoning occurred while power was out in the area about five miles south of Royal City. Ramirez and the children were using a gas generator to run a heater inside the rural home. Gilberto Acosta Gallegos and Elba Villanueva Ramirez, who had been at work, called for help when they returned home and couldn’t wake the children.

– Jody Lawrence-Turner