Crash kills one, injures five

A 51-year-old Warden man died Saturday in a one-vehicle accident northeast of Ritzville on state Highway 21.

Jose Valdivia-Arrendondo died when the 1999 Ford Expedition in which he was driving left the road and rolled at 8:30 p.m., the Washington State Patrol said.

The WSP listed driving on the shoulder as the cause of the wreck. Five other people were in the Expedition. Four were taken to Odessa Hospital. One woman was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

– Staff reports

Moscow, Idaho

Pickup flips in police chase

A woman was rushed to the hospital and a Lewiston man taken to jail Sunday after a police chase through Moscow that ended in a rollover auto accident, authorities said.

The woman, whose identity was being withheld, suffered internal injuries in the 2:10 a.m. accident in the 1800 block of Polk Street, according to the Moscow Police Department. She was listed in stable condition Sunday at Gritman Medical Center , officers said.

Taken into custody on charges of aggravated DUI and eluding a police officer was Levi Hawley, 26. Moscow police said he was booked into the Latah County Jail after being treated for unspecified injuries at Gritman, then released into police custody.

According to the Police Department, Officer Bill Shields attempted to stop a black 1999 Ford pickup being driven recklessly at Main and C streets shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday. The truck sped away, reaching 70 to 75 mph as it raced through residential neighborhoods, running stop signs and driving at times without headlights in what the department believes was an attempt to elude the pursuing officer.

The officer lost sight of the truck as rounded a curve in the 1600 block of Polk Street, the department said, but spotted it two blocks away on its roof. Hawley was apprehended as he crawled out of the driver’s side window, police said. The woman had to be helped out and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

– Staff reports

Bozeman, Mont.

Dinosaur skeleton from new species

A dinosaur skeleton discovered 24 years ago near Choteau has been identified as a new species that links North American and Asian dinosaurs, Montana State University paleontologist Jack Horner said.

The dinosaur would have weighed 30 to 40 pounds and stood about 3 feet tall. The fossil came from sediment that’s about 80 million years old, he said.

Horner said he discovered the nearly complete skeleton in 1983 but had to wait more than two decades before he found an expert who could identify it. That expert was Brenda Chinnery, a University of Texas paleontologist who specializes in horned dinosaurs.

“I knew it was probably a new dinosaur, but it took someone that really knew what they were doing to be able to describe it,” Horner said.

A paper on the finding, written by Chinnery and Horner, was published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The fossil has been stored in the Museum of the Rockies since its discovery but will be displayed this winter, said Horner, who serves as the museum’s curator of paleontology.

– Associated Press