In brief: Bomb threat empties EWU library

Police found no bombs in the Eastern Washington University library Friday afternoon.

The building was evacuated about 4:30 p.m. after an employee found a bomb threat written on a bathroom wall.

Two bomb-sniffing dogs from Fairchild Air Force Base searched the three-floor library and found nothing dangerous, EWU spokesman Dave Meany said. The library was declared safe about 7:30 p.m.

“Everything’s going to be pretty much back to normal,” Meany said.

Administrators used a new alert system that sends text messages, e-mails and voicemails to warn students of the evacuation, he said.

About 150 people were in the library when it was cleared, Meany said. “You gotta take these things seriously these days.”

Spokane

Children’s museum offers scholarships

Mobius Kids has launched a scholarship program to give free or partially subsidized access to the children’s museum for 4,600 children who otherwise can’t afford a visit.

Admission is $5.75 per person older than 1 year.

“We do think that cost is a hindrance to some children who just don’t have the money in the family’s budget,” said Mary Tyrie, executive director.

Mobius Kids is making 100 family memberships available for free for one year, splitting each membership between two families who’ll each have six months of unlimited access.

Every camp and class at Mobius Kids will have one spot reserved for a child supported by the scholarship program. Group visits from Head Start, child care centers or similar programs may be subsidized as well.

The scholarship program is available to children who qualify for the free or reduced-price lunch at Spokane Public Schools; or attend learning centers or classrooms where half the children receive a free or reduced-price lunch; or attend day care centers that receive state funding for at least half the children; or are in Head Start/ECEAP, federal Even Start or Early Head Start; or are identified by social service agencies as being at-risk or economically disadvantaged.

Tyrie said she knows a large group of children fulfill one or more of these criteria.

“As people fill out application forms, we’ll take in as many as we can as long as we have free spots open,” she said. “And then we’ll put families and groups on a waiting list and do our best to rotate everyone.”

Apartment ransacked during robbery

Three men robbed a north Spokane apartment at gunpoint Thursday night, stealing a car, wallets, cell phones and a video game console while demanding marijuana that sheriff’s deputies believe was being sold there.

The tenant at the apartment, 515 E. Hawthorne Road, arrived home about 8:30 p.m. and saw several men in the parking lot. He joined four friends who were inside the apartment playing video games, and three men soon forced their way into the apartment. One brandished a handgun, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said.

The tenant fled the apartment to call 911. His friends were bound with electronics cables while the suspects ransacked the apartment, the Sheriff’s Office said.

The suspects drove off in a gold Lexus and the tenant’s 2007 Chrysler 300, the Sheriff’s Office said. The suspects are described as:

“ A black man in his 20s with shaved hair, about 6-foot-1 and 180 to 190 pounds, wearing a blue T-shirt, blue jeans and black shoes.

“ A light-skinned black or Hispanic man between 18 and 20, 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds, wearing a white and beige cap over a blue bandanna, black gloves, a jacket and blue denim shorts with a backpack.

“ A white man between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall, wearing a New York Yankees hat, a dark blue sweat shirt and jeans.

BOISE

Clemency sought for convicted soldier

Two Idaho congressional leaders are urging military officials to grant clemency to a soldier raised in Idaho who has been convicted of planting evidence and killing an unarmed Iraqi citizen.

Sgt. Evan Vela, of St. Anthony, faces a possible life sentence after a military jury in February found him guilty of murder without premeditation in the 2007 killing of an Iraqi man outside Baghdad.

The Army sniper’s case is on appeal.

But Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson, both Idaho Republicans, say Vela was simply following the orders of his superiors. Those are the same claims Vela argued during the investigation and trial.

Both Crapo and Simpson have written letters to Army leaders saying the facts of the case warrant clemency for Vela.

TACOMA

Foundry protests fine in fatal blast

The Tacoma foundry where a truck driver was killed in a propane explosion says it will appeal $19,200 in state fines.

Atlas Castings & Technology says the Oct. 6 propane leak and blast was largely the fault of the delivery truck driver, Charles McDonald. The 64-year-old was critically burned and died Oct. 14 at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The state Department of Labor and Industries found serious violations of workplace safety and health regulations. Investigators say Atlas did not have an emergency shut-off valve in the piping and that Atlas workers improperly repaired the foundry’s LP-gas fill hose with nozzle fasteners not designed to withstand pressurized LP gas.

Atlas contends that McDonald knowingly violated federal regulations when he failed to immediately “red tag” the propane delivery hose system.