STA May ridership a record for agency
As gas prices continue rising toward $4 a gallon, more people are taking the bus.
The Spokane Transit Authority numbers released Tuesday show that agency broke its monthly passenger record last month.
May’s ridership on the regular, fixed-route buses was 980,616, said STA’s operations director Steve Blaska. It beat the previous record, set in April, by more than 5,000 riders.
The number continues STA’s upward trend. Last year, STA gave 9.4 million rides on fixed routes – a 12 percent rise from the year before. The service has experienced ridership increases every month this year compared to the same months in 2007.
The next time STA has a chance at topping a million rides on fixed-route buses is in the fall because ridership declines in the summer when school is out, Blaska said.
Still, STA has given more than a million rides each of the last two months when its van pool program and paratransit riders are factored. The total number of rides provided in May including those services was 1,045,478, Blaska said.
Jonathan Brunt
Thorburn running full-time for seat
The Democratic challenger for the Spokane County Commission seat held by Todd Mielke said Tuesday that she will campaign full-time.
Dr. Kim Thorburn said Tuesday that she left her job as the part-time medical director for Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest last week. She held a news conference Tuesday at the county election office after she filed to put her name on the ballot. Mielke, a Republican, filed for office on Monday.
Thorburn, the former Spokane regional health officer, announced her candidacy several months before Mielke and has generated about $31,000 in campaign contributions – almost four times as much as Mielke, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission’s Web site.
Jonathan Brunt
Murder suspect is back in jail
A former online prostitute accused in the shooting death of her estranged husband is back in jail.
Shellye Lynn Stark was booked into jail May 23 after a GPS tracking device determined she’d left the area, a violation of her bond conditions, according to court filings.
The 46-year-old, once known in the online prostitution community as Nikita Jennifer, posted bond in January after being charged with first-degree murder in the early December death of Dale Robert Stark, her husband of more than 20 years.
Stark argues she acted in self-defense, and supporters launched a Web site detailing abuse allegations such as beatings and forced prostitution.
A new twist came this spring when Stark petitioned to access her slain husband’s estate. A judge decided last month to wait for Stark’s September murder trial to end before issuing a ruling, according to court papers.
Stark declined an interview Tuesday night.
Meghann M. Cuniff
Olympia
Tent city ban prompts lawsuit
Advocates for the homeless have sued the city of Lacey over its law that bans tent cities and requires churches to shelter the homeless indoors.
The lawsuit claims the City Council did not follow proper procedure in April’s vote.
The suit was filed in Thurston County Superior Court by Panza, a nonprofit group that supports Olympia’s tent city called Camp Quixote. Three people who attend Lacey churches also are part of the lawsuit.
The Lacey city attorney, Ken Ahlf, is reviewing the lawsuit.
A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 22 in court.
Everett
Firefighters find toddler home alone
Firefighters responding to an Everett apartment fire found a 2-year-old girl alone with food burning on the stove.
The girl was not injured in Tuesday’s fire. Police turned the girl over to Child Protective Services.
The 27-year-old mother returned home and said she had left to take her husband to work. She didn’t take the child because she was sleeping.
Yellowstone
Remains are those of Belgrade woman
DNA tests have confirmed that remains found in Yellowstone National Park last fall are those of a Belgrade woman missing for nearly three years, park officials said Tuesday.
Candace M. Kellie, 19, was a concessions employee at Roosevelt Lodge.
She was last seen leaving the employee housing area in the early morning hours of June 29, 2005. Later that day, a hiker found her unoccupied vehicle submerged in the Yellowstone River about a mile east of Tower Junction.
Investigators believe the vehicle went over an embankment and dropped more than 100 feet into the river. However, an extensive search turned up no sign of Kellie.
In September, anglers discovered a human skull upstream from Gardiner.
Boise
Simplot’s hat taken at service
The Spud King’s cowboy hat is missing.
Members of the Simplot family say the whereabouts of the signature cowboy hat of patriarch J.R. Simplot is a mystery. The hat was last seen as part of a floral centerpiece on stage during a memorial service for the business and political icon in the Qwest Arena in downtown Boise Sunday. Relatives say it disappeared sometime after the service.
J.R. Simplot is credited for making Idaho potatoes a household name and supplying frozen french fries to fast-food giant McDonald’s.
He died May 25 at the age of 99, leaving behind a fortune estimated at $3.6 billion.