In brief: Five plead innocent in Evergreen melee

Five people arrested in a Feb. 15 disturbance outside a hip-hop performance at Evergreen State College pleaded not guilty Thursday to various charges in Thurston County Superior Court. Four were released on personal recognizance while $2,500 bail was set for the fifth.

Authorities say a sheriff’s patrol car was overturned and destroyed in the melee, three other patrol cars were vandalized, and a laptop computer and radar gun were stolen.

Jake Silberman, 20, of Olympia, is charged with rioting while armed with a deadly weapon and first-degree malicious mischief. Chase Hill, 23, of Olympia, is charged with second-degree theft. Monica Ragan, 18, of Olympia, is charged with rioting and first-degree malicious mischief. Nina Hinton, 19, of Mount Vernon, is charged with rioting and first-degree malicious mischief. All four are Evergreen students and three were on school sports teams.

Peter Sloan, 18, of Olympia, was charged with rioting and first-degree malicious mischief. His bail was set at $2,500.

The disturbance began after a campus police officer handcuffed a man while trying to break up a fight between two concertgoers and security volunteers.

spokane

Blaze damages South Hill home

A woodstove was likely to blame for a fire that damaged a South Hill home Thursday morning.

Spokane police controlled traffic as crews quickly knocked down the fire that started in the basement of the home at 2627 Southeast Blvd., Battalion Chief Steve Sabo said.

Nobody was home at the time of the fire, which was reported at 10:05 a.m., Sabo said.

The blaze caused extensive damage to the basement and crawled up one wall. Also, firefighters knocked out most of the home’s windows to ventilate the house.

“It’s not going to be habitable for a while,” Sabo said.

Watch video from the scene.

OCEAN SHORES, Wash.

Canisters on shore likely held poison

Unmarked silver canisters washing up along the Washington coast for the past year probably held poisonous fumigants for ridding ships of rats and should be avoided, state officials said.

Hundreds of the one-liter canisters, apparently made in China, have been found from Ocean Shores to Ozette since last March but came to the attention of the state Ecology Department only last weekend when some were displayed at the Beachcomber’s Fun Fair at Ocean Shores, officials said.

Steve Green, a docent at the Ocean Shores Information Center, said he was told during the festival that some people opened the canisters and sniffed at the contents. Since then, officials have begun posting photographs of the canisters and information sheets from Ecology.

State and Coast Guard officials are collecting and disposing of the containers, each about 10 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. Anyone who sees a canister has been asked to report the location to the state agency’s environmental hot line, (360) 407-6300.

Douglas L. Stolz, an Ecology spokesman, said each canister apparently contained 500 aluminum phosphide tablets to be spread throughout ship holds.

When the tablets are exposed to air, a chemical reaction releases a gas that is intended to kill rats and other vermin, Stolz said.

SEATTLE

Ferry once again up for eBay auction

The Washington state ferry Chinook is up for sale again on eBay.

The 10-year-old passenger-only boat was advertised last month with a minimum bid of $4.5 million. There were no takers, but Traci Brewer-Rogstad, the ferry system’s deputy executive director, says there were some telephone calls of interest.

The Chinook was re-listed Tuesday at the same minimum price, and as of Thursday morning no bids were listed.

The boat was used on runs between Seattle and Bremerton but has been mothballed for four years.

MOSES LAKE

Animal shelter opens after deaths

The lone animal shelter in Grant County has been reopened after an 18-day shutdown in which 58 dogs and puppies died or were put down because of illness, mostly pneumonia caused by kennel cough.

The Grant County Animal Outreach shelter was reopened Saturday following $24,000 worth of remodeling and sanitizing to reduce the chance of a future outbreak, President Harmony White said.

Seventeen dogs that were in the shelter at the start of the outbreak survived.

Of the 50 cats at the shelter, some contracted other ailments, mostly upper respiratory illnesses, because of poor air circulation, but none had to be euthanized, she said.

Tests at the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Washington State University indicated pneumonia was largely to blame for the dog deaths, which included several litters of puppies, White said.