In brief: Student groups plan community dinner
A group of Gonzaga University students is inviting the community to a free dinner tonight to encourage people from different social backgrounds, including the homeless, to meet and mingle.
“You hear about homelessness and poverty, and we think it helps to have a face to put on it,” said David Whitehead, 20, a sophomore from San Antonio. “If you meet with homeless people and talk to them over dinner, you perhaps get pushed a little outside of your comfort box, but you’ll also understand them better.”
Students from Whitworth and Eastern Washington universities are also part of the planning group.
More than 175 people have signed up. Sodexho Food Services is donating food for the dinner, which will take place in Cataldo Hall from 5 to 7 p.m. Reservations are required by calling (509) 321-5807 or e-mailing FoodThought4@gmail.com.
– Pia Hallenberg Christensen
Region
Health officials warn against eating fish
Washington Department of Health officials cautioned against eating fish caught in a portion of the Spokane River and other bodies of water because of possible contamination.
The department also advised limiting consumption of burbot and largescale sucker caught in Lake Roosevelt to no more than four meals a month. The department already has an advisory that walleye from the lake be eaten no more than twice a month because of mercury contamination.
No fish from the Spokane River, from the Upriver Dam to the Idaho state line, should be eaten because of polychlorinated biphenyls – or PCB – contamination.
Largescale sucker caught between Upriver Dam and Nine Mile dam should not be eaten, and all other fish species in that stretch of river should be eaten no more than once a month.
Largescale sucker and brown trout caught in Long Lake should not be consumed more than once a month.
– John Stucke
Three people killed in two crashes
At least three people died in auto accidents Wednesday.
Two Colfax teenagers were killed in a one-car accident on Glenwood Road about five miles northeast of Colfax around 5:15 p.m., according to the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office.
Chantel L. Sullivan, 18, and Dalton R. Derooy, 13, died at the scene after Sullivan lost control of 1993 Ford Taurus she was driving while rounding a corner, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The car apparently rolled once before landing upside down in a creek.
A 15-year-old female passenger was taken to a local hospital with what officials described as non-life threatening injuries. Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors in the crash, but authorities believe speed and inattentive driving may have played a role.
In North Idaho, a motorist was killed when a car crashed near milepost 78 along U.S. Highway 2 in Boundary County, according to the Idaho State Police.
The crash was reported about 5:45 p.m.; no other details were available.
– Meghann M. Cuniff