S-R’s 7 content will be repackaged
The Spokesman-Review’s weekly tabloid entertainment section, 7, is being discontinued, and elements of the section will be repackaged for print and digital distribution.
On Thursdays, the Today section will focus on performing and visual arts. On Fridays, 7 content will be inserted into Today as a special pull-out guide to upcoming events.
Friday’s Today section will also devote additional space to movie reviews and news.
The Spokane7.com Web site will become an events database, with the information that will be available on cell phones and PDAs at spokane7.com/mobile.
Check today’s 7 section for more details.
Short pleads guilty to theft from fair
Mitch J. Short, husband of the 7th Legislative District’s recently elected Republican state Rep. Shelly Short, pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree theft for stealing $3,318 from a volunteer fair organization in Colville.
Short, 46, told Spokane Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt that he was sorry for his actions. He has repaid the money to the nonprofit Northeast Washington Fair Association.
Sypolt found Short guilty of the gross misdemeanor, a reduction from the original charge of aggravated first-degree theft.
He was sentenced to 365 days in jail with 360 suspended and the remaining five days converted to community service.
The judge ordered the Deer Park businessman to be booked and released at the Stevens County Jail and remain on probation for one year.
Shelly Short ran former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt’s Colville office for 10 years and also worked as U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ deputy district director for a couple of years.
She was one of five candidates, all Republicans, who this year sought the state House seat being vacated by Bob Sump, R-Republic.
Post Falls
Police seek son of dead woman
Post Falls police continue to search for 18-year-old Kristopher Loesch in an effort to ensure he’s OK, officials said Thursday.
Kristopher’s mother, Tina R. Loesch, and her partner, Skye Hanson, were found shot to death in Tucson, Ariz., three hours after “America’s Most Wanted” profiled the women as being wanted on murder charges.
The two women were suspected in the killing of Tina’s mother, Barbara Loesch, 10 years ago in Post Falls.
Hanson and Loesch lived in Tucson for eight years. Kristopher reportedly was sent to live with his father, and was last seen in Spokane, Post Falls police said.
The 18-year-old has at least two aliases, Kristopher Hanson and Kristopher Robins, said Post Falls police Lt. Pat Knight.
Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call (208) 773-3517.
Spokane Valley
Driver crashes into mobile home
A 77-year-old man apparently suffering from a medical problem crashed his pickup through three fences and caved in the side of a mobile home before stopping.
Numerous people narrowly escaped the truck’s path, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Dave Reagan.
The driver, Billy Lee Benefield, told them he’d taken an antibiotic prescribed by a dentist he was on his way to see for an appointment.
Benefield was headed east in the 8000 block of East Appleway Boulevard about 8:15 a.m. Thursday when the truck went out of control, Reagan said.
The truck left the road and crashed into a chain link fence, narrowly missing an SUV parked there for sale.
The pickup went back onto the roadway and crossed over to the opposite side and crashed through a second fence.
The truck again entered the roadway and crossed to the other side, smashing through a third fence, flying off a low embankment and coming to a stop halfway through the side of a recently remodeled mobile home in the Vista Mobile Home Park, Reagan said.
The residents were at the other end of the home, and were not hurt.
No citations were issued.
Seatac, Wash.
Airport opens third runway
Low clouds and showers were perfect for Thursday’s dedication of a new Seattle-Tacoma International Airport runway that cost more than $1 billion, nearly five times the original estimate.
At 150 feet wide and 17 inches thick, the first new runway at the 61-year-old airport since 1973 was intended mainly to reduce weather-related flight delays.
Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters directed air traffic controllers to clear the new 8,500-foot ribbon of concrete for the first takeoff, an Alaska Airlines flight to Denver.
With two runways available for simultaneous use at times of rain and low cloud ceiling, Port of Seattle and Federal Aviation Administration officials expect to reduce delays considerably at the nation’s 18th-busiest airport.
“Today Seattle is delivering on a 20-year promise,” Peters told a crowd of about 400.
She added, “This new runway is going to make traveling in and out of Sea-Tac about as easy as, well, finding a latte in Seattle.”
Gov. Chris Gregoire praised the environmental sensitivity incorporated in the construction and said the project was vital for Washington.
The runway project received $301 million in federal airport improvement funds.
The local share is being financed through fees of $4.50 a passenger.