Preservation group seeking volunteers
The Spokane Preservation Advocates are asking for volunteers to help in two work projects this month, including an “unveiling” of a historic property in the Logan neighborhood on Saturday.
The Doing-It Committee of SPA is holding a work project to remove metal siding from a 1916 turreted home at 527 E. Nora Ave. from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Volunteers are being sought.
Trees are also being planted in the neighborhood.
Volunteers are asked to bring tools such as pry bars, shovels, rakes, pruners and pickaxes and sturdy clothes and shoes, including gloves.
On April 25, members of SPA will return to the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens for a volunteer cleanup from 9 a.m. to noon at Pioneer Park at Seventh Avenue and Stevens Street. Similar work parties have been held in recent years.
Health officials issue tick warning
The downside of this spring’s belatedly warm weather? Ticks.
People should be on the watch for the tiny bloodsuckers, say officials with the Spokane Regional Health District.
The Spokane area has two types of disease-carrying ticks. The first is soft ticks, which can infect people with relapsing fever, the most common tick-borne disease in the area. Soft ticks bite and feed on a host at night and then drop, so people may not know they’ve been bitten.
Symptoms include fever, chills, headaches and muscle aches. In some cases a person might vomit, have a rash, become nauseated or have abdominal pain. The symptoms may continue for several days, stop and then recur perhaps as many as five or six times.
The second type is the so-called hard tick. It bites and burrows under the skin of people and animals and could infect with tick paralysis or Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Health officials recommend removing the tick by grasping it with tweezers or a tissue and pulling it straight out.
Medical treatment is encouraged if someone bitten by a tick exhibits disease symptoms.
BOISE
Education Board president chosen
A Moscow, Idaho, attorney and University of Idaho graduate has been named president of the state Board of Education for a yearlong term ending in April 2010.
Paul Agidius, who has a private law practice in North Idaho, was appointed to the board in 2001 and named president during a meeting of the trustees Thursday.
Agidius replaces Milford Terrell, who owns a Boise plumbing and mechanical company and was appointed to the board in 2003. Terrell has served as board president since 2007.
The Education Board governs higher education in Idaho and has eight members. All but one of the positions on the board – the state superintendent of public instruction – are appointed by the governor.
AUBURN, Wash.
Students charged with spiking coffee
Two Auburn teenagers have been charged with spiking a teacher’s coffee with a medicinal syrup that made her ill.
King County prosecutors on Thursday charged a 14-year-old and 13-year-old with fourth-degree assault.
Court papers allege the 14-year-old brought a bottle of ipecac syrup to Sequoyah Middle School on Monday and that the boys poured it into the teacher’s coffee cup. Ipecac induces vomiting; the teacher became ill and was checked at a hospital.
A sheriff’s report says the 13-year-old was mad at the teacher for sending him to the office.
If convicted in Juvenile Court, the boys could face up to 30 days in detention, 150 hours of community service and a year of community supervision.
From staff and wire reports