In brief: Volkswagen draws bid of $30,250

A 1965 Volkswagen bus that was stolen 35 years ago in Spokane, and then discovered on a shipping container headed for Europe, was sold in an online auction Friday for $30,250.

The name of the buyer wasn’t available Friday, but it wasn’t Michele “Mikey” Squires, the Spokane woman who owned the van back in the 1970s before it was stolen. Squires’ story attracted national attention after the van – refurbished and retitled – was seized on a ship. A German had paid more than $20,000 for it.

Allstate Insurance Co. auctioned the van and donated the proceeds to Lydia Place, a homeless shelter in Bellingham. Allstate paid Squires a claim of $2,500 when the van was stolen in 1974.

Squires said her boyfriend put in a bid for $27,000 – much more than they had initially figured they could afford – but was outbid.

Fire drives four from apartment

An adult and three children were displaced from their northeast Spokane apartment Friday after a fire in a bedroom, the Spokane Fire Department reported.

Crews were called to an apartment building at 4822 N. Nelson St. about 11:30 a.m. on the report of smoke coming from a second floor unit. Firefighters found a small blaze in the bedroom of one unit in the complex, and quickly extinguished it.

Damage was contained to the one apartment, fire officials said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Man convicted of kidnap, robbery

A Spokane jury convicted a 33-year-old man Friday of kidnapping and robbing a woman after she bought him gas.

Jason P. Shepard forced 20-year-old Brittany C. Fields into her car just before 1 a.m. May 6 at the Albertsons station at 6616 N. Nevada St., then drove her to a residential area and stole her cell phone and debit card.

Fields used the card to buy Shepard $10 in gas after he said he needed to drive to a hospital to see his sick baby.

Shepard, who is in Spokane County Jail, will be sentenced Feb. 16 for first-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery and second-degree theft.

The jury of seven men and five women also convicted him of victimizing a good Samaritan, which increases his potential sentence.

His accomplice, Crystal L. Fuller, 26, was sentenced to 13 months in prison in October after pleading guilty to second-degree kidnapping and second-degree robbery.

Adult home loses license after probe

The state has notified the owner of a Spokane Valley adult family home that it will lose its license because it failed to protect five residents from the abusive behavior of a sixth resident.

Penny McKean, operator of the group home at 11901 E. 12th Ave., was ordered by the state Aging and Disability Services Administration to immediately discharge the resident because of mental, verbal and physical abuse of the other residents and to stop admitting new residents.

The notice of revocation followed an investigation of the group home that was completed in November. The investigation found several violations, including failure to train staff on how to prevent the abuse, failure to protect residents and failure to report the abuse, according to state documents.

Residents urged to check detectors

After two serious incidents recently involving carbon monoxide poisoning, the Spokane Fire Department is urging Spokane residents to check to make sure detectors are in working order.

Incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning typically rise in the winter months, as residents seek to keep warm, officials said. To prevent serious illness or death, every household with a fuel-burning device, such as gas furnace, water heater, stove or fireplace should install at least one detector, officials said.

Carbon monoxide cannot be seen, tasted or smelled, fire officials said. Symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, headaches, nausea and irregular breathing.

NIC selling tickets for annual raffle

Tickets are on sale for the North Idaho College Foundation’s largest annual fundraiser – the 17th annual Really BIG Raffle.

Only 5,000 tickets are sold at $100 apiece and prizes include a $265,000 three-bedroom, two- bathroom house, a $20,000 car, a $10,000 boat, a $3,500 travel package and a $2,000 shopping spree.

All raffle proceeds stay at NIC and will be used to pay for technology and equipment and support for programs and students, a college news release said.

The home is built by carpentry students, who gain hands-on experience under the supervision of instructor Dave McRae. Sponsors include Greenstone Homes and Stock Building Supply.

For more information, call (208) 769-3271 or visit www.nic.edu/rbr.

Dam spill aims to help sturgeon

BONNERS FERRY – Federal agencies will spill more water over Libby Dam next spring to encourage endangered white sturgeon to spawn in the Kootenai River.

The spills are intended to move sturgeon upstream from Bonners Ferry into an area with suitable spawning gravels.

Plans for the spills come after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that Libby Dam’s operations over the past two years did not help the fish as much as a team of regional biologists initially thought.

As part of a 2008 settlement with the state of Montana, the Kootenai Tribe and environmental groups, the federal government agreed to spill more water over the dam if other efforts to promote spawning failed.

Additional water will be released over the dam’s spillway for up to one week during the late spring from 2010 to 2012.