Region in brief: Youth coach wins scratch lottery

Youth football coach Chris Bethely was on his way home from practice Monday when he stopped at the Albertsons store on Nevada Street at Lyons Avenue in Spokane.

He purchased two scratch lottery tickets from a vending machine and waited until he returned to his vehicle to play them. The second ticket was a $50,000 winner.

“I didn’t think it was real,” he said. “It’s still kind of like a dream.”

Bethely, who exchanged the ticket for a check Tuesday, told lottery officials that he wanted to pay off a few bills, donate to his church and give some money to his mother. After that, he said he was going to “see what my wife wants to do with the rest of it.”

Bethely works as a computer analyst for Eastern Washington University.

Drug bust suspect will stay in custody

A Canadian citizen arrested in Eastern Washington with 80 pounds of cocaine will remain in federal custody, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Michael B. Yuill, 36, of Salmon Arm, B.C., has been in Spokane County Jail since his Oct. 7 arrest on the Colville Indian Reservation. Federal agents found 38 kilos of cocaine in his rented Nissan sport utility vehicle, according to court documents.

Following a bail hearing, U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno ruled there isn’t proof Yuill has a plan for his release that would ensure he’d appear for court dates.

Returning a purse gets man shot

What police describe as two men’s effort to return a missing purse resulted in one of them being shot in the face early Wednesday. Spokane police later arrested a man suspected in the incident.

The man shot in the jaw walked to Deaconess Medical Center for treatment and was later released.

Kyle I. Henrickson, 19, was arrested in the 6500 block of North Walnut Street in Spokane and was booked into county jail on two counts of first-degree assault.

Nicholas J. Sherman, 23, was helping return an acquaintance’s purse after it had been retrieved from a party, police said. Sherman and Kyle G. Williamson arranged to have the woman pick up the purse at a convenience store at Second Avenue and Thor Street, according to officers.

The woman showed up with a boyfriend, police said, and he apparently believed the men were going to hurt her or steal from her.

The boyfriend approached the two men, who were in a car, and struck Williamson, the driver, with a handgun, which fired a shot into Sherman’s jaw, police said.

Younger kids may need two flu shots

Children younger than 10 will likely need two doses of the swine flu vaccine to be fully protected: the first shot or nasal spray, followed several weeks later by a booster.

Julie Graham, spokeswoman for the Spokane Regional Health District, said young children don’t have fully developed immune systems, making the swine flu vaccine booster shots necessary.

The two-dose regimen may be inconvenient, but federal officials say it’s not unexpected.

Children in the age group need two doses of seasonal flu vaccine the first time they are vaccinated to develop full immunity.

For adults, one dose of the higher-strength vaccines is ample, according to reports.

For more information about swine flu vaccines, call the health district hot line at (509) 324-1495.

Police say pair sold pot to STA officer

Two women appeared in Spokane County Superior Court on Wednesday on charges that they sold marijuana to a uniformed security officer with Spokane Transit Authority.

Mike Hill was patrolling the downtown STA Plaza on Tuesday when Judy C. Kirchoff, 18, and Crystal M. Weissenfels, 29, asked if he was a cop, police said Wednesday.

After Hill said he could only arrest people for “certain crimes,” Weissenfels asked him if he’d like to buy marijuana, according to police.

“Hill told the gals he only had $5, and they told him they would sell him what they had for $20,” Officer Jennifer DeRuwe said in a news release. Hill contacted two neighborhood police officers, then returned with $20 and gave it to the women in exchange for a small bag of marijuana, police said.

The officers arrested Kirchoff and Weissenfels on suspicion of delivery of a controlled substance.