Region in brief: ‘WarrantFest’ is chance to clear cases
Spokane residents with outstanding misdemeanor warrants can to go court this week and get those legal problems fixed.
However, Spokane Municipal Court officials are not offering amnesty or waiving any fines as part of “WarrantFest,” city spokeswoman Marlene Feist said.
“Typically, most warrants are for failures to appear or failure to set a court date,” Feist said. “The judge will have to decide how to resolve the issue, but it doesn’t mean they are waiving anything.”
Anyone with an active misdemeanor warrant filed within the city can appear in Courtroom C in the Superior Court Annex of the Spokane County Courthouse between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday to talk to a judge. Attorneys from the city’s Public Defender’s Office will be available to offer assistance, Feist said.
Although no amnesty is being offered, the event is designed to offer an incentive to clear cases, she said.
“If you get stopped for a traffic violation, you won’t have to worry about any outstanding bench warrants,” Feist said.
Dentist office offers cash for candy
A Spokane-area dentist office is putting its money where your mouth is by paying kids $1 a pound for Halloween candy.
Last year, KiDDs Dental collected 386 pounds of candy, which it donated to U.S. troops through Operation Gratitude.
“Kids can still have all of the fun of trick-or-treating, and now their piggy banks will benefit as well,” said Dr. Jared Evans, of KiDDs Dental.
The office also will give away glowing electric toothbrushes to children who turn over their Halloween stash from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 2 at KiDDS Dental/EPJ Orthodontics, 1327 N. Stanford Lane, Suite B in Liberty Lake and the KiDDS Place, 506 E. Hastings Road in Spokane. The candy must be unopened.
Smiths Ferry developers face EPA fines
Developers of a Smiths Ferry, Idaho, subdivision are facing fines of up to $125,000 for storm water violations impacting the North Fork of the Payette River, the EPA announced Monday.
The agency said Sal Gallucci, JJS Southwest LLC and Whitehawk Land Development Corp. failed to apply for a construction general permit under the Clean Water Act before building roads at the Whitehawk Subdivision from 2005 to 2009. Inspections in 2008 and 2009 at the 850-acre property showed that storm water contaminated with sediment, sand, dirt and more was washing into the river as a result of the work.
Father-son Turkey Bowl planned
The Turkey Bowl, a football event for fathers and sons, will return this year to Spokane Valley.
As many as 200 people, including 40 players in four teams, are expected to attend the single-elimination tournament at the Spokane Shock’s training facility, 3212 N. Eden Road, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 22.
Corporate sponsors include the Shock, the Seattle Seahawks and numerous Spokane-area restaurants and retailers, said Martin Herford, event organizer.
BLM plans Okanogan County burns
The Bureau of Land Management will be burning debris piles in Okanogan County beginning Monday to reduce fuels in an effort to prevent wildfires.
The burns will take place on BLM public lands about a mile northwest of Conconully, Wash., north of Mineral Hill County Road. The burn is needed to reduce excess fuels and disease levels, and to reintroduce fire to the ecosystem, officials said. No roads will be closed, but some smoke may be visible.
Colville forest receives stimulus money
The Colville National Forest received $1.8 million in economic stimulus funds for forest health improvement projects in Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille Counties, the U.S. Security of Agriculture announced Monday.
The money will pay for more than a dozen projects including thinning and removing diseased trees from forest lands. The money will put local contractors to work restoring forest health conditions on federal, state and private forest and rangelands recovering from fires, forest insects and disease outbreaks, officials said.
Colville officials will begin advertising and awarding bids for the projects to local companies in early 2010. They include six projects in Ferry County, two in Pend Oreille, and five in Stevens County.
Judge declines to suspend finance laws
TACOMA – Opponents of stronger legal partnerships for gay couples must abide by Washington state’s campaign finance laws while a lawsuit challenging those laws’ constitutional footing moves ahead, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The lawsuit was filed by a week-old political action committee called Family PAC, part of a socially conservative Lynnwood political group called the Family Policy Institute of Washington. Family PAC is opposed to Referendum 71.
Family PAC’s lawsuit argues that two state campaign finance laws violate constitutional free speech rights: a ban on donations above $5,000 in the three weeks before Election Day, and a requirement to identify everyone who contributes more than $25.
On Tuesday, the committee was asking for an emergency suspension of those laws. U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton refused the request.