In brief: One killed, one injured when truck crashes

A 24-year-old Spokane man died early Saturday when his truck launched over a guardrail. Another young man was seriously injured.

Police responded to the crash at 2:16 a.m.

Tyler Menghini was driving his 2004 Chevrolet K1 pickup north on North Maple Street when he hit the guardrail in the 3200 block. His truck became airborne, landed, rolled and crashed into two parked cars.

The truck then crashed into a house, a garage, a retaining wall and a parked car. One wheel was ripped off the truck and landed on another parked car about half a block away.

Menghini, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

His 22-year-old passenger, who was wearing a seat belt, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said.

Investigators believe alcohol and speed may have been factors, though toxicology results are not expected to be back for at least four to six weeks.

Chelsea Bannach

Group cites habitat in anti-logging suit

BOISE – A conservation group has filed a lawsuit in federal court to block a logging project planned near Priest Lake in North Idaho.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed the lawsuit last week challenging a U.S. Forest Service decision to harvest timber in parts of more than 29,300 acres in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest.

The acreage is located near Nordman, Idaho, on the west side of Priest Lake.

The lawsuit claims the project is in three watersheds listed by the state as impaired waters. It also alleges that logging and burning would wipe out or damage hundreds of acres of habitat for lynx, fishers, grizzly bears and goshawks.

The group’s director, Michael Garrity, says the forest service has failed to properly consider the potential impact logging would have on species and water resources.

Associated Press