In brief: Call to Mom leads to suspect’s arrest

Wed., April 27, 2011

A 15-year-old car prowler was arrested Monday after he left his cell phone inside a vehicle and the owner called his mother, Spokane Valley police said.

A woman living in the 10110 block of East Fourth Avenue on Monday found the phone on the front seat of her ransacked car that had been parked in front of her home.

The woman called the number saved in the phone under “Mom,” and the woman who answered said the phone belonged to her son. The boy told Officer Darell Stidham that items stolen from the woman’s car were located under his bed at his home in the 9800 block of East Sixth Avenue, according to a news release.

Stidham also found a metal pipe with fresh marijuana while arresting the teen.

The boy was booked into Spokane County Juvenile Detention on charges of third-degree possession of stolen property, third-degree theft, vehicle prowling and possession of marijuana.

Senate reappoints Jones to panel

The Washington state Senate has confirmed Spokane native Philip Jones’ appointment to a second six-year term on the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

Jones will serve until Jan. 1, 2017.

Jones, 58, graduated from Shadle Park High School and Harvard University. Jones was appointed to the three-member regulatory commission in 2005.

The commission’s duties include reviewing utilities’ requests for rate increases. Before his appointment, Jones served as managing director of Cutter & Buck sportswear company in Europe and was a senior legislative assistant to former U.S. Sen. Daniel J. Evans, R-Washington.

Jones earns $114,550 per year on the commission.

Idaho water tests find no radiation

Samples of drinking water from municipal water systems in Idaho show no evidence of elevated levels of radioactive iodine-131, according to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality.

In an effort to determine whether radiation from the Japan nuclear incident had contaminated drinking water in Idaho, DEQ tested samples from Coeur d’Alene, Bonners Ferry, Wallace, Priest River, Boise and other cities.

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