In brief: Naked fisherman arrested at lake
The wildlife at West Medical Lake on Sunday was maybe a little wilder than the law will allow, deputies said.
A father and two sons reported seeing a naked man fishing along the shore while they boated nearby.
Spokane County deputies arrested Dean H. Meginniss, 54, of Spokane Valley, on a felony charge of indecent exposure following the 2:15 p.m. incident.
Staff at a nearby resort said they had been hearing complaints for weeks about a naked man fishing at the lake.
Meginniss was also wanted on an arrest warrant for stalking, and his rap sheet includes a conviction for indecent exposure in 2009.
Police identify railroad victim
The 33-year-old Rathdrum man killed while trying to drive across BNSF railroad tracks in Rathdrum was identified Monday as Henry John Parent Jr.
He died after his 1992 GMC was struck Sunday by a westbound train.
The incident about 8:20 a.m. occurred near the intersection of state highways 41 and 53.
Rathdrum Police Chief Kevin Fuhr said that Parent was accompanied by a friend in another vehicle, but that person was not hit.
Missing man’s body recovered
The body of a 67-year-old Inchelium, Wash., man was recovered over the weekend near the Columbia River after he had been missing since early August.
Daniel E. Calhoun apparently fell down a cliff near his home and his body was obscured by brush midway down the cliff face, Ferry County officials said.
He had been missing since Aug. 2, according to the Colville Tribal Police. A search was conducted on Aug. 6, but he was not located at that time.
Teen cited in crash with squad car
A Spokane Valley police sergeant struck a young driver who turned in front of him as he approached the police station in his patrol car Monday, police said.
Sgt. Mark Nygren was not injured but the airbag deployed in his car, and the vehicle was towed from the scene, along with a 1988 Honda Accord driven by Chandra Lamarr, 18, of Hayden.
Nygren was driving east on Sprague Avenue when Lamarr pulled out from the police station driveway and turned left onto Sprague after waiting for pedestrians, according to a news release. Nygren’s car struck the driver’s door of Lamarr’s Honda about 2:30 p.m., police said.
Lamarr had a minor cut on one of her wrists but was otherwise uninjured. She was given a $175 ticket for failing to yield the right of way.
Food bank truck to deliver produce
Second Harvest will unveil its new food distribution truck at a ceremony today at the West Central Community Center.
The Kraft Foods Mobile Pantry truck, which Second Harvest is calling a farmers market on wheels, will be used to provide fresh produce to low-income clients in the Spokane area.
The $100,000 truck is one of 10 donated across the nation this year by the Kraft Foods Foundation in partnership with Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief organization, and local retail partner Albertsons.
The event is at 10 a.m. at the center, 1603 N. Belt St. in Spokane.
Insurer IUD policy results in fine
OLYMPIA – The state’s second-largest insurance company was fined $100,000 for improperly denying coverage to women seeking to remove a common birth control device. Regence Blue Shield was also ordered to reimburse 984 women across the state for the cost of removing the intrauterine devices, the state Insurance Commissioner’s office said.
Regence had a policy that paid for the insertion of an IUD, but not for its removal unless it was deemed “medically necessary.” That meant claims were denied for women who wanted their birth control device removed because they wanted to become pregnant or because the device was outdated.
A woman complained to the Insurance Commissioner’s office, which ruled Regence’s policy violated a policy that requires insurance companies that cover prescription drugs must cover contraceptives and the procedures necessary to remove them.
Wind flips plane; pilot escapes harm
A 23-year-old pilot was uninjured Monday when a gust of wind caused his crop-dusting airplane to flip over at an Oakesdale landing strip.
Stephen Vanderbeek reported that he had landed his Grumman Ag-Cat when the wind lifted the aircraft tail, causing the accident.
The Whitman County Sheriff’s Office said the 9 a.m. accident occurred at a private air strip near the Oakesdale Cemetery along state Highway 27. The plane’s owner was identified as Darrel Fender.