In brief: Website questions safety of Spokane
A website emerged Thursday that questions the safety of Spokane and the staffing levels of the Spokane Police Department.
Fliers advertising SpokaneSucks.com appeared Thursday morning throughout the city.
The website is linked to Jared Bartlett, 28, of Post Falls. Bartlett, a former Gonzaga University student, did not respond to requests from The Spokesman-Review for comment Thursday.
The website’s creator paid to keep his or her name off registration information, but Bartlett’s name, age and town of residence are included in the site’s coding.
Bartlett is a poker player who’s active on poker websites. He posted on a site’s “off topic” discussion board Tuesday and asked “if it is possible to buy a domain name and not have other people know you own it?”
Bartlett wrote Wednesday that he plans to create a political action committee, along with the website. “I’m SICK and TIRED of the … crime in spokane (the city I used to live in, and own my rental property in),” the post reads.
Cruelty charges follow seizure of animals
A woman has been charged with felony animal cruelty after emaciated animals, including a duck, were seized from her property near Long Lake in April.
Sigrid Birgitta Winney, 63, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and is scheduled for trial Oct. 22.
Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service Officer Darlene Brumley responded to a complaint of five goats with no food or water at Winney’s property at 29116 W. Long Lake Road on April 9.
A confidential informant showed Brumley another property at 15857 N. Coyote Ridge Road where six goats were being kept without food and water, and two dogs were tethered to a tree.
Winney said “she had not actually put her hands on the animals over the winter, as she had been feeding in the dark at night,” according to court documents.
Winney is charged with first-degree animal cruelty, second-degree animal cruelty, confining animals in an unsafe manner and operating a dog kennel without a license.
Woman arrested in computer theft case
A Spokane woman was arrested after police connected her to a fraud based in Nigeria.
Karen Wanell Jones, 55, is accused of shipping 24 stolen computers valued at nearly $14,000 to Nigeria and Ghana.
Police say the computers were obtained by a forged purchasing order through Spokane Public Schools.
Terren Roloff, spokeswoman for Spokane Public Schools, said employees noticed two unauthorized purchasing orders last month.
Police contacted Jones last May because of her involvement in selling a handgun and sending the proceeds to a bogus bank account overseas.
“After being warned that this type of activity is connected to illegal activity, Jones continued to be a willing participant and was subsequently arrested by detectives for her involvement in the latest investigation,” Spokane police crime analyst Tom Michaud said in a news release.
Jones faces a first-degree theft charge.
Rain gardens to be required for runoff
Washington will begin requiring municipalities to use “rain gardens” and pervious pavement in new urban developments to combat rainwater pollution flowing into the state’s waterways, officials announced Wednesday.
The new “low-impact development” practices will be phased in over the next few years in an attempt to minimize the fiscal impact on local governments, the state Department of Ecology said.
“Stormwater is the No. 1 water pollution problem for populated areas,” said Ted Sturdevant, director of Ecology.
The requirements will be in use in Eastern Washington by the end of 2017.
Rain gardens are planted depressions featuring soil and shrubs that allow rainwater runoff to soak into the ground. Pervious pavement also allows runoff to filter into the soil.
“It’s a whole lot easier and cheaper to prevent runoff and pollution as we plan our developments than to try to manage stormwater after the fact,” Sturdevant said.