In brief: Parked-car violations pile up amid snowfall

Spokane parking enforcement officers issued about 20 tickets to the owners of vehicles who didn’t obey the city’s snow emergency rules late last week.

Street Director Mark Serbousek said the city issued the $30 tickets along some narrow residential streets where parking along both sides made it extremely difficult for plows to clear snow. But, he added, the rule was violated throughout the city.

Jonathan Brunt

Report of robbers yields few clues

A Spokane woman said she and her roommate were “hog-tied” during a home invasion Sunday night by four to five “black males,” police said.

The caller said the men forced their way into her apartment with handguns, had fired a gun in the home and that there was blood on the floor, a news release from the Spokane Police Department said.

Spokane police responded to 911 E. Beacon Ave. around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. They found no other reports of gunfire and used a police dog to search for the men, but were unsuccessful.

The women could not provide much description, except to say the robbers were wearing bandanas over their faces, the release said. One woman was missing her car keys. Officers found blood on the floor, but no apparent victim. The woman who reported the incident did not know how the blood got on the floor.

Hospitals were contacted and asked to call police if a possible victim showed up.

Alison Boggs

Forest Service buys rights in watershed

The U.S. Forest Service is spending $9.5 million to buy development rights on nearly 30,000 acres of private forest in the Kootenai River watershed.

The deal includes 28,000 acres of Stimson Lumber Co.’s timberland near Troy, Mont., and 1,700 acres of other private forest near Bonners Ferry. The development rights were purchased through the Forest Legacy program.

The acreage near Bonners Ferry includes habitat for grizzly bears, lynx and caribou, said Karen Sjoquist, Forest Legacy coordinator for the Idaho Department of Lands. A large elk herd uses the area, which is also home to a resident wolf pack. The acreage lies within a wildlife travel corridor between the Selkirk, Purcell and Cabinet mountain ranges.

Purchase of the development rights will prevent subdivisions and keep the acreage privately owned. Logging, farming and other traditional uses will continue.

Becky Kramer