In brief: Three-vehicle collision injures 2

Two people were injured when a semi tractor backing across a highway was struck by a school bus and a pickup truck Wednesday morning, the Washington State Patrol said.

The accident occurred about a mile north of Usk on state Route 20 at 7 a.m. Tamara Bland, 51, of Creston, B.C., was driving the Peterbilt tractor to connect to a trailer on the opposite shoulder in foggy conditions, a WSP news release said. A 1997 Ford Ranger driven by 16-year-old Usk resident Warren Piengkham struck the tractor from the south, and a school bus driven by Newport resident Candea Balcom, 36, struck it from the north.

All drivers involved were wearing seat belts, the release said. Piengkham and Balcom were taken to area hospitals. Bland was not injured.

The WSP was investigating the incident and said charges were possible.

Five habituated bears euthanized

KALISPELL, Mont. – State wildlife officials captured and euthanized five black bears in northwestern Montana over the past couple of days after neighbors complained a Heron-area resident was feeding them.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Capt. Lee Anderson says the bears were extremely habituated and food conditioned and posed a danger to people who lived in the Heron area, near the Montana-Idaho border.

One of the adult male bears weighed 485 pounds while an 18-year-old female weighed 290 pounds. Anderson said the weights are unusually high for black bears.

Officials will continue to monitor the area to make sure all the habituated bears have been removed.

Drawings delay inmate’s release

BOISE – A woman who was about to be released from an Idaho prison will stay behind bars a while longer because federal prosecutors say she mailed threatening stick-figure drawings to a relative.

Linda Joyce Lakes was serving time on probation violations stemming from a 2007 grand theft sentence and was supposed to be released last week. But earlier this month, the U.S. attorney’s office charged her with mailing threatening communications, a felony.

Prosecutors say that in 2010, Lakes mailed a drawing apparently depicting one stick figure happily walking away after beating another stick figure with a baseball bat. Prosecutors say the drawing also included the words, “No more you.”

Lineman dies in fall near Idaho border

A 34-year-old Bonneville Power Administration lineman has died after falling from a transmission tower near the Montana-Idaho border.

KREM-TV reported lineman Matthew Karstetter fell more than 100 feet on Sept. 20.

The accident is still under investigation.

BPA spokesman Doug Johnson said the fall happened near Bryson, Montana.

Karstetter joined the BPA in June 2004. He worked on the Kalispell, Mont., transmission line maintenance crew until graduating from the apprentice program in 2008. Most recently, he worked as a journeyman on a transmission line crew in Spokane.

Johnson said a few days before his death, Karstetter was lowered to the wires by helicopter to rescue a crewman suffering from dehydration. The Yakima native is survived by his wife and daughter.

Veterans cemetery to be expanded

BOISE – The Idaho Veterans Cemetery is receiving a $2.5 million grant to expand its capacity with more burial sites.

Without the expansion, officials said the cemetery would run out of burial sites by 2016 and the columbarium that holds cremated remains would be at capacity by 2015.

The cemetery plans to use grant money from the Department of Veterans Administration to install nearly 2,900 additional burial sites and add roughly 3,700 spaces to the columbarium. The project will likely start in early October and finish next August.

Drones being used to check on Elwha

PORT ANGELES, Wash. – Scientists are using remote-control planes to record video of changes in the Elwha River following the removal of two Olympic Peninsula dams.

The drones called Ravens were used in June and were back in the air this week to record high-definition video and thermal images for the U. S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.

The Peninsula Daily News reports the video will help estimate how much sediment is spilling into the Strait of Juan de Fuca following the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams. The images also show changes in the riverside habitat.

The 4-foot wide Raven is made by AeroVironment of Monrovia, Calif.