In brief: Driver hits runner twice by road; suspect in jail

A 33-year-old runner from Royal City, Wash., was injured after being intentionally hit by a car – twice – Sunday evening in Grant County. A suspect, Saul Angeles Pamas, 23, has been jailed.

Jackie Monney was running at 6 p.m. along Road 10 SE near state Route 262 when a white sedan approached her and stopped, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

The driver asked if Monney wanted a ride and she declined, the department said. The driver reportedly turned the sedan around and drove past Monney, then turned around again and swerved to hit her from behind, knocking her down. The driver turned the car around again and hit Monney a second time, dragging her a short distance before fleeing the scene, the release said.

August Bress

State GOP party chair leaves for job in D.C.

Washington State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur resigned Monday afternoon, saying he was taking a job at a conservative youth organization in Washington, D.C., that was too good to pass up.

Wilbur, 59, a former conservative talk show host who still fills in on Seattle’s KVI radio, is in the middle of his second term as the state GOP chairman, a post he won in 2011 by defeating then-Chairman Luke Esser.

“I have been offered a five-year-contract with the Young America’s Foundation that I would be foolish not to accept,” he said.The state GOP Central Committee has 90 days to choose a replacement. That could happen at its scheduled quarterly meeting on Aug. 23-24 in Spokane, a party spokesman said.

Jim Camden

Apartment fire suspect waives bail hearing

A man accused of starting the fire that burned down a Pullman apartment complex waived his bail hearing in federal court Monday in Spokane.

Investigators allege Bryan L. Kitchen, 31, set fire to the Grove apartment construction site on July 14. He faces charges of setting fire to property used in interstate commerce.

Kitchen said in Whitman County Superior Court last week that he was drunk July 14 and a voice in his head told him to burn down the complex.

The fire caused $13 million in damage and destroyed 88 units, leaving some Washington State University students scrambling to find housing.

Thomas Clouse

Man who shot own leg sentenced to prison

A felon who shot himself in the leg is going back to prison for illegally possessing the gun in the first place.

Byron C. Prince, 49, will spend 180 months behind bars, a stiff sentence based on a federal judge’s declaration that Prince is an “armed career criminal.” A jury convicted Prince in April after he shot himself in the leg with a .22-caliber pistol during an argument.

Thomas Clouse