In brief: Woman with knives disarmed by officers

Spokane County deputies disarmed a woman wielding two large knives Sunday afternoon in Spokane Valley.

The woman charged responding Deputy Darell Stidham with the knives, but tripped and fell, allowing the deputy time to call for backup. She later apologized, saying she thought she needed to kill him because he was the devil dressed in a police uniform.

Deputies fired a total of six nonlethal beanbag rounds to subdue the woman after she ignored commands to drop the knives. She was placed in handcuffs and treated at the scene before being transported to a hospital, a news release from the sheriff’s office said.

A neighbor initially reported that the woman was behaving erratically on the 13700 block of East Rich Avenue, and said she was waving a box cutter and saying something about the devil locking her out of her home. She was not charged with a crime.

UW predator lab tries crowd-funding

The University of Washington’s predator ecology laboratory is trying to raise $12,000 through a crowd-funding campaign to track deer as part of ongoing wolf studies in the state.

The lab’s goal is to collar 280 deer over the next several winters to understand how Washington’s wolf recovery is affecting mule and whitetail deer populations.

Deer are also prey for other carnivores, such as bear, cougars and coyotes. Due to their wide distribution, deer also affect the ecoystems where they live through grazing, and they’re an important game species for hunters.

Most wolf studies in the U.S. have occurred in protected areas or wilderness, researchers said. Yet in Washington state, wolves are moving into lands where hunting, logging and ranching also occur.

The study will test whether wolves’ presence here has the same ecological effects that have been documented in Yellowstone National Park.

Three injured in UM apartment explosion

MISSOULA – Three people, including a child, suffered burns in an apparent drug-related explosion at a University of Montana-owned apartment.

Missoula police arrested 24-year-old Patrick Wayne Austin on a $20,000 burglary warrant, but they say he also is suspected in the blast.

Police say someone in the apartment was using butane to make hash oil from marijuana when the explosion happened about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, blowing out three windows in the second-story apartment.

Austin suffered second-degree burns, while an 18-year-old woman and a 19-month-old child suffered first-degree burns.

Missoula County Jail records indicate Austin also was arrested on suspicion of two criminal endangerment charges, three drug charges and arson. His bail was preliminarily set at $300,000.

The 18-year-old woman who was injured is a University of Montana student who rented the apartment and is responsible for the damages because Austin was her guest, UM spokeswoman Peggy Kuhr said.

Governor seeks review of first lady

SALEM – Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has asked a state commission whether his fiancee is subject to state ethics law and, if so, whether she’s broken the law.

The questions the governor’s lawyer submitted Monday to the state ethics commission follow a Willamette Week report saying that Cylvia Hayes used her role as first lady to advance her consulting business.

Kitzhaber says his office has taken care to make sure that Hayes’ consulting work doesn’t pose a conflict of interest. But at least two contracts were reviewed only after they went into effect.

Hayes said last week that she was paid to marry an immigrant illegally in 1997. Her sham marriage is not mentioned in the request submitted to the ethics commission.