In brief: Trash pickup, libraries affected by holiday
Because of the Labor Day holiday Monday, trash pickup will be delayed this week. Residential garbage pickup will be delayed by one day in Spokane, Cheney and areas served by Waste Management and Sunshine Disposal.
In Spokane, the Eastside, Hillyard and Indian Trail library branches will be closed again today.
Oil patch trucking company rejects claims in pay lawsuit
Bismarck, N.D. – A trucking company in the North Dakota oil patch says a lawsuit by a former employee over overtime pay is without merit.
Devon Seeling, of Coeur d’Alene, has filed a federal complaint against Moorhead, Minnesota-based AM-PM Trucking LLC, which formerly maintained an office in Underwood, North Dakota. The suit is seeking class-action status.
Seeling says the company paid drivers a percentage of the revenue generated by each truckload, rather than overtime pay as required by law. Seeling was employed with the company for one month.
The company denies that Seeling “regularly worked” and says his allegations that other drivers regularly work over 40 hours per week are false. The defendants say the suit should be dismissed.
Officer-involved shooting investigation nearly complete
Sandpoint – Authorities say the investigation into a deadly officer-involved shooting outside a Sandpoint hospital is nearing completion.
Bonner County sheriff’s Detective Gary Johnston told the Daily Bee he expects the investigation to be completed by the end of the week and forwarded to prosecutors for review.
Authorities say officers Skylar Ziegler, Michael Valenzuela and Garrett Johnson were involved in the July 8 shooting near Bonner General Hospital that killed 35-year-old Jeanetta Marie Riley.
The officers say Riley approached them and refused their commands to drop a knife.
Bicyclist killed in Seattle challenged ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
SEATTLE – A bicyclist who died in a collision with a truck Friday in downtown Seattle was identified as a well-respected attorney who was part of the American Civil Liberties Union legal team that successfully challenged the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay service members.
The King County medical examiner’s office identified the bicyclist as Sher Kung, 31, who had been working for the firm Perkins Coie.
In 2010, Kung helped the ACLU represent Air Force Maj. Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse dismissed from the military for being gay, ACLU Washington spokesman Doug Honig told the Seattle Times.
Because of the case, the military must show sexual orientation negatively affected morale to dismiss a service member, and Witt got her job back, Honig said.
“She was fun to work with and very committed to equal rights for everybody,” he said of Kung.
Kung died less than two weeks before the city planned to make major bicycle-safety improvements to the Second Avenue bike lane, which is notorious among bicyclists because of its left turns, the newspaper reported.
Police said the truck’s driver was not impaired and is cooperating with the investigation.
Kingston ferry fuel leak under investigation
KINGSTON, Wash. – The Kingston-Edmonds ferry route is back to two-boat service as an early Monday morning fuel leak is investigated and cleaned up.
Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey said 15 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the ferry Walla Walla before service began on Monday morning. The spill created a sheen on the water.
The Edmonds-Kingston route is the second-busiest in the system, carrying 3.8 million passengers last year.
Both the Walla Walla and the Spokane were surrounded by oil booms at the Kingston terminal on Monday morning.
Human remains found northeast of Leavenworth
Leavenworth, Wash. – The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office is investigating some badly decomposed human remains discovered on U.S. Forest Service land Sunday in the Beaver Creek area, some 15 miles northeast of Leavenworth.
The identity of the remains and cause of death have yet to be determined, Sheriff’s Office officials said in a news release Monday morning.
The remains were found by two people driving on a forest service road to scout the area for the upcoming hunting season, the news release said.
The people saw what they thought was a dead animal just off the road, but when they walked up to it, they discovered the remains were human, the news release said.
They called 911 to report the find and escorted sheriff’s officials to the scene, the news release said.