In brief: Services affected by July 4 holiday
The following offices and services will be affected by the July Fourth holiday, which is observed by government offices on July 3 this year:
• City, county, state and federal offices will be closed today.
• Most banks will be open today.
• There will be mail delivery today, but not on Saturday.
• Garbage pickup and curbside recycling is on a normal cycle because the holiday is on a Saturday.
• Drivers don’t have to plug parking meters in downtown Spokane on Saturday.
• Libraries will be open today and closed on Saturday.
• Spokane Transit Authority will be running on holiday schedules Saturday, which are the same as Sunday schedules, but with extended service to accommodate the Riverfront Park fireworks show.
Study ties wildfires to hot, dry summers
More wildfires in the Northern Rockies during the past 30 years coincide with hotter, drier summer conditions, a recent study says.
A research team from the University of Idaho and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a century of climate records and wildfire data from Idaho and Western Montana, which is one of the nation’s most fire-prone areas.
Since the mid-1980s, the numbers of acres burned annually increased in correlation with warmer temperatures and less moisture. The same was true for the early 1900s when large fires broke out, including “the Big Burn” of 1910 that swept across 3 million acres.
During a cooler, wetter period in the mid-1900s, wildfire activity decreased, according to the study, which was published last week in the journal PLOS ONE.
With warmer, drier conditions predicted in the future, many scientists expect large wildfires to become increasingly common.
Women & Children’s program gets boost
The Washington state Department of Commerce has donated $300,000 to the Women & Children’s Free Restaurant. The money brings the Spokane nonprofit closer to its $1.9 million fundraising goal.
The grant comes from the state agency’s building community fund, which focuses on programs in distressed areas or those that serve low-income people.
The free restaurant, which relocated recently to 1408 N. Washington St., serves about 40,000 meals each year to women and children in the Spokane region, plus offers nutrition classes.
Achieving the capital campaign goal could allow the nonprofit to increase the number of meals served to as many as 80,000 each year, WCFR executive director Lisa Diffley said Thursday.
Prison term given in child porn case
A 55-year-old Utah man will be sent back to federal prison after pleading guilty to failing to register as a sex offender and possessing child pornography after fleeing to Pend Oreille County late last year.
James R. Bradbury was arrested in Newport, Washington, in February, four months after leaving supervised release in Utah. He was sentenced to a decade in federal prison in 2005 on child pornography charges and left Utah because he received a virus message on his phone while downloading child pornography indicating he’d been photographed, according to court records.
A phone Bradbury left in Utah contained 60 images of child pornography, and the phone he was using when arrested in Newport contained another 20 explicit images, according to court records.
Drones endangering aerial wildfire fights
The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies are telling people not to fly drones near wildfires after small crafts disrupted firefighting efforts in Southern California.
Air tanker operations were suspended on two fires burning on the San Bernardino National Forest this week after drones flown by private citizens were detected in the fire areas.
If drones are discovered near a wildfire, “we will stop air tankers from dropping fire retardant, helicopters from dropping water, and other aerial firefighting aircraft from performing wildfire suppression missions,” said Steve Gage, an official at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Air tankers and helicopters fly at low altitudes, often just a couple of hundred feet above the ground. That creates the potential for collisions with drones, which are subject to flight restrictions during wildfires, officials said.
Apartment building burns in Seattle
SEATTLE – Fire broke out Thursday afternoon at an apartment building in Seattle’s densely populated Queen Anne neighborhood, sending up smoke visible across the city.
Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said he thinks all those inside were able to evacuate.
Multiple firetrucks rushed to the scene, pouring water on the burning building and protecting nearby structures.
Moore said the building quickly became too unstable for firefighters to enter and they focused on preventing the spread of flames. Within an hour, the roof had collapsed.
There was no immediate word on a cause.