In brief: Cabinet Mountain Bar & Grill in Clark Fork, Idaho, burns
The Cabinet Mountain Bar & Grill, a longtime business in Clark Fork, Idaho, was destroyed Monday in an early-morning fire.
The building, at East Fourth Avenue and Stephen Street, was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived just before 4:30 a.m. There were no injuries.
The Idaho state fire marshal and the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the cause. No damage estimate was available Monday.
The fire adds to a growing list of small-town bars destroyed by fire in the Inland Northwest. Between May 2013 and April 2014, eight bars were destroyed by fire in rural communities in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and northwestern Montana, according to a Spokesman-Review report.
Woman gets prison for fraud
A Coeur d’Alene woman will serve at least two years and up to 12 years in prison for forging her husband’s signature to obtain a loan from her employer.
Chanell Barto, 38, was sentenced last week by 1st District Judge John Mitchell. It’s her second felony conviction. In 2012 she was convicted of grand theft for embezzling from the Elks Lodge, which also was her employer.
When Barto failed to make payments on the loan, the employer contacted her husband and learned his signature as a co-signer on the loan was forged, the Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said.
More state revenue predicted
OLYMPIA – The updated forecast for Washington state’s current two-year nearly $38 billion budget cycle shows that lawmakers have more than $100 million more available to them through the middle of 2015, and that they’ll have $365 million more projected for the 2015-2017 biennium.
The forecast by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released Monday shows that while revenue collections for the current two-year state budget increased by $363 million, more than half of that amount was due to actions the Legislature took earlier this year and was already booked in the current budget. Those actions included closing several tax exemptions and making changes to the state’s legalized marijuana market.
With the increased amount for the next two-year budget that begins mid-2017, the 2017-2019 budget is projected to be $41.3 billion.
Fire burns in Klickitat County
WISHRAM, Wash. – Officials say a fast-moving grass fire that began Sunday afternoon in south-central Klickitat County has charred about 13 square miles.
Klickitat County Emergency Management said Monday that no homes have been lost, but an unknown number of outbuildings were burned or damaged. Crews were trying to assess the extent of damage.
By Monday evening, the Horsethief Butte fire had burned about 8,500 acres and was about 70 percent contained. No injuries have been reported.
On Sunday, more than 300 people were told to leave the area immediately as the fire spread toward the small town of Wishram on the Columbia River. But the Klickitat County Sheriff’s Office later reduced those evacuation notices to a level one, which tells residents to be ready to go.
Emergency Management said all evacuation orders were to be lifted by Monday evening.
State fire investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fire.
Deal ends Pasco teacher strike
PASCO – Teachers in Pasco have voted overwhelmingly to approve a contract agreement and end their two-week strike.
The Tri-City Herald reports that 99.6 percent of the teachers voted for the agreement with the Pasco School District, which was reached at 3:40 a.m. Sunday. It’s a two-year deal with raises of 4.25 percent and 4.45 percent, in addition to raises passed by the Legislature.
The union’s 1,160 teachers walked off the job on Sept. 1, which would have been the first day of school for the district’s 17,000 students. Franklin County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom ordered them to return to work, but the union remained on strike. On Friday the judge fined the union $8,000.
The school district said classes will start today for elementary, middle school and high school freshmen, while most 10th- through 12th-graders will return to school Wednesday.
Kelso teachers vote to strike
KELSO – Teachers in the southwestern Washington town of Kelso have voted to go on strike starting Wednesday if they don’t have a contract by then.
Kelso Education Association officials said in a news release that educators on Monday evening voted overwhelmingly to strike after working without a contract since June 30.
Kelso School District and association officials have had several meetings with a mediator and remain at odds mostly over teacher pay and workloads.
A mediator will be available to both groups today.
Seattle child care centers fill
SEATTLE – The city opened more of its community centers Monday to help Seattle parents who were scrambling for child care as a teacher strike entered its fourth day. Several of the centers quickly filled, forcing them to turn families away.
Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesman David Takami said 21 community centers are taking care of some 2,000 children in kindergarten through sixth grade free of cost, and that number is rising. Many of the centers are at capacity, and the effort is costing the city about $21,000 a day, he said.
The strike, over issues that include pay raises and the length of the school day, has delayed the start of the public school year for about 53,000 students.