A Newman Lake man accused of beating his girlfriend to death in November was sentenced to 16 years in prison earlier this month.

Where’s the beef from? It will remain a mystery. A federal judge in Spokane this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by domestic livestock producers who were attempting to erase a 2016 decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop labeling the country-of-origin on beef and pork imports.

A former Spokane County sheriff’s deputy may get a new trial after one of the federal agencies he was convicted of defrauding somehow didn’t keep up on current events and restored his full benefits some four months after he was found guilty at a public trial.