TACOMA – A Thurston County Superior Court judge has cleared the way for the city to release long-suppressed investigative records related to the career of Police Chief David Brame, who fatally shot his wife and himself in 2003.

News organizations, including The News Tribune and The Associated Press, have been seeking the records for more than a year. City officials were set to release them in August 2004, but Tacoma’s police unions sued, saying it would violate the privacy of police department employees.

Judge Gary Tabor rejected that argument Friday and gave the city until Sept. 23 to turn over the unredacted records – 7,000 pages, including the results of a 2004 Washington State Patrol investigation of 33 police officers and city workers.

Associated Press

Spokane: Investor sues owner of silver mine

An investor is suing Ray De Motte, the president of the company trying to reopen the Sunshine Mine in northern Idaho, claiming that De Motte bilked him out of nearly $3.4 million through fraudulent business practices.

James Christianson of Vancouver, Wash., invested in Sterling Mining Co. and other companies that De Motte and his associates controlled or had a financial interest in during a two-year period, according to the suit filed last week in federal court in Tacoma.

The suit says De Motte painted a favorable picture of prospects at the defunct Sunshine Mine and implied it could be producing silver in 18 months, when he knew the opening was probably eight years away. The suit says De Motte persuaded Christianson to invest heavily in Sterling Mining and other ventures, including a charter plane service out of Wallace, Idaho, and real estate.

Associated Press

Buena: Body found after dog finds leg bone

Human remains were found in an alfalfa field near here a week after a search was prompted by a dog that brought home a human leg section with traces of nail polish on the toes.

Authorities are checking reports of missing persons against dental records, trying to identify the person whose remains were found Thursday.

Yakima County Coroner Maury Rice said most of the skeleton was recovered. No clothing was found at the site, he said.

The remains appear to be those of an adult woman, Rice said.

Authorities believe the body may have been in the field from one to two months.

The dog made its find Sept. 8. During the search that followed, sheriff’s deputies were assisted by trained cadaver-sniffing dogs. The dog that came up with the leg found other body parts on two occasions after searchers had gone home for the night.

Associated Press

Oregon-hatched condor released in California

PORTLAND, Ore. – The first California condor chick hatched in Oregon in more than a century was set free in California on Saturday, the Oregon Zoo said.

The condor, 15-month-old Kun Wak Shun, had been fostered by an established condor pair.

Though there are no plans yet to release California condors in Oregon, the condor’s former range did extend as far north as the Columbia River.

Former Oregon Zoo assistant condor curator Joe Burnett, now condor coordinator at Ventana Wilderness Society, coordinated the release at Pinnacles National Monument in central California.

Associated Press