Northwest briefly
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 9, 2006
OLYMPIA – The state attorney general on Thursday filed a theft charge against a former state senator, Tim Erwin, accused of getting a government rate on 36 Alaska Airlines flights by passing himself off as a current legislator.
According to papers filed in King County Superior Court, the former Republican senator from Bothell defrauded the airline of $14,367 between September 2003 and July by showing a business card that identified him as a senator.
Erwin left the Senate in 1995 after serving a single four-year term. In 1994, he lost a Republican primary for Congress in the 2nd District.
After Alaska contacted Erwin last summer, he agreed to a repayment plan, Assistant Attorney General Scott Marlow said. At the request of the King County prosecutor, the attorney general’s criminal justice division filed a single charge of first-degree theft by deception, although the complaint can be broadened to more counts, Marlow said.
Erwin was last in the news in 2000 when he was fined and ordered by Snohomish County District Court to repair severe damage that an employee did with a backhoe to a salmon stream.
Associated Press
Toledo: Doctor gives up license after overdoses
A Toledo osteopath accused of prescribing excessive amounts of medication after eight patients died of overdoses has agreed to permanently give up his right to practice medicine in Washington state.
Dr. Lance Christiansen and the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission reached an agreement under which he will surrender his medical license and agree never to seek medical privileges in the state again.
Commission officials signed the agreement Wednesday; Christiansen signed on Sunday. His license was suspended in June, according to a news release from the state Health Department.
The agreement doesn’t bar him from applying in other states, but a record of his Washington license surrender will be included in a national database, state officials said. The agreement pre-empts a state hearing on Christiansen’s case, which had been scheduled for next month.
Under the agreement, Christiansen acknowledged that he prescribed excessive amounts of controlled substances without considering drug abuse.
Associated Press
Elwha: Trees, mudslide cut access on U.S. 101
Aided by a tangle of trees, a mudslide closed a stretch of U.S. 101 on Wednesday night, cutting off direct access to communities at the top of the north Olympic Peninsula.
The slide occurred about 6:30 p.m. at milepost 233, just east of Maple Grove Road.
Shortly after the slide, Washington State Patrol troopers began detouring traffic around the muddy mess, trooper Brian George said.
U.S. 101 was reopened to all traffic by Thursday night.
Peninsula Daily News
Sequim: City agrees that elk herd must go
The City Council agrees with the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe: Sequim’s elk herd must be removed from the area.
“I hate to see them go,” said Mayor Walt Schubert on Wednesday about the elk during a council study session.
The Roosevelt elk are symbols of his city.
But after reading a 46-page report by the Dungeness Elk Working Team, watching a video on how elk wrought havoc on the city of Banff, Alberta, and hearing Sequim farmer Gary Smith describe how elk destroyed his crops, Schubert and the Sequim City Council supported relocation of the animals.
Relocation is the preferred alternative of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which co-manages the elk herd with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Peninsula Daily News
Kirkland: Junior high arson loss at $100,000
Arson at a Kirkland area school caused more than $100,000 damage early Wednesday morning.
Firefighters raced to Finn Hill Junior High School about 4:30 a.m. to find a portable classroom building engulfed in flames that were shooting 25 feet high through the roof.
The portable housed a science classroom that was part of the Environmental and Adventure School, a choice school serving 137 students and based at the junior high.
Fire investigators figured the loss to be at least $100,000, including the structure and equipment inside. Items destroyed included outdoor gear used in the special school program that was stored underneath the building.
Kathryn Reith, spokeswoman for the Lake Washington School District, said the portable classroom buildings are worth between $40,000 and $50,000.
“We have spare buildings to replace that one,” she said. “The real cost is the $80,000 it may take to move one to the site and set it up.”
King County Journal
Bremerton: Woman can’t drive with kids
A judge Wednesday ordered a Sammamish woman not to drive alone with her two young children after accepting her plea of not guilty to charges of driving under the inflence and causing a crash that injured both youngsters.
Caroline Toumians, 34, was released on her personal recognizance following her arraignment in King County Superior Court on charges of reckless endangerment and vehicular assault for injuries suffered by her 5-year-old daughter.
King County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler ordered her not to drink alcohol, enter any establishment that sells alcohol, or drive with her children unless supervised by another adult.
King County Journal
