A former U.S. Army Ranger accused of bank robbery in Tacoma has agreed not to fight extradition from British Columbia.
In B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Thursday, 21-year-old Luke Sommer said he’s not disputing his return to the United States.
Sommer holds dual U.S.-Canada citizenship. He was arrested in British Columbia and was accused of being one of the men who robbed a Bank of America Tacoma branch of $54,000 in August 2006.
Sommer had been out on bail and living in Westbank, B.C., until last June, when he disappeared. Police caught up with him a few weeks later in Richmond, B.C.
Idaho: Grizzly bear search planned
Officials with two federal and two state agencies plan to search a 5,000-square-mile area for grizzly bears in north-central Idaho and western Montana next summer, using motion-sensitive cameras and special fur grabbers.
The $60,000 search, which still must be funded, comes after a black bear hunter from Tennessee mistakenly killed a grizzly bear in September in rugged north-central Idaho terrain near Kelly Creek about three miles from the Montana border.
The last confirmed sighting of a grizzly in the area was in 1946. But after the young, 450-pound male grizzly was killed Sept. 3, officials began wondering if more grizzly bears had returned to the area.
“We don’t know,” said Steve Nadeau, large carnivore coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “We don’t think there are very many bears up there, otherwise we’d be getting more observations that are verifiable.”
In addition to Idaho Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will take part in the survey if the money is approved, a prospect Nadeau said was likely.
Oregon: Soldier missing on the coast
An Army sergeant who was supposed to be in Iraq is missing along the Oregon coast under what authorities say are suspicious circumstances.
Lincoln City police said Julie Ann Stendahl, 32, was to be deployed to Iraq at the end of October.
But they said she hasn’t been seen or heard from in about two weeks, and her black Mazda pickup was abandoned in a public parking lot.
Inside, police said, were state park receipts, the last dated Nov. 3.
An Army spokesman said Stendahl is assigned to 62nd Medical Brigade.
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