SPOKANE – The investigation into a sewage tank roof collapse that killed a city employee could take six months, Mayor Jim West said in announcing he was putting together a citizens panel.
The makeup of the panel to oversee the city’s portion of the investigation was still being firmed up Friday.
A Spokane Wastewater Treatment Plant employee died May 10 when a 2-million-gallon sewage tank ruptured and its roof collapsed, plunging him into the tank. Several other workers were injured and as much as 200,000 gallons of partially treated sewage splashed out of the tank. Some of it reached the nearby Spokane River.
Associated Press
Mount Vernon: Not guilty plea in abuse case
A Snohomish County corrections officer has pleaded not guilty to charges involving his 13-year-old son. Ralph Yarborough, 38, entered those pleas Thursday in Skagit County Superior Court to charges of second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment, possession of stolen property and third-degree abandonment of a dependent person. Yarborough’s son was removed from his Big Lake home in rural Skagit County on May 9 by a state caseworker after a neighbor called 911, alleging the boy was being abused in the front yard, Skagit County sheriff’s deputies said. Yarborough was arrested on May 13. Superior Court Judge John Meyer released Yarborough on his own recognizance on the condition he not contact his son.
Associated Press
Seattle: Oregon woman charged in ex’s slaying
King County prosecutors filed a domestic violence murder charge Friday against a 41-year-old Portland, Ore.-area woman accused of shooting her ex-husband while he was walking his dog. Rebecca Lynn Lai-how surrendered Tuesday at the Tukwila City Hall after Dean K. Lai-how was shot in the parking lot at his apartment building in Renton. He managed to climb the stairs to his third-floor apartment, call 911 and say that his ex-wife had shot him, police and prosecutors said.
Associated Press
Spokane: Officer shoots moose on run
A Spokane County sheriff’s deputy shot a moose that was running toward a busy highway near Mead at 6:50 a.m. Thursday. It was the third wildlife incident in three days that required a response by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, spokeswoman Madonna Luers said. Sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said deputy Michael McNees responded to the Fairwood community after callers reported a moose was running yard to yard and had damaged a fence, a tree and a storage building. Because the moose appeared to be a danger to pedestrians and was heading toward U.S. 395, McNees shot the moose with his shotgun. The moose collapsed a short distance away, and McNees shot it two more times to kill it, Reagan said.
Spokesman-Review
Richland: Car becomes inadvertent submarine
Karen Gifford sadly watched Thursday as crews pulled her new racy red Suzuki Aerio from the cold Columbia River, the victim of a lunch gone bad. Gifford and roommate Amber Hewitt, both of Richland, had just finished their Arby’s lunch, which they had eaten while sitting in the car in the north parking lot at Howard Amon Park. Gifford stopped at a trash can and got out to throw away sandwich wrappers. The next thing she knew, she said, she was racing to get back inside the coasting car to step on the brakes. Instead, she hit the gas pedal and the car raced into the river. The two climbed out the windows as the car drifted into the river, turned around so that its nose faced the bank and then sank in about 10 feet of water alongside the nearby dock.
Tri-City Herald
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
