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SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The Spokane City Council will vote Monday on a law that would ban devices that emit a disruptive sound to discourage loiterers who congregate outside downtown businesses. City Councilwoman Kate Burke tells the Spokesman Review that the devices are inherently discriminatory because they are used mostly against homeless people and youth who loiter in the city's center. But businesses are upset by the proposed ban on the high-frequency devices and say their properties have been harmed by large groups that congregate in the area.
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. (AP) — Authorities in Washington state are calling a Christmas tree thief a real-life Grinch after arresting a man they say stole dozens of evergreens from a family-owned farm. The Seattle Times reports that police in Federal Way, Washington made the arrest Friday after getting reports that about 78 trees had vanished from the Snowshoe Evergreen Christmas Tree Farm the previous weekend. The trees were valued at more than $6,000. Police say the suspect, whose name was not released, also stole a truck and cargo trailer and planned to sell the trees at a pop-up tree stand.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Documents show the U.S. Forest Service allowing a Canadian company to write a key environmental report on its proposed open-pit gold mines in central Idaho after the Trump administration became involved. The documents obtained by conservation group Earthworks show British Columbia-based Midas Gold's lobbying efforts after initial rebuffs from the Forest Service. The report involves the potential effect on salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act. The report could sink the project if it results in restoration work making the mines economically unfeasible. Midas Gold says it's normal for a company to write such a report and makes the process more inclusive and transparent.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Press Club and four Boise-area journalists have won a lawsuit they filed against Ada County officials under Idaho Public Records Act. In Friday's ruling, 4th District Judge Deborah Bail said the county's approach to the public records requests it had received from the journalists was so far removed from the requirements of the state law that it was as though the county were doing the opposite of what the Idaho Public Records Act required. She ordered the county to turn over the documents and pay the reporters' attorneys fees.
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