In brief: CdA fire officials ban open burning
The Coeur d’Alene Fire Department announced Wednesday that it is banning open burning as a result of high fire danger.
The agency joins several others in the region, including Spokane and Spokane County.
As a result of the action, the department will not issue burn permits, it said in a news release.
Fires in portable fire places still are permitted if fire suppression tools are readily available, the department said.
Nutrition program will stay open
The Women, Infants and Children nutrition program will continue business as usual even if the state has a partial government shutdown starting July 1, the Spokane Regional Health District said Wednesday.
The district said it wanted to assure clients that WIC offices would remain open and serve them even if the Legislature fails to pass a budget by June 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Without a budget, some state agencies would close, and their employees would be on temporary furloughs. But the WIC program is federally funded and WIC clinics and offices would remain open, and checks could be used at stores that have contracted to accept them.
District spokeswoman Kim Papich said the district was trying to be proactive to avoid confusion because some clients might recall that the program was affected by the last federal government shutdown.
Man sentenced for sexual battery
A Coeur d’Alene man will serve up to life in prison for the sexual battery of a minor.
Elvin F. Nebrensky, 59, was sentenced Tuesday by 1st District Judge John T. Mitchell, who ordered that the first six years of the sentence be fixed and the remaining life sentence be indeterminate.
Nebrensky pleaded guilty April 27. The charge alleged that he had oral-genital contact with a 16-year-old. The Kootenai County prosecuting attorney’s office agreed to drop a second felony charge, sexual exploitation of a child.
Mitchell considered the seriousness of the offense, the significant traumatic impact on the victim and the risk of further criminal conduct in determining that a long prison term was appropriate to protect society from future harm, the prosecuting attorney’s office said Wednesday.
“The sentence was appropriate given the seriousness of the offense and Mr. Nebrensky’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for the conduct and the sexual impulses that lead to the conduct,” Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh said in a statement.