In brief: Police seek Safeway credit union robber

Spokane police are looking for the man who robbed a north Spokane credit union around 9 a.m. Tuesday.

The man entered the Safeway Federal Credit Union, 529 E. North Foothills Drive, dressed in dark clothing from head to toe, told a teller he had a gun and demanded cash, according to a police department news release. He also threatened a bank customer and stole his wallet.

No gun was shown during the robbery. The man was wearing a dark hooded coat, dark pants and shoes with a white sole.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Open valve spills sewage above lake

An estimated 900 to 2,700 gallons of raw sewage spilled last week from a sewage pump station being built above Hayden Lake.

The discharge – between 5:30 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday – was due to a partially open valve installed the day before, the Hayden Lake Recreational Water and Sewer District said Tuesday.

Five yards of contaminated soil were removed and the area was heavily disinfected, the district said.

The release was reported to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in Coeur d’Alene.

The pump station is near 5700 E. Hayden Lake Road, which is on the south end of Hayden Lake.

Petition challenges Cabinet mine plan

Environmental groups have asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reassess the proposed Rock Creek Mine’s potential impacts to threatened grizzly bears and bull trout in the Cabinet Mountains.

A formal petition was filed Tuesday by Earthjustice on behalf of the Rock Creek Alliance, Earthworks and the Idaho Council of Trout Unlimited.

The mine, proposed by Revett Minerals of Spokane Valley, would bore under the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness Area on the Idaho-Montana border to extract copper and silver. The company is working on permits for the mine.The Earthjustice petition says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should re-evaluate the mine’s impact on Rock Creek and the east fork of the Bull River, which conservation groups say are important for bull trout survival in the Clark Fork drainage. The petition also says the agency should study how human activity related to the mine would affect the estimated 21 grizzlies remaining in the Cabinet Mountains.

Women sentenced for insurance fraud

A Deer Park woman recently was sentenced for insurance fraud after she pleaded guilty to filing several false medical insurance claims.

Hollyanne E. Davis, 32, was ordered to pay $2,815 in restitution, perform 16 hours of community service and serve two years probation, according to a news release from the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Davis filed 15 fraudulent medical claims involving five medical facilities with Aflac in 2011 for herself and her three children, who ranged in age from 2 to 18 at the time. She originally was charged with second-degree theft, a felony, in June.