J. Todd Foster

FOR THE RECORD: June 5, 1996 Clarification: Sharlen Campbell-Cooper was fired as a deputy prosecuting attorney for Spokane County on the recommendation of her boss, David Nehen, but he had left his post before her actual dismissal. A Saturday story implied otherwise. Catherine Harmon

Spokane County Fair Manager Paul Gillingham says he never harassed a security guard. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County officials moved Tuesday to shut down a Valley sex arcade that they say opened illegally in a residential neighborhood under the guise of being a retail clothing store. The World Wide Video Super Store, 9411 E. First Ave., was cited for two zoning violations by planner Allan deLaubenfels and code compliance officer William Benish.

Spokane County budget analyst Margaret Smith spends a quarter of her time chasing sales tax owed to the county. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Stephen Hughes

McCaslin

A Spokane County manager was suspended Tuesday for hiring a friend over a more-qualified applicant, and for lying during an investigation of the hiring. Risk Manager Claude Cox, 43, will be sent home for three days starting today and will lose $638.

Randy Weaver's war with the government in North Idaho was costly - in human lives and taxpayer dollars. It started in the late 1980s when Weaver sold a federal informer two illegally sawed-off shotguns and then refused to help agents investigate white supremacists. He was indicted, but in February 1991 failed to appear in court to answer weapons charges. He holed up at his mountaintop cabin until Aug. 21, 1992, when six deputy U.S. marshals were discovered by Weaver's dog during a surveillance mission.

Spokane County would save at least $87,000 a year by expanding its existing juvenile jail instead of leasing more beds at a regional center that opens next year, a Seattle consultant says. The report by Christopher Murray & Associates, paid for by a $3,000 state grant, raises questions about the county's extended involvement in Martin Hall. Martin Hall will open next spring under private management in a renovated building on the Eastern State Hospital campus at Medical Lake. The Legislature has loaned a consortium of nine Eastern Washington counties the $3 million in renovation costs.

A Spokane developer and former world-class skeet shooter is among nine Washington men convicted of illegal duck hunting after a three-year undercover investigation. Joseph G. Ward, owner of Pinnacle Realty, 9 S. Washington, was sentenced last month to one year of probation, a year's loss of hunting privileges and a $260 fine. Ward was attending a Las Vegas convention Friday and could not be reached for comment, his receptionist said.

Otis Orchards residents fighting to maintain the rural character of their neighborhood blocked a developer's plan Tuesday for a strip mall. Gene Cohen's project already had been denied by the county planning department and hearing examiner committee. On Tuesday, Cohen appealed to county commissioners to rezone his 25 acres at Harvard Road and Euclid Avenue from semi-rural to regional business. His plan was to construct five buildings with retail offices. He did not elaborate beyond that.

Spokane County is agreeing to slightly tone down its sexual harassment training course for employees, although an investigation revealed the instructor did not act inappropriately. Twenty workers, most of them men, in the county's public works central shop complained in a March 15 letter that the course video and instructor's demonstration made them uncomfortable. The letter claimed instructor Chris Johnson patted a class participant's buttocks while saying, "You have a cute little butt."

The sexual harassment training required for Spokane County employees is under investigation for containing too much sex. Twenty employees in the vehicle maintenance shop, the majority of them men, recently complained in a letter to county managers about the graphic nature of the class videotape and some of the instructor's techniques. The letter states the instructor, Chris Johnson of the county's human resources department, patted a male worker's buttocks during a demonstration in early March and said, "You have a cute little butt."

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley announced Wednesday he will seek re-election, a move sure to delight environmentalists and rankle developers. The mountain climber and free-lance writer made his first foray into politics last year and was elected in November to fill the final year of Commissioner Skip Chilberg's term. Lawyer George Marlton had been appointed to fill the job for several months but lost to Roskelley in last fall's primary.

A Spokane police officer tries to keep traffic moving through Sprague and Stevens during the Ridpath bomb threat. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

A plan to turn deteriorating Albi Stadium into a nationally known youth sports complex is expected to get legs today. The Spokane City Council is scheduled to call for bids on an estimated $1.9 million stadium upgrade featuring new artificial turf and a wider playing surface for soccer.

The Spokane County Parks Department is looking to become a landlord. A county-owned home at Liberty Lake park will be renovated and then leased for $750 to $1,000 a month - its fair market value. The home was occupied for more than five years by a fairgrounds maintenance worker who doubled as an assistant caretaker at the park.

Satisfied with ongoing efforts to revitalize the business core, Mayor Jack Geraghty is turning his attention toward another troubled part of downtown Spokane. Geraghty has appointed a task force of five citizens to explore development opportunities for the southwest section of downtown - an area anchored by a mothballed former showplace and infamous as a high-drug area. "We've addressed the retail core," Geraghty said Thursday, "but the Davenport Hotel area really is a special place....

A strong economy and a tight belt allowed Spokane County government to retain its stellar Wall Street bond rating. Associates with Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investor Service, the industry bench marks, recently awarded the county another double-A rating. The rating saves taxpayers millions of dollars a year in interest on projects financed with long-term bonds.

1. Goldman 2. Harris

A federal jury deliberated three days before finding a Russian immigrant guilty Friday of trying to transport gall bladders from poached bears. Nikolay Senchenko, an American citizen naturalized last year, will be sentenced later. The standard range for his crime is zero to six months in prison and/or a huge fine. He also faces poaching-related charges in Pend Oreille County.

The developer touted it as a country store that would blend into the Bigelow Gulch-Argonne area like a ponderosa pine. Neighbors protested that it was nothing more than a gas station - a cash cow that would stick out obtrusively in the quiet rural neighborhood and draw traffic and crime. Spokane County commissioners agreed Tuesday night.

Mining company officials paid a courtesy visit Tuesday to Spokane County commissioners to explain plans to truck low-level radioactive waste to a defunct uranium mill. The officials wish they'd stayed home. Acknowledging the firm's plan was a "done deal" because of state approval, commissioners nonetheless drilled Dawn Mining Co. officials about covering their abandoned mill at Ford, Wash., with slightly radioactive uranium tailings.

Sheriff Goldman