Briefly

Bonner sheriff’s race to be recounted

The recount is on in the bitterly contested race for Bonner County Sheriff.

The Idaho attorney general’s office will conduct an official recount Dec. 10 at the Bonner County Courthouse.

Supporters of Democratic candidate Tony Lamanna paid the state $2,900 to recount 29 precincts out of the county’s 33 precincts.

Lamanna lost by 36 votes in the Nov. 2 election to Undersheriff Elaine Savage in a turnout of more than 17,000.

Lamanna’s campaign manager Anne Bruce also is leading the recount effort. She said Lamanna supporters donated the $2,900 with contributions ranging from $5 to $500.

“The money just came in from every direction,” Bruce said. “There’s a big outpouring of support for Tony.”

Savage, a Republican, finished the unofficial election tally with 6,671 votes. Lamanna finished with 6,635 votes and Independent James “Bean” Johnston was third with 4,007 votes.

At 36 votes, the margin of difference did not trigger an automatic recount. Automatic recounts apply only in races decided by one-tenth of a percent—18 votes in this case.

That means the challenge must be paid for by the group requesting the recount. If the recount finds Lamanna the winner, then the state will have to reimburse the group’s $2,900, Bruce said.

Teen honored for helping avert attack

Harrison Township, Mich. An Idaho teenager was honored Monday for helping avert a potential Columbine-style attack on a suburban Detroit high school.

Celia McGinty, of Moscow, Idaho, and her father attended a ceremony hosted by the Macomb County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She received the Heart of MADD award for what officials described as her willingness to make difficult decisions.

“Everybody should have a relationship with their parents,” she told reporters. “Anyone you could trust, it should be your parents.”

McGinty was exchanging e-mails with Chippewa Valley High School student Andrew Osantowski in September when she said she became alarmed by messages about plans for an attack at the school in Macomb County’s Clinton Township.

She notified her father, George, a Washington State University police officer who contacted police in Clinton Township. Osantowski is jailed on a $1.3 million bond on charges that include making terrorist threats.

“She saw something and passed it on to me,” George McGinty said. “I was proud that she did that.”

The Macomb County Board of Commissioners plans to honor Celia McGinty today.

Thief chose the wrong store

An employee at Best Buy learned what happened to his stolen checks on Sunday when a man tried to purchase about $400 worth of electronics with one of them.

The suspect went to Best Buy, 9970 N. Newport Highway, at 2 p.m. Sunday and approached the cashier with an amplifier and two speakers, Spokane Police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release.

The clerk looked at the check and realized that the name on it was that of a fellow Best Buy employee.

The cashier took the stolen driver’s license and check and started to walk to the back of the store.

The suspect complained that he had a phone call but couldn’t get a signal on his cell phone. He left the store without the merchandise, Cottam said.

Officers talked to the employee who owned the license and check, who said both his home and car had recently been burglarized, Cottam said. The bank account had already been closed.

Illness may be letting up at Gonzaga

The bug that’s making students sick at Gonzaga University seems to be easing up a bit.

About 60 students have been sickened with nausea and diarrhea since Friday, but the pace seemed to slow during the weekend, a public health spokeswoman said.

That’s further evidence that the bug is a norovirus, the most common cause of gastroenteritis, or stomach inflammation.

Noroviruses, also called Norwalk-type viruses, became better-known during the cruise-ship outbreaks of the past several years.

The Spokane Regional Health District is tracking the Gonzaga outbreak and is awaiting laboratory results that may confirm that the illness is being caused by a norovirus.

The virus spreads person to person or through food handled by a sick individual. Large numbers of the virus are shed in the feces and vomit of sick people.

The health district encourages students and others to wash their hands thoroughly, to clean up with a bleach-water solution and to refrain from preparing food when sick.

Norovirus illnesses usually last two or three days and are not serious.

But dehydration is a risk. Sick people should sip water or other fluids.

Emergency room treatment with intravenous fluids sometimes is required, public health officials said.

Report of sexual assault investigated

Colfax The Whitman County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a reported sexual assault that happened early Sunday near the intersection of Wawawai Road and Steptoe Canyon. Officers said the suspect is believed to be a black male with facial hair, between 20 and 25 years old, 5-foot-11 to 6-foot-1, 200 to 230 pounds. He may go by the name T.J.

A second person was believed to be with the male at the time of the alleged assault. He is described as a white male, 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9, approximately 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white baseball cap and a white sweatshirt.

The men were believed to be driving a 1990s two-door Honda Civic, either black or blue. The 22-year-old female who reported the assault told officers that the suspect was seen in the Boomers parking lot in Lewiston shortly before the assault.

Anyone with information should call the Whitman County Sheriff’s Department at (509) 397-6266.

Former lawmaker Dan Hawkley dies at 60

Boise Dan Hawkley, the former Republican state House member who made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Congress and abandoned a run for attorney general, died at a hospital of natural causes. He was 60.

Services were scheduled for Wednesday morning in Boise. He died on Saturday.

Hawkley mounted his congressional campaign for the 2nd District seat in 1990, finishing third in a four-way GOP primary. Two years later, however, he won a seat in the state House of Representatives and served for one term.

The former assistant U.S. Attorney flirted with a bid for state attorney general in 2002 before abandoning that race. He had earlier served as the special prosecutor in the high profile case of an eastern Idaho doctor, who ultimately admitted sexually molesting female patients.

But in October 2002, the state Supreme Court suspended his license to practice law for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits in divorce and property title cases. He disputed the findings, claiming he was being punished for taking on the establishment, and declared at the time that he would never practice law again.