U.S. House panel will discuss electricity, fish
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee will hold a hearing next month on electricity costs and salmon in the Columbia River system.
The House Water and Power Subcommittee will meet July 7 in Pasco to discuss the rising costs of electricity from the federal dam system and the part that salmon restoration plays in it. Attending the hearing will be Reps. Cathy McMorris and Doc Hastings, Republicans from the state’s two districts east of the Cascades.
McMorris is the author, and Hastings a cosponsor, of a bill that would require the government to tell consumers how much it costs to comply with the Endangered Species Act.
The hearing starts at 10 a.m. at Gjerde Multipurpose Facility, on the Columbia Basin College campus.
– Jim Camden
Spokane
Gregoire to hold town hall meeting
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire will hold a town hall meeting in Spokane on Tuesday evening at the West Central Community Center.
The meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the center’s gymnasium, 1603 N. Belt, will give residents a chance to ask questions or offer comments to Gregoire. The governor’s staff is asking people who plan on attending to arrive early. If they have access to the Internet, they are asked to fill out a registration form on the office Web site, www.governor.wa.gov.
The meeting will follow several other events on Gregoire’s schedule that day. She plans to visit the Institute for Systems Medicine, speak at the school principals and administrators summer conference and address the graduating class at the Spokane Police Training Center.
– Jim Camden
Seattle
Burn victim listed in serious condition
A homeless amputee who was set on fire while sleeping in his wheelchair in downtown Spokane was listed in serious condition Saturday afternoon at a Seattle hospital.
Doug Dawson, 50, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle Friday for treatment of severe burns to his hands, thighs, groin area and the back of his leg.
He was set ablaze behind a building located at South Washington Street and West Pacific Avenue, according to Spokane Police.
Two suspects – Sean P. Knold, 23, of Seattle, and Matthew B. Tramell, 22, of Portland – are being held at the Spokane County Jail. Although the pair has been charged with second-degree robbery for an incident that took place just a block away about 15 minutes before the fire, police suspect the two may have been involved in the fire that led to Dawson’s life-threatening burns.
– Virginia de Leon