In brief: Boy caught under log in Stevens County creek dies
An 11-year-old boy who was trapped by a log underwater on Friday in a creek in southern Stevens County has died.
The boy was swimming with his family at Chamokane Falls on Chamokane Creek about 1:30 p.m. when he slid down a falls about 8 feet high and got caught by a log. He was trapped, submerged in the water under the falls, said Kurt Vandervert, a Stevens County Fire Protection District 1 firefighter. Chamokane Creek, which flows into the Spokane River, serves as the eastern boundary of the Spokane Indian Reservation.
Agencies including the Spokane Tribal Police, Stevens County Sheriff’s Office and Stevens County Fire Protection District 1 worked to free the boy. He did not have a pulse when he left the scene via helicopter, Vandervert said.
Missing girl’s body washes ashore
LONG BEACH, Wash. – Authorities have recovered the body of an 11-year-old girl, two days after she was swept away by the surf off a southwest Washington beach.
Long Beach police Chief Flint Wright said the girl’s body washed ashore Saturday morning. He identified her as Lindsey Mustread.
The girl and her 9-year-old brother had been wading in the surf on the Long Beach Peninsula on Thursday when they apparently got caught in a rip tide.
Her brother, Kenneth, was rescued that afternoon after treading water for about a half-hour. A Coast Guard air and water search for the girl lasted seven hours Thursday.
Wright has said the family is from Chimacum on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
Tribe drops suit over mining efforts
LEWISTON – A conservation group and the Nez Perce Tribe have dropped a lawsuit against three federal agencies after the U.S. Forest Service rescinded a central Idaho gold mining exploration permit.
The Lewiston Tribune reported Friday that the tribe and the Idaho Conservation League dropped the lawsuit after the Payette National Forest revoked the permit late last month.
The three-year permit would have allowed Midas Gold Corp. of Vancouver, British Columbia, to drill about 178 exploratory holes in an area east of McCall in the headwaters of the South Fork of the Salmon River.
Forest officials decided additional environmental analysis of the company’s plans and potential environmental effects are needed.
The company told the newspaper it still plans to establish a mine on private land.