Full-page newspaper ad seeking wife; dogs in bars; Bullwinkle shot
- Updated
Odd and interesting news from the West
- The Associated Press
- Updated
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Salt Lake City businessman said he was shocked to see a full-page advertisement in an Idaho newspaper inviting women to interview to be his wife.
Baron Brooks, 48, told The Spokesman Review that his father took out the $900 ad last Saturday in the Coeur d'Alene Press. Although he called the advertisement "embarrassing," Brooks says he will let his 78-year-old father go forward with the interviews.
"What am I supposed to do? He already did it," said Brooks, the owner of two health food stores.
His father, Arthur Brooks of Beverly Hills, California, said Monday that he wouldn't answer questions until after the interviews Saturday.
The ad lists criteria such as shorter height and conservative political views.
Brooks says his father recently vacationed in Coeur d'Alene and may have placed the ad because of the area's conservative politics.
He said his father has been ill and wants a grandson to carry on the family name.
Brooks compared his father to Larry David's character in the TV series "Curb Your Enthusiasm," saying he "thinks he does the right thing, and then it all blows up in his face."
He said he'd never buy an ad like this himself, but "it's worth a shot. Can't hurt."
- By SHAUN HALL Grants Pass Daily Courier
- Updated
MURPHY, Ore. — They say good fences make good neighbors. Then there are the fences that enclose the growing number of Josephine County's marijuana grow sites.
There are a lot of them. And they are often ugly, especially when topped by a couple feet of plastic.
Among those who are unhappy with the proliferation of Visqueen view blockers is Chris Locke, a Murphy landscape nursery owner who endures the sight of a neighbor's fenced marijuana grow.
Locke, co-owner of Murphy Country Nursery, says the fences are ruining Josephine County's rural landscape. They're tall and typically made of wood, or wood topped with plastic. Many are easy to spot.
"There are so many people who are unbelievably unhappy over the fences," said Locke, who has erected a sign that says, "That's not ours," with an arrow pointing at the marijuana grow next to her business, located just south of the Applegate River and within plain view of traffic on Williams Highway.
"I think the laws should be changed," Locke said. "Whoever made the laws that (a grow) had to be covered up, it's ridiculous."
Last year, the fence next door to Locke's business was an ugly black plastic barrier. This year, it's been upgraded to an ugly black plastic barrier adorned with brightly painted artsy fish, turtles and dragonflies. It looks to be about 12 tall or higher.
The artwork could be described as having a psychedelic Northwest tribal motif. A local artist did the work, according to a man tending the property. He asked not to be named.
"We have the nicest fence in the valley," he said at the site. "We did this to make everybody happy."
Locke says the fence, backed by chain link, is better than it was, but believes she lost business last year when would-be customers saw the fence and thought it was her marijuana grow.
Her sign disclaiming ownership of the grow went up about a month ago. Since then, people stop about once a day to say they've stayed away because they thought the grow was hers, she said.
"I realized last year, when they became real obvious, boy, it's really slowed down here," she said. "I passed it off."
The number of fences in the county has increased as the use of medical marijuana and the number of medical marijuana grow sites increased since 1998, the year Oregon voters approved the use of pot as a medicine.
In January, Josephine County had more than 2,700 medical marijuana grow sites, up nearly 300 from the previous year. The county also had nearly 6,500 medical marijuana patients, up about 1,300 from a year earlier.
This year, following voter approval of recreational marijuana, the state has approved 11 grow sites in Josephine County to provide marijuana to retail outlets. Rules for the recreational program mandate that grows be shielded from public view, with one option to accomplish that being the construction of an 8-foot fence.
However, a fence isn't required, said Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, regulators of the new recreational market.
"They just need to make sure it's obscured from the eyes of the public," he says. "As long as they can prevent public access and obscure it from public view, they don't necessarily need an 8-foot fence."
Exactly why marijuana in the field should be shielded from public view isn't something Pettinger or his counterpart with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Jonathan Modie, is able to answer definitively. Pettinger said it goes back to the intent of lawmakers and program founders.
Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, could only guess how the idea for shielding pot from public view came to be. He was a member of a joint legislative committee overseeing implementation of recreational marijuana.
"Everybody knows what's behind the screen," he said. "That's crazy."
Josephine County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Cherryl Walker, herself a medical marijuana grower, also didn't know the origin of the rule to shield pot from view.
"I don't understand why it has to be," she said. "You know what's behind it (a fence). You're not concealing it. The complaint we've had is they're detrimental to property values."
Walker, who said she fields complaints daily about grow sites — on a range of issues, not just fences — says the plastic fences get holes in them, rip and blow with the wind.
"It does look pretty shabby," she said. "I find it to be a very unsightly aspect of the industry."
Some growers, in an apparent effort to avoid county permit fees, build solid wood fences up to 7 feet tall, the limit at which a fence may be built without a permit in the county, and then add an additional foot or two of plastic to shield grows, Walker surmised.
The county is considering allowing 8-foot-high fences without the need for a permit. At a recent town hall meeting in Williams, pot industry proponents suggested the use of wire fences, and one person said that tall solid fences inhibit the migration of wildlife.
- Updated
SEATTLE (AP) — A Lewis County hunter is accused of illegally killing a bull elk known as "Bullwinkle." The elk had become a local celebrity in the Ellensburg area.
The Seattle Times reported 76-year-old entrepreneur Tod Reichert of Salkum faces criminal charges of unlawful hunting of big game in the second degree.
He is accused of shooting the elk known as Bullwinkle in a field where elk hunting is not allowed.
Fish & Wildlife officials say elk can't be hunted in that area because it's mostly private land and there were few bull elk there besides Bullwinkle and his buddies.
Reichert did not return a phone or email message. His Spokane attorney, Stephen Hormel, said he had no comment, other than his client has pleaded not guilty.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
BOISE, Idaho — Boise police say they have arrested a man accused of prying medallions off of a newly dedicated memorial honoring Vietnam War veterans.
Police arrested 29-year-old Raymond Rubalcaba, of Boise, on Tuesday after getting a tip from someone who received a Marine Corp medallion from a relative. The tipster believed it had been stolen from the memorial.
Officers responded and found four other military service medallions in Rubalcaba's possession, as well as three baggies of meth.
Rubalcaba faces felony charges for grand theft and drug possession. Meanwhile, officers are now asking for help finding the remaining medallion.
Hundreds of people attended the memorial's dedication ceremony on May 30. The monument includes the names of 217 Idaho residents who died in Vietnam between 1961 and 1975.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
PORTLAND, Ore. — Washington County authorities say a Portland-area man has been arrested for attacking another man with a machete.
KGW-TV reports that the victim of the Monday attack was treated and released from a hospital.
Sheriff's Sgt. Bob Ray says the victim had been sleeping at a Cornelius home when the 28-year-old suspect, Shawn Kinney, sliced him with the machete multiple times.
Responding deputies found the victim with several deep cuts on his arm. The victim told deputies he had hit Kinney with a steel pipe to put an end to the attack.
Kinney was treated at a hospital and booked into the Washington County Jail.
The incident remains under investigation.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever illegally killed wolf pups after removing them from a northern Idaho den.
The Center for Biological Diversity announced the reward Monday following the killing of the pups that Idaho officials say happened in the middle of May.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking anyone with information to call the Citizens Against Poaching Hotline. Callers can remain anonymous.
The Center for Biological Diversity says the killing of the wolf pups is an example of why a federal monitoring program of Idaho wolf management should continue.
The Center in March filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involving the monitoring program that ended in May.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
TACOMA, Wash. — People who love beer and dogs may have to leave one of them at home when they visit Pierce County brewpubs.
The News Tribune reported county health officials are warning Tacoma brewers that it is against the health code to allow non-service animals in a bar or brewery where beer is served in reusable glassware, even on the patio.
Dogs are still allowed in bars with plastic cups that don't serve food.
Health officials say the enforcement actions at local brewpubs that serve food are the result of customer complaints.
They weren't actively surveying the community for dog-friendly restaurants.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — The reward for information leading to the person or persons who illegally killed a federally protected grizzly bear and dumped it in eastern Idaho after removing some of its front claws is up to $21,200.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game in a statement Monday says forensic evidence indicates the young male grizzly found June 4 was killed elsewhere and had only been dead a few days.
Officials say the bear was dumped on Idaho state land in Island Park near East Dry Creek off the Yale-Kilgore Road.
Officials are releasing few other details.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering $5,000 and Citizens Against Poaching $1,200 toward the reward.
Another $15,000 is being offered by non-governmental organizations.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
ASPEN, Colo. — A man accused of pushing a snowboarder off an Aspen chairlift has been deemed legally insane.
The Aspen Daily News reported that the finding by a physician at the Colorado Mental Health Institute was revealed in court Monday.
Thomas Proesel pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The 32-year-old is charged with felony attempted assault for pushing Seth Beckton off a lift chair at Aspen Highlands in January, causing him to fall about 25 feet into deep snow. Becton was not injured.
A one-day trial set in July will be held so the judge can make an official finding about Proesel's mental state on the day of the push.
Proesel has been treated at a psychiatric residential center in Tennessee since the incident and will be allowed to live with his family in Illinois.
- The Associated Press
- Updated
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A Fort Collins groom was bitten by a rattlesnake while taking wedding photos at scenic Horsetooth Reservoir.
The Coloradoan reported that Johnny Benson got immediate help from a Larimer County Park ranger and then was treated at Poudre Valley hospital after being bitten Monday evening and was able to attend his reception with his new wife, Laura. His guests, though, were rattled.
- The Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Salt Lake City businessman said he was shocked to see a full-page advertisement in an Idaho newspaper inviting women to interview to be his wife.
Baron Brooks, 48, told The Spokesman Review that his father took out the $900 ad last Saturday in the Coeur d'Alene Press. Although he called the advertisement "embarrassing," Brooks says he will let his 78-year-old father go forward with the interviews.
"What am I supposed to do? He already did it," said Brooks, the owner of two health food stores.
His father, Arthur Brooks of Beverly Hills, California, said Monday that he wouldn't answer questions until after the interviews Saturday.
The ad lists criteria such as shorter height and conservative political views.
Brooks says his father recently vacationed in Coeur d'Alene and may have placed the ad because of the area's conservative politics.
He said his father has been ill and wants a grandson to carry on the family name.
Brooks compared his father to Larry David's character in the TV series "Curb Your Enthusiasm," saying he "thinks he does the right thing, and then it all blows up in his face."
He said he'd never buy an ad like this himself, but "it's worth a shot. Can't hurt."
- By SHAUN HALL Grants Pass Daily Courier
MURPHY, Ore. — They say good fences make good neighbors. Then there are the fences that enclose the growing number of Josephine County's marijuana grow sites.
There are a lot of them. And they are often ugly, especially when topped by a couple feet of plastic.
Among those who are unhappy with the proliferation of Visqueen view blockers is Chris Locke, a Murphy landscape nursery owner who endures the sight of a neighbor's fenced marijuana grow.
Locke, co-owner of Murphy Country Nursery, says the fences are ruining Josephine County's rural landscape. They're tall and typically made of wood, or wood topped with plastic. Many are easy to spot.
"There are so many people who are unbelievably unhappy over the fences," said Locke, who has erected a sign that says, "That's not ours," with an arrow pointing at the marijuana grow next to her business, located just south of the Applegate River and within plain view of traffic on Williams Highway.
"I think the laws should be changed," Locke said. "Whoever made the laws that (a grow) had to be covered up, it's ridiculous."
Last year, the fence next door to Locke's business was an ugly black plastic barrier. This year, it's been upgraded to an ugly black plastic barrier adorned with brightly painted artsy fish, turtles and dragonflies. It looks to be about 12 tall or higher.
The artwork could be described as having a psychedelic Northwest tribal motif. A local artist did the work, according to a man tending the property. He asked not to be named.
"We have the nicest fence in the valley," he said at the site. "We did this to make everybody happy."
Locke says the fence, backed by chain link, is better than it was, but believes she lost business last year when would-be customers saw the fence and thought it was her marijuana grow.
Her sign disclaiming ownership of the grow went up about a month ago. Since then, people stop about once a day to say they've stayed away because they thought the grow was hers, she said.
"I realized last year, when they became real obvious, boy, it's really slowed down here," she said. "I passed it off."
The number of fences in the county has increased as the use of medical marijuana and the number of medical marijuana grow sites increased since 1998, the year Oregon voters approved the use of pot as a medicine.
In January, Josephine County had more than 2,700 medical marijuana grow sites, up nearly 300 from the previous year. The county also had nearly 6,500 medical marijuana patients, up about 1,300 from a year earlier.
This year, following voter approval of recreational marijuana, the state has approved 11 grow sites in Josephine County to provide marijuana to retail outlets. Rules for the recreational program mandate that grows be shielded from public view, with one option to accomplish that being the construction of an 8-foot fence.
However, a fence isn't required, said Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, regulators of the new recreational market.
"They just need to make sure it's obscured from the eyes of the public," he says. "As long as they can prevent public access and obscure it from public view, they don't necessarily need an 8-foot fence."
Exactly why marijuana in the field should be shielded from public view isn't something Pettinger or his counterpart with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Jonathan Modie, is able to answer definitively. Pettinger said it goes back to the intent of lawmakers and program founders.
Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, could only guess how the idea for shielding pot from public view came to be. He was a member of a joint legislative committee overseeing implementation of recreational marijuana.
"Everybody knows what's behind the screen," he said. "That's crazy."
Josephine County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Cherryl Walker, herself a medical marijuana grower, also didn't know the origin of the rule to shield pot from view.
"I don't understand why it has to be," she said. "You know what's behind it (a fence). You're not concealing it. The complaint we've had is they're detrimental to property values."
Walker, who said she fields complaints daily about grow sites — on a range of issues, not just fences — says the plastic fences get holes in them, rip and blow with the wind.
"It does look pretty shabby," she said. "I find it to be a very unsightly aspect of the industry."
Some growers, in an apparent effort to avoid county permit fees, build solid wood fences up to 7 feet tall, the limit at which a fence may be built without a permit in the county, and then add an additional foot or two of plastic to shield grows, Walker surmised.
The county is considering allowing 8-foot-high fences without the need for a permit. At a recent town hall meeting in Williams, pot industry proponents suggested the use of wire fences, and one person said that tall solid fences inhibit the migration of wildlife.
SEATTLE (AP) — A Lewis County hunter is accused of illegally killing a bull elk known as "Bullwinkle." The elk had become a local celebrity in the Ellensburg area.
The Seattle Times reported 76-year-old entrepreneur Tod Reichert of Salkum faces criminal charges of unlawful hunting of big game in the second degree.
He is accused of shooting the elk known as Bullwinkle in a field where elk hunting is not allowed.
Fish & Wildlife officials say elk can't be hunted in that area because it's mostly private land and there were few bull elk there besides Bullwinkle and his buddies.
Reichert did not return a phone or email message. His Spokane attorney, Stephen Hormel, said he had no comment, other than his client has pleaded not guilty.
- The Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Boise police say they have arrested a man accused of prying medallions off of a newly dedicated memorial honoring Vietnam War veterans.
Police arrested 29-year-old Raymond Rubalcaba, of Boise, on Tuesday after getting a tip from someone who received a Marine Corp medallion from a relative. The tipster believed it had been stolen from the memorial.
Officers responded and found four other military service medallions in Rubalcaba's possession, as well as three baggies of meth.
Rubalcaba faces felony charges for grand theft and drug possession. Meanwhile, officers are now asking for help finding the remaining medallion.
Hundreds of people attended the memorial's dedication ceremony on May 30. The monument includes the names of 217 Idaho residents who died in Vietnam between 1961 and 1975.
- The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — Washington County authorities say a Portland-area man has been arrested for attacking another man with a machete.
KGW-TV reports that the victim of the Monday attack was treated and released from a hospital.
Sheriff's Sgt. Bob Ray says the victim had been sleeping at a Cornelius home when the 28-year-old suspect, Shawn Kinney, sliced him with the machete multiple times.
Responding deputies found the victim with several deep cuts on his arm. The victim told deputies he had hit Kinney with a steel pipe to put an end to the attack.
Kinney was treated at a hospital and booked into the Washington County Jail.
The incident remains under investigation.
- The Associated Press
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever illegally killed wolf pups after removing them from a northern Idaho den.
The Center for Biological Diversity announced the reward Monday following the killing of the pups that Idaho officials say happened in the middle of May.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking anyone with information to call the Citizens Against Poaching Hotline. Callers can remain anonymous.
The Center for Biological Diversity says the killing of the wolf pups is an example of why a federal monitoring program of Idaho wolf management should continue.
The Center in March filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involving the monitoring program that ended in May.
- The Associated Press
TACOMA, Wash. — People who love beer and dogs may have to leave one of them at home when they visit Pierce County brewpubs.
The News Tribune reported county health officials are warning Tacoma brewers that it is against the health code to allow non-service animals in a bar or brewery where beer is served in reusable glassware, even on the patio.
Dogs are still allowed in bars with plastic cups that don't serve food.
Health officials say the enforcement actions at local brewpubs that serve food are the result of customer complaints.
They weren't actively surveying the community for dog-friendly restaurants.
- The Associated Press
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — The reward for information leading to the person or persons who illegally killed a federally protected grizzly bear and dumped it in eastern Idaho after removing some of its front claws is up to $21,200.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game in a statement Monday says forensic evidence indicates the young male grizzly found June 4 was killed elsewhere and had only been dead a few days.
Officials say the bear was dumped on Idaho state land in Island Park near East Dry Creek off the Yale-Kilgore Road.
Officials are releasing few other details.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering $5,000 and Citizens Against Poaching $1,200 toward the reward.
Another $15,000 is being offered by non-governmental organizations.
- The Associated Press
ASPEN, Colo. — A man accused of pushing a snowboarder off an Aspen chairlift has been deemed legally insane.
The Aspen Daily News reported that the finding by a physician at the Colorado Mental Health Institute was revealed in court Monday.
Thomas Proesel pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The 32-year-old is charged with felony attempted assault for pushing Seth Beckton off a lift chair at Aspen Highlands in January, causing him to fall about 25 feet into deep snow. Becton was not injured.
A one-day trial set in July will be held so the judge can make an official finding about Proesel's mental state on the day of the push.
Proesel has been treated at a psychiatric residential center in Tennessee since the incident and will be allowed to live with his family in Illinois.
- The Associated Press
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A Fort Collins groom was bitten by a rattlesnake while taking wedding photos at scenic Horsetooth Reservoir.
The Coloradoan reported that Johnny Benson got immediate help from a Larimer County Park ranger and then was treated at Poudre Valley hospital after being bitten Monday evening and was able to attend his reception with his new wife, Laura. His guests, though, were rattled.
Most Popular
-
Arizona, Tucson gas prices plunge headed into holiday -
Lady of the Rings: ASU-bound Rylen Bourguet caps illustrious Salpointe career with 7 state titles
-
Local Opinion: Time is running out for many Tucson renters
-
Tucson welcomes pizza and rotisserie chicken restaurant
-
Zoning fight pits growing Oro Valley church against neighbors
