Northwest Briefs February 26, 2012

75 animals found emaciated

SPOKANE - Spokane County animal protection officers seized more than 75 starving animals in a rural property near Elk.

The search on Friday also found a number of dead animals. Some had decayed to bones.

Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service director Nancy Hill said the animals found alive included horses, llamas, cows, sheep, goats and dogs. The scene included penned animals lacking proper food.

Hill said a veterinarian examined the condition of each animal and rated all of them either thin or emaciated, the bottom ratings in veterinary medicine.

Large animals were taken to an emergency shelter at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center in Spokane.

Officers will continue to investigate potential charges of first-degree animal cruelty.

1 dead, 1 injured in avalanche

KALISPELL, Mont. - Officials in western Montana said one man is dead and another suffered minor injuries Saturday in an avalanche near Marias Pass.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said the Cut Bank men triggered the avalanche while riding snow bikes in a drainage on Skyland Road off U.S. Highway 2.

Searchers recovered the body by about 3:45 p.m.

U.S. Forest Service officials on Friday warned of a moderate to high avalanche risk this weekend in backcountry areas in Montana and the Idaho panhandle.

Workers hope to plug hole in lake

TWIN FALLS - Workers will start filling a 50-foot-long crack in the bottom of a south-central Idaho lake that's been draining about 300 gallons of water every 30 seconds, Twin Falls officials said.

Workers plan to start filling the hole in the bottom of lower Blue Lakes with gravel starting in early March. Brockway Engineers is contracted to do the work.

"We are set to get going by the first part of March," Chuck Brockway Sr., senior member of the engineering company, said. "The plan is to have it done this late spring or at the latest, end of summer."

Mike Trabert, a Twin Falls staff engineer, said the city has a contract with Blue Lakes Country Club to keep the water levels at the lake at a certain level.

Bill may cause meters to expire

BOISE - The House has passed a bill to disable parking meters near the Capitol Mall introduced by a Meridian Republican whose son's car was towed from near the Statehouse on the Legislature's first day for six unpaid parking tickets.

Rep. Joe Palmer said he didn't introduce the bill because of his son's parking problems, but because he wants to make it easier for constituents to visit the Statehouse.

"He deserved them," Palmer said of the tickets. "It is his problem. It had nothing to do with the bill. I am trying to make it easier for the constituents. I just hear a lot of complaints about people saying they can't get to us. I am just trying to help them."

The bill passed 41-27 in the House on Thursday.

- The Associated Press