Spokane Chronicle from Spokane, Washington • 13

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW AND SPOKANE CHRONICLE FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1991 PAGE 61 ALSO TODAY: OBITUARIES, Al2 REGIONAL DIGEST, B2 LEGISLATURE, B2 HANGING BILL Legislature will take another run at getting rid of hanging as one of the state's two methods of execution. STORY, 62 OPo 0 a ME EMOMAL Lawmakers predict dams will be removed mission said in an environmental statement, "would provide favorable potentials for restoring all anadromous fish species historically present." In a related development, Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus on Thursday again rejected a new, expanded proposal from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to drain Dworshak Reservoir in northern Idaho in a bid to solve spring migration programs for potentially endangered Northwest salmon runs. Apparently casting aside the governor's earlier objections to release of 600,000 acre-feet of water from the reservoir this spring to facilitate salmon migration, the Corps announced this week that it the release will total I million acre-feet.

"We need electric power to make telephone-directory paper," mill manager Stan Hicks told Wednesday night's hearing. He said the dams are "vital" to the nill's operation. But he indicated that Daishowa is prepared to discuss alternative long-term sources of power. Jim Baker, representing Friends of the Earth, argued Daishowa can make up its lost power by increasing energy efficiency at its mill. "Conservation and co-generation supply electric power just as reliably as hydroelectric dams, but conservation and co-gen don't kill fish," Baker said.

The federal energy commission is sympathetic to restoration of the wild Elwha. Removal of the dams, the com Elwha River and the Port Angeles pulp mill that gets power from the darns. Sen. Brock Adams, in testimony prepared for the hearing, said there is a "window of opportunity" to bring back the Elwha's salmon runs while keeping the Japanese-owned Daishowa America pulp mill supplied with power. The mill employs 320 people.

In the past three years, Daishowa has spent $60 million on plant modernization and begun construction on a $40 million recycling plant. The company has discussed, but put on hold, installation of machines to produce newsprint and paper for telephone books. While Daishowa uses the power, the dam's are owned by the pulp mill's previous operators, James River Co. Associated Press PORT ANGELES, Wash. Two dams are likely to be removed from the Elwha River as part of an effort to restore chinook salmon runs, two lawmakers predict.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Conunission began hearings here Wednesday night on a proposal to remove barriers that block spawning areas that once produced 100-pound chinook salmon. The case is being watched closely because there is almost no national precedent for removing dams to restore salmon. "My gut tells me the dams are coming out," said U.S. Rep. Al Swift, D-Wash.

Swift has tried to play broker between environmental groups that want to restore the Special fuel fed 7 arsons, officials say Kids get back off the street wo '14- '2. i Or Tr 1 3v. 1 All 1.,,,, 4,, ,,,7, .9 A t11.74 3,,, 4, fw, ,4 Zro vie ,0. 44 i wo "wt '4 Ilk if A 4.1'.411; --rai ,1 4 "'I 0 1 '-c 4 kit, 4,4, 0,4, a 'r 4040, 1 0 -viittA, 4. tv I' A', i 7 4 1 i IK 4 bk, 4'i 7, .4.0..

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Authorities from Spokane and Seattle have been investigating the Sept. I 1982, fire at the Tri-State Distributor Warehouse in Spokane, which killed firefighter Paul Heidenreich. He was on the roof of the building at SI 10 Sherman when it collapsed. Fire investigators have concluded that a "high-temperature accelerant" was used in at least seven of the nine arsons they are investigating in Spokane, Yakima, Seattle and Bellingham, said Albert Smalls, spokesman for the Seattle Fire Department. The department has spent the past seven years studying the characteristics of those fires, Smalls said.

The fires burned hot enough to melt metal and leave craters in concrete floors. "They generate extreme heat in a very short time," Smalls said. "They can do tremendous damage within minutes. What's striking about these fires is the intensity." Though the Tri-State fire shared some similarities with the other blazes, Spokane fire investigator Capt. Bob McBride doubts that a similar substance was used.

"We can't support that a (high-temperature accelerant) was used based on the evidence that we have Please see FIRES: 82 1 Staff photo by Dan Pelle ONE IN THE BUSH. Scott Cassell, 10, gets down and dirty while looking for his missing softball Thursday morning. Scott and his brother Jeff were playing ball at Indiana and Belt when their ball was batted into brush, but it was later found. High court throws out suit against nursing home Crosswalk moves two blocks north By Diana Dawson Staff writer Without a paper clip or a desk to its name, Spokane's shelter for street kids will re-open Monday in time for students to return to its alternative classroom. Crosswalk, destroyed by a two-alarm fire last week, will occupy for up to a year the building that housed the former China Gate restaurant, NI26 Washington, said Ken Trent, director of Volunteers of America.

"We've been able to say to the kids that we're still here, that we will not abandon them," said Marilee Ro loff, director of Crosswalk. While volunteers and staff began preparing the new shelter Thursday, owners debated the future of the burned-out building at S164 Washington. "I've been told it's structurally sound, and Diamond Parking wants to rebuild," said Dan Geiger, Spokane manager of Diamond Parking Service. "A final decision has not been reached yet, but it looks like it could remain a building and not a parking lot, after all." Fire officials returned to the building Thursday to continue their investigation, said fire investigator Capt. Bob McBride.

"Initially, we did not find anything suspicious," he said. "However, we cannot find a cause and that's suspicious in itself." Before classes resume Monday, Ro loff said she needs to find electricians willing to replace and wire lighting fixtures that were stripped from the abandoned building. A professional janitorial service will be needed to clean the 8,700 square-foot space. She hopes volunteers will help move today and Saturday. "Our bodies are getting pretty tired," she said.

"We moved it all out and now we have to move it back in." For the last week, volunteers, staff and street kids have worked to salvage what they could from the burned shelter and store it at Jantsch school. All upholstered furniture, office furniture and supplies, two freezers, clothing for teenagers and their babies, food and personal hygiene supplies were lost. Roloff said the insurance settlement would replace more expensive office equipment, but the shelter will depend on community donations of furniture, clothing and supplies. Anyone with donations should call first, she said. "Right now, I don't even have a paper clip," Roloff said.

"But we want to have school on Monday so the kids can know where to find us." As staff members pulled what they could from the debris, they continued to counsel the kids, arranging for a prescription for a sick kid, transportation for another, work clothes for a boy with a new job. In more than five years, Crosswalk has not missed serving one dinner nor did it during the fire. Central United Methodist Church and the downtown Holiday Inn opened their doors for Please see CROSSWALK: B3 Farnam sued in King County Superior Court. A jury decided she was discharged in violation of whistle-blower protections in the state patient abuse reporting law. It awarded her $100,000 in damages and the trial court ordered CRISTA to pay her another $197,000 for attorney fees and other costs.

CRISTA appealed, using state Sen. Phil Talmadge, D-Seattle, as its lawyer. The ministry said Farnam wasn't illegally discharged, because there was no abuse that would have required her to make a report, and because she left voluntarily. Farnam said she believed she was required to report suspected patient abuse because the state's Natural Death Act does not specifically include food and water tubes as life-sustaining procedures. The high court sided with CRISTA.

The seven justices who signed the majority opinion noted that Farnam twice conceded that the nursing home was within its legal rights to Please see COURT: B3 permitted "death by starvation." Farnam also contacted the nonprofit ministry board of directors and lodged a complaint with the state long-term care ombudsman. The state took no action against the nursing home, but told administrators to develop clear policies on removing such life-support systems. Farnam said she was forced out of her job after the nursing home made her life increasingly miserable. CRISTA said she quit voluntarily and that she was not harassed. objected when she was asked to remove feeding tubes from two terminally-ill patients at Poplar Court in Seattle.

She said that violated her personal Christian beliefs and the religious tenets of the Christian nursing home, and amounted to patient abuse. On several occasions she told her superiors that the law appeared to be on their side, but that she felt it was morally wrong and abusive. She went to The Seattle Times, which published a front-page article in 1985 that described CRISTA as having By David Ammons Associated Press OLYMPIA The state Supreme Court threw out a nursing home whistleblower's case and engaged in unusual intra-court squabbling over the legality of withdrawing food and water from terminal patients. The high court sided with CRISTA Ministry in a ease brought by a nurse who felt she had been illegally fired for rePorting what she believed to be patient abuse. Nurse Nancy Farnam strenuously Peter Rabbit, Thumper, Hurnpty Dumpty stolen Bill planned to redefine SIRTI status i''''' 1 -4.

lt tt I' l' '40 i 4'. i fe i 'igit tg 1 lel ,4 -t zr i 1 r1100 ..1: 14 1 Associated Press TACOMA, Wash. The Metropolitan Park District has issued an all-points bulletin for Humpty Dumpty, Peter Rabbit and Bambi's buddy, Thumper. Humpty Dumpty vanished last week, and Peter Rabbit and Thumper were discovered missing Wednesday morning from Point Defiance Park's Never Never Land. "Last year one of the Little Pigs was stolen and we treated it kind of comically," said Linda Arrington, a spokeswoman for the park district "But we've decided this isn't funny anymore." Never Never Land has about 80 fiberglass sculptures of fairyland char acters.

Every year, two or three are taken, Arrington said. "Somebody's doing this, but we don't know if they are kids or college students or someone else with a warped sense of whatever," Arrington said. The amusement park can replace the figurines, but at a price. The missing sculpture of Humpty Dumpty was valued at $1,400. Peter Rabbit and Thumper were valued at $900 and $500, respectively.

Park police are investigating the thefts but have no suspects, said Jack Tolliver, a senior patrolman. The thieves apparently had to scale a fence to pull off the heists, he said. Please see STOLEN: B3 Staff photo by Dan Pelle HOLDING COURT. Basketball players Travis Kays, left, and Alan Longtain spent their spring vacation playing basketball. The pair teamed up Thursday afternoon at Browne Elementary School.

By Lonnie Rosenwald Staff writer OLYMPIA A lawmaker Friday plans to propose a major reorganization of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute that's meant to address concerns among Spokane business leaders about SIRTI management. State Rep. Dennis De 'Iwo, D-Spokane, said he'll introduce a bill that would give the Spokane Joint Center for Higher Education the task of operating SIRTI, as well as control over adjacent buildings planned by Washington State and Eastern Washington universities. The three structures will be built on a site known as the River-point Higher Education Park near Gonzaga University. Construction of the $10.8 million SIRTI building should begin this summer if the state releases funds in May.

The joint center board, now made up of five higher education members and two lay representatives, would grow in size as well as power. It would have six higher education representatives plus six private citizens appointed by the governor. The presidents of Gonzaga University and Whitworth College would be non-voting members. Redefining who's in charge of SIR-Please see SIRTI: B3 Pregnant woman upset after being ordered from dub's hot tub defects, said there is some evidence that pregnant women who have fevers or extreme overheating early in pregnancy are at higher risk of having children with defects. But Shepard said there's little evidence to show that moderate hot tubbing is dangerous in the later stages of pregnancy.

"I don't think there's much of a risk in that, really," he said. Staskowski said she approved of the employee's actions and said there is no plan to change the policy of prohibiting pregnant women froru tubbing without a doctor's written approval. permission from a doctor. "A lot of people don't know that a sauna or a whirlpool might hurt a baby," she said. "The average person is not educated enough to know." Dr.

Peter Hohn, a physician at Laurelhurst Family Medicine, where Dunn receives her maternal care, said he approved Dunn's use of the tub and that the Fitness center was "out of line" to tell her she couldn't. "That's ridiculous," Hohn said. "We have patients in labor who sit in hot tubs for hours." Dr. Tom Shepard, a pediatrician at the University of Washington and a specialist in birth The employee asked if she had a doctor's permission. Dunn replied that her doctor had said it was safe after the first three months of pregnancy.

But the employee told Dunn she would have to get out if she didn't have the doctor's permission in writing. "I was humiliated," Dunn said. "I felt like I was a 5-year-old and needed a note to get back in school I'm a consenting adult and I can do what I damn well please." LivingWell Lady's area director, Janis Staskowski, said it is club policy that pregnant women cannot use the hot tubs without explicit Associated Press SEATTLE A woman who was ordered out of a health club hot tub because she was pregnant says she felt humiliated and plans to cancel her club membership. Mary Dunn, 28, who is 33 weeks pregnant, went to the Living Well Lady Fitness Center in north Seattle on Wednesday to exercise her back and sit in the hot tub. After she submerged herself, an employee of the fitness club approached and asked Dunn if she was pregnant.

"I thought that was funny, at 33 weeks," Dunn said. "I said, 'Yes, very.".