The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 19

I Stevens County shoots down law Commissioners, crowd discard state ruling restricting gun transportation legal as they drive across the state or even a county. In Stevens County, the towns of Springdale, Northport and Marcus already have removed themselves from the state law. The Colville City Council will conduct a hearing on the issue tonight at 7, and Chewelah City Administrator Bill Provost plans to present the issue at his councils July 6 meeting. If the Chewelah council decides to pursue the question, it would have to schedule a public hearing. Elsewhere in northeastern Washington, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille and Okanogan counties and numerous cities already have opted out of the state law.

Spokane County so far has taken no action. Only five people spoke in favor of keeping a state law that would require guns to be enclosed or locked up when being transported. Five others sent messages supporting the restrictions. But at least five times that many took pot shots at the state law. There would have been more testimony against the law, but cattleman Len Mclrvin finally silenced the crowd when Commission Chairwoman Fran Bessermin asked whether anyone else felt compelled to speak.

Regional digest FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS Police consider released offender to be 'high risk An 18-year-old registered sex offender who was released from Spokane County Jail is considered likely to reoffend and should be regarded as high risk, Spokane police said. Thomas W. Helms spent five months in jail for raping a 6-year-old girl. He was released last week and listed the Union Gospel Mission on East Trent as his home address. The next day, he was arrested in Coeur dAlene for grand theft and booked into the Kootenai County Jail.

Details of the arrest were not available Monday, but Helms also faces three counts of petty theft, jail officials said. He is being held there with bail set at $7,000. Spokane police Sgt. Earl Ennis said his office decided to warn residents about Helms anyway, because the teenager probably will be released soon from Kootenai County and return to Spokane. He is considered a high risk to reoffend, Ennis said.

He is obsessed with sexuality and a danger to the community. Ennis said local psychologists interviewed Helms and tagged him as predatory. Helms is 6 feet tall, weighs about 175 pounds and has blue eyes. His brown hair is shaved on the sides, and he wears a tight, curly ponytail in the back. He has a skull tatoo on his left arm.

He also wears round wire glasses. Man found guilty in child molesting A Spokane man was found guilty Friday of molesting two 11-year-old girls in September 1992. Thomas W. Blossom fondled a neighbor girl and the girls friend inside his West Bellwood apartment, a Superior Court jury ruled. Both girls and their mothers testified for the prosecution.

Thats usually the deciding factor, said Steve Matthews, chief deputy prosecutor for Spokane County. In any of these cases, thats what it comes down to, Matthews said. Sentencing is set for Aug. 4. Blossom also was targeted by a state investigation in December of 1993 when he was accused of fund-raising violations while organizing a karaoke show at the Spokane Opera House to benefit homeless children.

That dispute was settled when Blossom agreed to donate $1,000 to Crosswalk, a Spokane agency that helps homeless children. Lets have a decision, Mclrvin said. He playfully moved to adopt the commissioners proposed ordinance to scuttle the state law. Someone in the audience seconded the motion and a vote was almost taken before Commissioner Allan Mack got a chance to make a real motion. Even then, Mack got a second from the audience before Commissioner Tom McKern could get the words out.

Bessermin made it unanimous. The state law, scheduled to take effect July 1, already is riddled with loopholes including one allowing county and city governments to invalidate it in their areas. One opponent noted the effect of such a law is to leave citizens uncertain of what is state Department of Transportation. Three new traffic signals recently were built there. Stan Jamison, a retiree whose family operated YJ Foods on Seltice from the 1940s until 1991, remembers when the road wasnt so busy.

When we first started, we were i the only business, except for the two sawmills, Jamison said. When Interstate 90 became the main highway instead of Highway 10 (Seltice), things really died off. That was the late 1970s. For the next 15 years or more, Seltice was largely ignored by commercial developers. Bob Cushman, who is rebuilding Cys Butchery (formerly of Coeur dAlene) in Post Falls, figures Seltice will again be a major conduit for shoppers as the town grows.

Jamison, who owns vacant land outside the city a few blocks to the east, is a bit envious. A lack of water and sewer access has made marketing Police arrest man in alleged stabbing A man who allegedly stabbed another man in downtown Spokane Friday night was arrested by police. Edmund O. Moran, 37, was charged with first-degree attempted robbery and second-degree assault, said Sgt. Scott Stephens of the Spokane Police Department.

Moran approached an unidentified man near Second and Washington about 9 p.m. and demanded his wallet, police said. Moran then slashed the man across the upper chest, police said. Moran ran toward the railroad tracks, where police found and arrested him. The victim was described only as a white man in his 30s.

His condition was not available late Monday. Treatment ordered for molester A former instructor at Fairchilds U.S. Air Force Survival School will spend the next three years in treatment as a child molester. Kevin Miller, 31, had a six-year prison term suspended in favor of treatment as a first-time sex offender. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen OConnor imposed the' sentence during an emotional hearing Friday afternoon.

Miller, a highly decorated sergeant, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation for sexually abusing two Spokane Valley girls, ages 11 and 6, last summer. He accepted responsibility for the crimes and apologized to the victims and their parents in court. The Air Force discharged Miller last week, according to authorities. thoroughfare means Colville, Wash. By John Craig Staff writer Stevens County commissioners Monday chucked a new state law restricting transportation of firearms after hearing from an overflow crowd of more than 200 gun supporters.

The crowd stood shoulder to shoulder in the commissioners hearing room and spilled into the hall and part of the way down a staircase. Post Falls Once-quiet road turns into thriving commercial center Post Falls By Steve Massey Staff writer Not so long ago, the bumpy road from Post Falls to Coeur dAlene was sparsely dotted with a couple of sawmills, a few homes and businesses. Today, Seltice Way is Kootenai County's emerging business district, reminiscent, some say, of the days before Interstate 90, Vacant land, especially just east of Post Falls, rapidly is giving way to a thriving commercial center. Today, construction is expected to begin on a retail Severed cable long distance, Spokane By Alison Boggs Staff writer A severed fiber optic cable cut off long distance phone service Sunday night for Stevens County and parts of northern Spokane County and forced 911 systems to operate on back-up plans. We were on the phone with someone, and the lines went dead, said a Stevens County Sheriffs Department dispatcher who asked not to be named.

No emergency calls went unanswered, officials in both counties reported. In Spokane County, people could still dial 911, but calls were diverted to the Fire Department. In Stevens County, the emergency broadcast system notified residents of alternate numbers to call. Areas near Deer Park and Elk lost service in Spokane County, as did most of Stevens County. Service was disrupted when a resident digging on property in Two bodies found, one identified TACOMA, Wash.

Two bodies were found Monday in the Puyallup South Hill area, the Pierce County sheriffs office said. The body of 25-year-old Michael Johnston of Puyallup was found early Monday, sheriffs officers said. He suffered multiple stab wounds. A second body, found late Monday afternoon about four miles away, was not immediately identified, KOMO-TV reported. But deputies said Johnstons companion of Sunday night, a 19-year-old Spanaway woman, was missing.

A motive for the slayings was not immediately available. Rypien draws penalties from Kootenai deputies business his commercial tract an exercise in patience, he said. The taxes are plenty high because of all the growth down the street, Jamison said. But our asking price is still in dollars per acre, not square feet, like in Post Falls. When a Holiday Inn Express was built two years ago on Seltice near Highway 41, the land sold for about $2.75 a square foot.

Today, prices are topping $7 per square foot, especially for parcels closer to Post Falls. No leases have been signed yet for River City Plaza, located on Seltice between Grecnsferry and Potlatch roads. But possible tenants so far include a dentist, a hair salon, a takeout pizza parlor, a real estate firm and an insurance agent. Arbys will be built alongside United Paint Coatings at Bay Street Plaza, also a retail center south of Seltice. Bay Street now is being rebuilt to provide access to Seltice south of Tidymans.

The federal agents were asked -to help after Bob Gaines, the town marshal of Winthrop, interviewed a woman who found a metal pipe bomb in her car June 8 in Winthrop. After questioning the owner of the car and several other people, federal agents arrested Davis. The bomb was about three-inches in diameter and contained another smaller bomb inside, ATF agents said'. A fuse was connected to the bomb, but there was no timing device. With any kind of a bump, it could have exploded and easily killed people or caused substantial property damage, an ATF agent said.

Military explosives experts removed and disarmed the bomb, which is being analyzed by the ATF. i Man under arrest after woman finds pipe bomb in her car outlet, River City Plaza. Within the last month or so, plans have been unveiled for a new United Paint store, Arbys and Daily Queen drive-ins, a go-cart track, a Chinese restaurant and an upscale deli. Land prices and property taxes are rising. Basically the action is from Tidy-mans to Highway 41, says Realtor Monte Risvold, a Tomlinson Commercial Real Estate Services agent working on River City Plaza.

Thats the hot corridor. The reason, developers say, has much to do with growth in Post Falls and unincorporated areas west of Coeur dAlene. A housing and population boom has created markets for commerce typical of larger towns fast food joints, video stores, carwashes and the like. An estimated 19,000 cars pass through the intersection of Seltice (Old Highway 10) and Highway 41 every three days, according to the disconnects 911 service Deer Park cut a cable, said Sharon Matthews, a spokeswoman for West. Washington state residents are required by law to notify utility companies two business days before doing any extensive digging.

If they take it upon themselves to dig (without contacting the utility companies) theyte totally liable, said an operator with Inland Empire Utility Coordinating Council. The council dispatches calls to local utility companies. It took West repair crews about five hours to repair the cut cable, which was 4 feet beneath the ground, Matthews said. Fiber is much simpler to splice than copper, but doing it in the dark is a challenge, Matthews said. Long distance phone service was knocked out from about 9:30 p.m.

to 3 a.m. More cables are accidentally cut during the spring and summer because of construction, Matthews said. up to his good-natured reputation during the stop. He was real polite and friendly. Rypien, a graduate of Shadle Park High School in Spokane and Washington Slate University, has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and most of the national sports talk shows.

His other brushes with the law were equally minor: Court reports show he was cited twice this year for failing to come to a full stop at a stop sign, and once for failing to provide proof of insurance. Although Rypien could not be reached for comment, his agent, Ken Staninger, promises that the 1992 Super Bowls Most Valuable Player is still an upstanding member of the Post Falls community. After all, he was awarded the Heniy P. Iba Citizen Athlete Award last week for his extensive charity work. And earlier this year he graciously toured the Post Falls elementary schools to tell kids about the importance of education.

He happened to land that gig after going into the police station to take care of one of the tickets. You know, Mark is a very law-abiding citizen, Staninger said. I'm sure hes just fit to be tied. And Mueller said he did get the football greats autograph during Thursdays stop. Of course, Rypien wrote it on the citation.

Coeur dAlene By Winda Benedetti Staff writer Football superstar and all-around good guy Mark Rypien is finding out theres no escaping the long arm of the law in North Idaho no matter how famous or how nice you are. Last week the famous Post Falls resident received his fourth citation this year from local law enforcement types, though none would be considered the stuff of crime dramas. Seems the Cleveland Browns quarterback was pulling a water skier behind his Jet-ski on the Spokane River near Ross Point on Thursday. Kootenai County Sheriffs marine deputies cited Rypien after they noticed he was driving the rig without the required warning flag and third person to watch the skier. Deputy Chris Mueller said although Rypien is the most famous person hes ever ticketed, he couldnt just let the offense slide.

Theres too many boats and too little area on the river for people to be skiing without an observer, Mueller said. Deputy Al March said about 20 people have been cited so far this summer for not having spotters while they water ski. Youre trying to look forward and behind you doing 20 to 30 miles an hour and its just not a safe thing to do, March said. But Mueller did say Rypien lived Winthrop, Wash. By Bill Morlin Staff writer A man is under arrest after a large pipe bomb was found in the back seat of a womans car in Winthrop, Wash.

Rodger E. Davis, 40, who lives in a rural area near Twisp, faces a detention hearing today before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno. The judge will decide whether to set bail or order Davis held in jail without bond. Davis is charged with manufacturing and possessing an illegal explosive device, said agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms.

Davis is a service manager at a rental business in Twisp, where he was arrested last week by ATF agents..