The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 19

mr Tirr- r-nr i v. 4 4 4 Not this year i Promoters drop plans for CdA hydro races; may try in SandpointB3 I Opinion66 L-P settles cases on faulty house siding for $1.9 SECTION Friday, January 26, 1936 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash Coeur dAlene, Idaho To contact the City Desk, dial (509) 459-5400, Fax. (509) 459-5482, E-mail newsspokesman com UW primate center to close this fall us wed have two years or so, not several months, to prepare ourselves, he said. Some of the Medical Lake workers also wondered if the field stations negative publicity was a factor. All the people who called me today said they thought the bad press had an impact said Linda Harrison, who had been a records manager at Medical Lake until last year.

Harrison and another former worker, Terry Thompson, became whistleblowers while employed at Medical Lake, asking federal officials to investigate the field station for shabby animal-care practices. They quit their jobs voluntarily and have since sued the university for damages. Continued. PrimatesB4 rested development of an AIDS-like virus in macaques. The university has operated the field station since 1968, taking over a former mental hospital.

But managers and staff at the facility have drawn federal scrutiny since 1994, when several animals died due to inadequate care. After the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a complaint last year, the university paid $20,000 to improve animal care and diets. In December, acting primate center Director Bill Morton announced plans to gradually move the primates to other sites over the next few years. Ultimately, many of the monkeys and baboons will end up at a new, better- equipped center near Tacoma, he said then.

Now UW officials say the cost of running the Medical Lake facility for another two years, even with fewer animals, would be too high. The annual budget is about $2.2 million. The 58 workers also have learned that few of them will have the choice of keeping their jobs. I dont know how many (of the 58 workers) will keep their jobs, said Morton. It will certainly not be all.

Workers, after hearing the news, were in disbelief and shock, said animal scientist Randy Nolte. We saw it coming, with all the talk about downsizing, he said. But they told Medical Lake site shutting down two years earlier than planned By Tom Sowa Staff writer The University of Washington has decided to close its Medical Lake primate field station about two years sooner than planned. Instead of waiting for a new facility, university officials said Thursday the breeding colony and research center is closing Oct. 1 due to high operating costs.

Monkeys and baboons at the field station are used in medical and scientific research most recently in tests of the promising new drug PMPA, which ar FileThe Spokesman Review These monkeys will move sooner than expected. A new generation Bill would ease state definition of child abuse Critics say standard for children would be less stringent than that for animals By Lynda V. Mapes Staff writer OLYMPIA How hard can a child be hit before its abuse? A lot harder than now, under a bill proposed to change state definitions of abuse and neglect. IIB2399 would define abuse as infliction of physical injury that causes or creates a substantial risk of death, or serious or protracted impairment or disfigurement, or damage to any bodily organ. That standard is so tough even animals get better protection, said Rep.

Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac. The state animal cruelty law classifies the intentional infliction of substantial pain as a felony. The current child abuse statute defines abuse as injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, negligent treatment or maltreatment. The prime sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bill Backlund, R-Redmond, a physician, calls that definition too vague.

Vagueness leads to over-reporting, he said. Rep. Mark Sterk, R-Spokane Valley, a father, police officer and co-sponsor of the bill, said it isnt meant to lessen protections for children. We do a pretty good job protecting kids and we always will. But as a police officer, its very frustrating to show up where one parent says the other is beating a child and there is no evidence, he said.

Im not advocating people striking their children. But we need to have enough evidence before we can get a conviction in court. This is a strengthening tool for law enforcement. Backlund says caseworkers are overburdened because they spend too much time on minor incidents instead of more severe cases of abuse. Rep.

Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, called the bill scary and appalling. You dont talk about how much harder you can hit kids before its abuse to bring down caseloads, Brown said. The bottom line here is protection of children, and unfortunately some children need to be protected from their parents and others close to them. Another bill, HB2382, would outlaw anonymous reports of abuse. There are people out there whose families have suffered a great deal with capricious reports, said the bills primary sponsor, Rep.

Lois Continued. AbuseB4 Sandra Bancroft BillmgsThe Spokesman Review Bev Erdman, right, Introduces Kisa Keetch to the regulars at Fergusons Cafe on Garland. Keetch, her husband and parents are taking over the restaurant from Erdman and her former husband, Bob. Keetchs newborn, Zachary, Is on the counter. An era ends but not the homey feel as landmark Garland restaurant changes hands Lawmaker revives assisted-suicide issue By Eric Sorensen Staff writer ob Erdman is hunkered down between the Fergusons Cafe 0 grill and the stove.

mf 1 le cant see the latest customer, but the sound of a voice is all he needs. One hotcake, Ernie? he shouts over the fridge to Ernie Stueve, a retired Mead High School drafting teacher. Yeah, Stueve shouts back. And bacon, rare. In three minutes, Stueve has his hotcake and Erdman is hallway through a ham omelet for another customer.

Hey Bev, he shouts to Beverly Erdman, business partner and unofficial boss, Ive only got an hour and 15 minutes to go. As of today, Bob and Bev Erdman have just another four days to go before they hang up their spatula and pad on more than 20 years of eggs, coffee and Bobs clock-watching. New owners plan to improve on the Erdmans home-cooking formula, but the departure of the two will bring a new era to the Garland Avenue landmark, a shooting location for three movies and the friendly nook for scores of area families. You get to know people for a long time, said Brad Sherwood, an 18-year regular who dropped by for breakfast on a slow snowy Wednesday. Its not just the food.

Its the people. 1 actually hate to see it change hands. I hope it stays pretty much the same. Bob Erdman, who by his reckoning has always been a cook, bought the restaurant with Bev in 1975. Ive always had a good time here, he said.

Ive never worked very hard, because I dont believe in it. I cry tears even thinking about leaving, said Bev. But its time. Continued FergusonsB4 a Sandra Bancroft-Bi 1 1 rngsThe Spokesman-Reivew Bob Erdamn often starts cooking regulars breakfast as soon as he spots them on the sidewalk In front of the cafe. Bill allows doctor to prescribe lethal drugs By Tom Roeder Stuff writer OLYMPIA Lawmakers re-opened the assisted-suicide debate Thursday with a bill that allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients.

The bill, SB5596, was introduced last year by the late Sen. Cal Anderson, who died of AIDS-related illness last summer. It was brought back this year by Sen. Kevin Quigley, D-Snohomish, the Senate Health and Longterm Care Committee chairman. The debate began in 1991 when Initiative 119, allowing physicians to administer lethal injections, failed at the ballot box.

State law allows life-support systems to be turned off at a patients request, but assisted suicide is illegal. The bill would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to mentally competent, terminally ill patients on request. We believe the government should respect the rights of citizens to the highest degree possible, said Gerard Sheehan, legislative director for the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. What right is more intimate than the end of life? Sheehan spoke in favor of the long-shot bill during a committee hearing Thursday. Dianne Stollenwerk, a lobbyist for the Sisters of Providence Health System, opposes the measure.

We respect the dignity of the life of an individual, Continued- Assisted sujcideB4 I Suspect says he gave false confession to homicide Stackhouse says he made up story to help other suspect In the case By John Craig Staff writer Toby Stackhouse admits his role in the murder of Elk-area resident Steve Ro-scoe a year ago, but says he gave a false confession to a Spokane killing. Stackhouse, 18, says hes totally innocent of the December 1994 murder of a prostitute near Playfair Race Track. People who knew Stackhouse a couple of years before the crimes, when he was in a Post Falls foster home, say he was troubled but didn't seem like a killer. If you went through the fostercare system, youd probably think he was an ideal young man in view of some of the others that are there, foster mother Darlene Shuck said. He had anger and pain, but 1 would not consider him a violent person.

She sees him as a nrime example of a bright, promising child who went wrong because of declining parental standards. Stackhouse lived with Troy and Darlene Shuck for eight months when he was 15 years old. 1 Ie never considered himself religious, but regularly joined the Shucks in Sunday services and activities at Post Falls Baptist Church. I went and, after a while, I got used to it and started liking jt," Stackhouse says. Pastor Bill Hohenstreet says a couple of church members hired Stackhouse for odd jobs and found him a polite and willing worker.

1 think if hed stayed in that environ1 ment a little longer, hed never be where he is now, Hohenstreet says. But he says Stackhouse chafed under the Shuck family rules and joined the Job Corps to get out of foster care. When he returned in fall 1994, there was a very obvious declining as far as whq Continue StackhouseB1).