Local News

The Associated Press

KELSO — A woman brought her child’s birthday cake into a Kelso courthouse, thinking that would be safer than leaving it in the car with her dog. She realized her error when a stranger grabbed and ate handfuls of the cake — twice.

Cake and frosting flew when a Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputy grabbed the cake molester and took him to the ground. The Daily News of Longview says more deputies rushed to help Tuesday, only to end up smeared with frosting.

The chocolate cake was sitting on a table after it passed through a metal detector.

Deputy Joe Connor told KATU-TV that 50-year-old Robert Fredrickson was arrested for investigation of third-degree theft. The Daily News says the man was on his way to a court appearance.

Cake owner Michelle Flavin says she just came to the courthouse to help her sister with a legal matter.

Washington state agriculture officials are investigating a possible case of bovine tuberculosis in a Grant County dairy cow sent to slaughter. That ailment has not been seen in Washington cattle since 1988.

Health officials say there is no immediate human health concern. Agriculture Department spokesman Hector Castro said Thursday that the meat was isolated after a federal food safety inspector spotted a suspicious lesion and sent a sample for testing. The cow was sent earlier this month to a Cowlitz County slaughter facility.

Castro says milk produced by the dairy was intended for pasteurization, which kills bacteria, including bovine TB. The dairy was not identified.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa reported Wednesday that the tissue sample was consistent with bovine TB. Castro says an additional test is being done to confirm the diagnosis, with results expected in six weeks.

The meat was destroyed.

The Associated Press

LONGVIEW – A former part-time deputy in the Cowlitz County coroner’s office is accused of using a dead man’s debit card to steal nearly $12,000 from his estate.

The Longview Daily News (http://is.gd/arxdj0 ) reports 44-year-old Jeffrey Wayne Hart of Castle Rock is scheduled to be arraigned next week on charges of first-degree theft, identity theft, second-degree possession of stolen property and official misconduct.

County prosecutors plan to seek a sentence above the standard range for each charge because Hart is accused of using his position to trust to commit a crime.

Coroner Tim Davidson says Hart was fired upon his arrest on Aug. 16.

Weather: It’s going to be nice today, despite what the chart says about scattered showers. It said there would be showers yesterday, and we saw a lot of sun. The weekend’s looking good, too.  The National Weather Service forecast.

Traffic: That was one nasty accident on I-5 near I-90 yesterday afternoon, causing an 8-mile backup. Let’s hope things are safer today and the roads are clear. The map and cams.

Tri-Cities fastest growing metro area in the country? Whoa! That’s according to Census Bureau  numbers. The population of the Kennewick-Pasco-Richland area grew 4.3 percent from 2010 to 2011. The Tri-City Herald has the story.

No charges against daughter in recanted rape case: The Daily News in Longview writes that Cowlitz County Prosecutor Sue Baur won’t be filing charges against the daughter who falsely accused her father of raping her. Her claim sent her father to prison for nine years. Baur says she wants other victims and witnesses who may have lied in similar cases to come forward and tell the truth. Baur also said it’s unclear exactly what happened and the statute of limitations for the daughter’s actions had run out.

He set her house on fire: The 24-year-old Vancouver, Wash., man who tried to kill his ex-girlfriend by setting her house on fire  in September 2010 has been sentenced to 17 years in prison. David Michael Miller had threatened Jessica Whalen in text messages and then barged into her house and poured gasoline throughout the home and on his girlfriend and her family members. They escaped without injury.

Most-read stories this morning on seattletimes.com:

1. McGinn, arena investor counter critics of Sodo site
2. C. Guard guns sink ship adrift since Japan tsunami
3. State Supreme Court imposes limits on vehicle searches
4. West Seattle man rescues, relocates unwanted trees
5. Chris Hansen takes high road as Mariners raise red flags over proposed arena | Steve Kelley
   

Associated Press

LONGVIEW — The Cowlitz County coroner says super-pure heroin is blamed for the deaths of seven people in the county in five days.

Coroner Tim Davidson told the Daily News on Wednesday that, in his words, “They’re dying with the syringe still in their hands.”

The victims include a man who died in a grocery-store restroom and a man who died last Friday in Kelso but whose body was found Tuesday night along a creek.

Deputy Coroner Brett Dundas says medical examiners in Vancouver and Portland are also talking about the extremely pure heroin, sometimes called “hot heroin.”

Dundas says people who take the drug go into immediate respiratory failure.