Pocatello man killed while trying to flag down help on road
POCATELLO, Idaho — Police say a Pocatello man was hit and killed while he was trying to flag down help on Interstate 15 late Sunday night.
The Idaho State Police says 24-year-old Andrew Delacruz was involved in a rollover crash on the Old Malad Highway on Saturday. After the crash, he climbed up a hill to Interstate 15 where he tried to flag down help.
The state police agency says Delacruz was in the middle of the lanes when he was struck by a 2009 Ford Flex driven by 33-year-old Chad Miller of Salt Lake City.
Neither Miller nor his two passengers were seriously hurt, according to the Idaho State Police, but Delacruz succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
Gold Bar ex-council member sentenced for sharing child porn
GOLD BAR, Wash. — A former Gold Bar city council member has been sentenced to three years in federal prison and 10 years of probation for collecting and sharing images of child sexual abuse.
A judge sentenced 49-year-old Brian Diaz recently in U.S. District Court. Federal prosecutors said Diaz used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download images of very young children being tortured and sexually abused, The Herald reported.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security traced his IP address and searched his home in 2019. Prosecutors say he said regularly watched pornographic videos of children, and said he was aware that he was sharing the videos online.
Police fatally shoot woman in Redmond, Wash.
REDMOND, Wash.— Police in Redmond, Wash., fatally shot a 39-yearold woman at an apartment complex.
KOMO reports a woman called 911 around 9:20 p.m. Sunday to report someone was trying to kill her inside her apartment.
Andrea Wolf-Buck with the Redmond Police Department said when officers arrived, the woman shouted down from a balcony that she was the one who called and indicated she might have shot someone inside.
Officers went to her apartment and didn’t find any signs of someone being shot, but then say the woman pointed a gun at officers. Wolf-Buck says the officers shot the woman multiple times and that she died despite live-saving efforts.
Wildfire death toll in Oregon increases to nine
SALEM, Ore. — The number of fatalities from Oregon’s recent wildfires has increased to nine people, the state’s Office of Emergency Management confirmed Monday.
Fires continued to rage across the West Coast Monday. The Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service reported Monday that 27 large wildfires continue to burn 2,460 square miles across Oregon and Washington. There are more than 9,000 fire personnel battling these fires.
The Oregon Department of Forestry continues to closely monitor 10 major fires in Oregon, which is a decrease from 17. Fires are removed from the list of wildfires being monitored when they are “100 percent lined.”
One of Oregon’s largest wildfires, the Lionshead Fire, has burned more than 300 square miles and is 13 percent contained.
Approximately 1,500 square miles have burned in Oregon. Officials say, prior to this year, the average of land burned each year in Oregon for the last ten years was roughly half that.
Police in Billings investigating fatal shooting early Monday
BILLINGS, Mont. — Police in Billings are investigating a fatal shooting that followed an argument at a residence early Monday.
Sgt. Matt Lennick says the 43-year-old man who died was not from Billings. His name has not been released.
The man was shot several times just before 4:30 a.m., Lennick said. He was taken to the hospital where he died.
It appeared the shooting stemmed from an argument, Lennick said. Someone who was involved called 911. Officers are interviewing two people, Lennick told KULR-TV.
Coal production in Montana saw 21 percent decline from last year
BILLINGS, Mont. — The Montana Coal Council has announced that coal production across the state fell during the coronavirus pandemic, wearing on an already declining market.
Montana mines produced 15.1 million tons of coal in the first seven months of the year, 21 percent down compared to the same time last year, the Billings Gazette reported.
The pandemic has lowered energy demand and increased the number of people working from home, so coal-fired power plants have burned less in the United States and in other countries, officials said.
“It’s a mix. In a worldwide pandemic, we’re seeing it across the board, lower energy use,” Council Executive Director Molly Schwend said.
The mine industry group compares production levels to 2016, which was a significantly low-demand year when cheap natural gas prices challenged the coal industry, Schwend said, adding that it was the same time cheap coal prices in export markets idled shipments of Montana coal through terminals in British Columbia.
