NEWS UNBROKEN
Tuesday Local News
(upbeat music) All right, the Labor Day holidays over Tuesday. Happy day already, it's time for, well, not only going back to work for most of the kids, it's back to school time. I'm Eric Carpenter, this is K-C-V-L, K-C-R-K. Later on today, we're kind of expecting to hear from the Secretary of State's office on the Commissioner of Public Lands Hand recount. Now, as we have already heard here in Stevens County, there was no change. Our hand count ballots matched exactly the machine count. We'll see how the rest of the state does. 51 votes is all that separated. The second and third place finisher in the primary election statewide. So we'll find out, we'll let you know, just as soon as, well, we get word from the Secretary of State's office as for the final count. Hard to say, it may be gonna get a lot harder when you travel to get an Uber or a Lyft or for that matter, a taxi. The ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, they made a two to one ruling that rideshare companies must make adequate background checks of customers due to a special relationship they have with their drivers. Well, this stems from back in 2020, it was a lawsuit filed over the death of an Issaquah Uber driver. The driver, a 28 year old, was stabbed to death by passengers in his vehicle. Now, ultimately, a Nevada couple played guilty to murder and manslaughter after that attack. Well, the ninth Circuit Court ruled that Uber failed to warn the driver that the couple had opened an account using a fake name and an unverified form of payment minutes before the driver was killed. The court is putting Uber in a position to check people that hail an Uber. They say they failed to employ basic identity verification technology to screen out customers who could pose a risk to drivers. The three judge panels ruling, it was made late Friday, as in response to an appeal of the lawsuit, the court weighed in on an interpretation of Washington state liability law. The Washington Supreme Court declined to answer the request for the family to clarify the statute. Well, this decision reverses the ruling of a US district court judge. The ruling is also criticizing the senior US district court judge for improperly sealing several files in the case without proper findings. There was a dissenting opinion in the ruling. They say it is a new expansive tort liability in Washington state that could lead to broad ranging consequences for the gig economy. We'll see what develops of this and we'll see, I would not be surprised if Uber works on an appeal to the US Supreme Court, but this puts really into question, how easy it's going to be to get an Uber or a Lyft, or if this could even expand out into the taxi world, we'll kind of keep an eye on this one. - You need extra support? 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We work directly with the police force on times of emergency and things like that, but we don't have a sheriff's department officer or a Colville City police officer working for the school district this time. And when we were looking to get resource officers in our building, we looked at the sheriff's department, we looked at ours with the state rule of the law that became very obvious to us. We wanted to have our own employee that works for us for a time that answered us. And so we haven't went into the old style where we share a police officer. And it's nothing against either one of the programs. It's just that with the state laws and rules, we feel that we can get more out of a school security director than we can a security officer that is oftentimes restricted. - We're gonna continue down our path with security trying to get a single entry seats building. We have scan in keys and we're doing our drills regularly and we have a good plan in case of there is emergency. Our group participated with big emergency drill over the summer and kind of falls. We have the different police departments train and use our facilities in case of a big emergency. But overall, not a ton. We have added employees. We're trying to be pretty conservative this year coming out of the S or money or the COVID dollars that we've had in the past few years. Those go away August 31st. And so we want to make sure we're pretty conservative on our budget and we understand that, okay, we want it to be in good fiscal relationship as we head into the school year. We've worked really hard on facilities. We have our goals and we're keeping track of our academic achievement and safety and attendance and respect of our students. And we just want to run the best schools possible for the community and the students of Colorado. - One quick reminder of course, with school opening in Chewila, Kettle Falls, Colville today. Be real aware of where the kids are. Slow down, make sure especially that you're going slow in the school zones. But let's be careful. You never know when a child is going to get out in the road. And so slow down, drive defensively, and watch out for the kids. - Looking for a little comfort in your life? Call the expert, your carrier dealer. Carrier dealers are the authorities at getting peak performance from your heating and cooling system. So call your carrier dealer first. He has ways of making you very comfortable. Carrier, turn to the experts at ABC Heating and Electric in Colville at 411 West Second, or call Deb for an appointment at 684 2018 or go to abc-heating.com. - Let's get an update on that bear incident happening over in Ferry County on Sunday. That's when officers received reports of a human black bear incident with injuries on private property over in Ferry County. A female victim and her dogs, they were hiking when she was charged by a black bear. The interview with the victim, Fish and Wildlife officers say she was hiking on private property. The dogs got between two black bears. A bear, believed to be a female, chased the dogs back toward the victim. And then the black bear charged her resulting in injuries. She was treated and released from the Spokane Hospital. On Monday, yesterday, Fish and Wildlife officers with assistance from Stephen's Ferry County's wildlife specialist, also Houndsman, they located and lethally removed a 120-pound black bear near the scene. At the time of the removal, the team believed the black bear was the female bear involved in the incident while it was determined after the removal that it was a male bear. After the initial removal, the team did make additional efforts to locate the female black bear. Those efforts were unsuccessful and those operations have been suspended at the landowners' request. Officers donated the black bear meet to the U.S. Air Force. Again, a quick reminder about how to minimize the risk of injury if a bear is encountered. In general, the black bears do try to avoid people, but they're curious animals. If the bear is coming toward you, stand up, wave your hands above your head, talk in a low voice and back away. Avoid direct eye contact. Don't try and run from a bear. Fish and wildlife does recommend making noise. Also, leash your pets while hiking. Good idea, carry bear spray. That's readily accessible and know how to use that bear spray. Again, this incident occurring Sunday and Fish and Wildlife eliminating one male bear yesterday. It's very interesting being back in an area that you can actually read the street signs, kind of know where you're going. We've made it south from Norway down to Shetland. In particular, the town is Lührweck in northern Scotland. We're about 130 miles north of the mainland of Scotland. It's a town of about 7,500 people. It has a very interesting past, having been part of Norway and now part of Scotland. The, back in over Scotland, their official animal, the unicorn, it's an interesting place. The part of the United Kingdom, the English language, widely spoken, Scottish Gaelic, also spoken. The northern part of Scotland did about 100 different islands. Now, under 20 of those islands are actually inhabited. So the visit to Lührweck, a very quaint fishing village, a lot of boats, very nice old rock houses, some newer houses. The housing on Lührweck, relatively inexpensive, lower than houses in the states, very scenic views, but looking around Lührweck, industrial wise, how you would make a living would be very much a challenge. If you didn't work in one of the shops or were involved in fishing, there wasn't a whole lot of industry available. So the town is not really growing much, but very hospitable, very friendly, going into some of the shops. It sounded very much like a Scottish accent, but at least I could understand what people were saying and they could understand what I was asking. There were a few electric vehicles, but not very many. I only found one charging station for electric vehicles, and it didn't appear any use, at least during the day when I was there, but you did hear the occasional electric vehicle go by, but here in northern Scotland, not much, pretty much still gas powered vehicles. The British pound is used for currency and prices are much, much more reasonable than over in Norway. Everything barely comparable to US prices, pretty much. So, beginning northern Scotland, with a very picturesque village of about 7,500 people, they're in Lurwick. We'll be headed south to a variety of locales in Scotland over the next week, and ending up down in Great Britain. And then headed over to Amsterdam. So, if we find some interesting things in the ports, so we'll be talking about those, but it's kind of nice to be back to being able to understand what people are saying and be able to read the signs. - Vogue and Brothers Lumber, a leader in the forest products industry, is now offering a free forest health checkup. If you have 10 or more acres of timberland, Vogue and Brothers Lumber can help you determine if your family's forest is healthy and fire resilient. Schedule your free forest evaluation today by calling Vogue and Brothers Lumber at 684-5071, Vogue and Brothers Lumber, adding value to the forest for people, products, and the environment. When it comes to Major League Baseball, we're getting right down to the stretch of things here in September. The Mariners looked poised to make a run against Houston. Well, that kind of has fizzled. They lose two out of three games to the Los Angeles Angels who were in last place. The opening game last night, exciting game against the Oakland A's, but another loss. Oakland again below Seattle in the standings. Oakland five, the Mariners four. Game two of that three game series is coming up tonight. Again, the Mariners and Oakland, but things are looking a little dimmer as far as the playoffs go. Today's local weather forecast brought to you by Kettle Falls Family Dentistry and Implant Solutions at 1/30 West 10th Avenue in Kettle Falls, offering general dentistry for all ages. New patients and emergencies are welcome. Call 509-738-6880 for Kettle Falls Family Dentistry. Sunshine and 85. Gonna be a beautiful Tuesday. 47 overnight, 88 Sunshine Wednesday, sunny and 91 Thursday, 93 on Friday, looking ahead to the weekend. 93 Sunshine Saturday, 91 on Sunday, still gonna stay sunny by Monday. 88, the high temperature. Well, hopefully you can get out and enjoy a little bit of this very warm, getting toward fall weather, as it looks like it's gonna be nothing, but clear skies and sunshine all week long. Let Dr. Chip Johnson and his friendly professional staff give you a new reason to smile. At Kettle Falls Family Dentistry and Implant Solutions. Back to work, back to school. Really glad you could join us here on a Tuesday. Eric Carpenter with you, this is K-C-V-L, K-C-R-K. RK. [BLANK_AUDIO]