Winds fan wildfire that burned 4 homes

Spokane Valley

Winds gusting to 50 mph pushed a 1,200-acre wildfire that burned four homes in a heavily wooded part of the suburban Spokane Valley on Thursday evening, and residents of a wide area were told to leave their homes.

There were no reports of injuries, and the cause of the fire that was reported on Thursday afternoon was not immediately known. Winds and temperatures were dropping Thursday night, which aided firefighters.

Gov. Christine Gregoire was flying to Spokane Thursday night, spokesman Pearse Edwards confirmed.

Flames and heavy smoke could be seen near the lawns of luxury homes in the Dishman Hills, a wooded, natural area on the east edge of Spokane.

At least six homes were threatened, said Bill Clifford, a spokesman for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. The state Department of Natural Resources was assisting local firefighting efforts.

The Red Cross set up evacuation centers for people and horses.

Olympia

Gregoire: Higher taxes a last resort

Gov. Christine Gregoire, facing a possible budget deficit of $2.7 billion, said Thursday she's ordered state agencies to dig for savings — with higher taxes a last resort in her budgeting plans.

In her most expansive comments yet about the upcoming 2009-2011 state budget, Gregoire also said the state's voters should have the final say on tax or fee increases, if any are needed to balance the budget.

The Democratic incumbent's penny-wise words were panned by her Republican opponent in this fall's election, former state Sen. Dino Rossi.

Rossi's campaign pointed out that, after sounding like a tax foe in the 2004 campaign, Gregoire proposed a raft of new taxes and approved the Legislature's even larger $500 million tax package for the 2005-2007 budget.

Throughout the last legislative session and in the months since, Gregoire and most top legislative Democrats have been vague about the prospect of tax increases in the upcoming budget.

The general line: We're not sure yet how the state's finances will look in January 2009, and we're not talking about raising taxes right now.

Seattle

Slaying suspect arrested in B.C.

A man wanted in connection with the fatal shooting of a man in Boulevard Park on Monday night has been arrested in Vancouver, B.C.

King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said Cesar Trochez-Jimenez, 27, and the 25-year-old victim may have been fighting over a woman when the shooting occurred.

The victim, who has not yet been identified by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, was shot several times while behind the wheel of his 2000 Ford Explorer in the parking lot of the Willow Terrace Apartments, 1100 99th St. S., Urquhart said. The victim died at the scene.

Since the shooting, detectives tracked the suspect to the Bellingham area. An arrest warrant was issued Wednesday, and that same afternoon Vancouver police arrested Trochez-Jimenez in a park, Urquhart said.

Urquhart says extradition should not take too long because Trochez-Jimenez is not charged with a crime subject to the death penalty.

Trochez-Jimenez narrowly escaped capture Tuesday night. Police say someone traveling with him reported he had checked into a hotel in Blaine, just south of the Canadian border, but when officers got there he had fled.

King County

Veterans to get another center

The Department of Veterans Affairs will open another vet center in King County at a location that has yet to be determined, according to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash, who serves on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

The center will provide counseling and other services for combat veterans and family members, and is to open at the end of 2009.

Washington state is the home of many recent veterans, who may have deployed through Fort Lewis or other military installations in the state to Iraq or Afghanistan.

This will be the sixth vet center in Washington state, with offices now operating in Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and Yakima.

Olympia

Court: No privacy for jail phone calls

The state Supreme Court has ruled that phone conversations between inmates and family members are not private.

In its 7-2 ruling Thursday, the high court says that Desmond Modica had no reasonable expectation of privacy while making phone calls to his grandmother from jail.

Modica was arrested for striking his wife in the face, and he called his grandmother almost every day and enlisted her help in getting his wife to not appear in court. Signs near the telephones, and automated messages on the phone, warned that the calls would be recorded.

Those calls were used against Modica in court, and he was convicted.

Two dissenting judges argued that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy during those calls.

Seattle Times staff and news services