Northwest News

Election year tensions erupted at Washington’s latest quarterly revenue forecast. At the center of the partisan flare-up Wednesday was former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. He’s been appointed to finish out a vacancy in the Washington senate.

A Washington State University professor has been arrested and charged with the rape of a teenage girl. Police in Moscow, Idaho, arrested 51-year-old Andrew Appleton Tuesday in a city park.  He thought he was meeting the alleged victim but was met by police instead.

The Defense Department says three of four soldiers killed Sunday in Afghanistan were from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. A NATO spokesman said that Afghan police turned on the soldiers during an attack at a remote checkpoint. All three men were members of the 3rd Stryker Brigade stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Washington’s idled construction industry continued to show signs of life in August. Nonetheless, the state’s jobless rate still rose slightly. Overall Washington lost 1,100 jobs last month. The new unemployment rate announced Wednesday is 8.6 percent -– up a tenth of a percent from July.

The Idaho Land Board signed off Tuesday on a lease that would allow a gold miner along the Salmon River to exclusively mine for gold.