Law enforcement continues investigating weekend fire and shooting on Canfield Mountain
The investigation will continue this week into the fatal shooting of two Coeur d’Alene firefighters who responded to a wildfire on Canfield Mountain.
Crews from the Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County Fire Departments arrived at the scene of a small fire around 2 p.m. Sunday but had not yet begun to extinguish it when shots were fired.
Two first responders were killed, one from each agency.
A third, from Kootenai County Fire and Rescue, was hit and evacuated to the hospital for surgery.
County Sheriff Robert Norris told reporters Sunday night that federal agencies helped to locate the suspect.
"We do believe that the suspect started the fire, and we do believe that it was an ambush," he said "It was intentional."
Norris said investigators found the man dead around 5 p.m. with a firearm laying nearby.
"We felt like since the fire was approaching, we needed to scoop up that body, and we have," he said during the press conference. "It's contained, so there are law enforcement personnel that are up there, and we will conduct the investigation, continue it tomorrow morning.”
Authorities initially weren’t sure how many shooters were involved, but Norris says they now believe there was only one gunman.
“Based on the information that we've been able to collect, we believe that there was only one shooter," he said. "We based it on the weapons that we found at the scene, the type of injuries that were incurred by that weapon."
After the bodies were retrieved, a procession of first response agencies followed the vehicles carrying the slain firefighters from Coeur d’Alene to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
AG Brown says SCOTUS ruling is 'disappointing' but not a total loss to the Trump administration
President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship is still being challenged in the courts.
Friday morning’s decision from the Supreme Court didn’t rule on the constitutionality of the president’s order.
Instead, the high court ruled federal courts don’t have the authority to grant universal injunctions.
Some federal courts had done so to shield everyone in the country from the executive order until the judicial challenge was decided.
Washington state attorney general Nick Brown is leading Washington as one of the 22 states plus the District of Columbia to challenge this executive order.
"This is an incredibly disappointing result. But what the court did not do was negate any of the substantive arguments that the states made in bringing challenges to this blatantly unconstitutional executive order.," he told reporters on Friday. "The court did not address the four district court decisions, each of which independently found that this was an unconstitutional order."
A universal injunction isn’t the only way to shield Americans.
Brown says in Washington’s case, a trial judge ruled that nationwide relief is necessary to protect Washington plaintiffs from the harms from the executive order.
That “nationwide relief” accomplishes essentially the same thing as a universal injunction.
'Big, Beautiful Bill' could make energy costs rise for farmers
Farmers are waiting to see what happens to President Donald Trump’s signature bill — a bill that could increase electricity costs for farmers across Washington.
David Funk, the founder of Zero Emissions Northwest, works with farmers around the state. He said the reconciliation bill would remove energy tax credits and incentives that would increase energy costs for farmers and rural customers.
"If you're going to remove the incentives that make some of these projects viable, people will stop developing projects," he told SPR News. "So when you increase demand and you decrease supply, it's Economics 101 that power prices are going to go up."
Funk said he met with Washington U-S Representative Michael Baumgartner and Senator Patty Murray to address concerns on how Trump’s signature bill would affect the work of farmers.
The deadline for Trump’s proposed bill is July 4, although it’s possible it will be extended.
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Reporting by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas.