Pacific NW News Since 1992

PNWNS

BROOKE WEAVER

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a lake. A large and deep lake, formed by an enormous glacier that crept down from the north and blocked an entire drainage of the Rocky Mountains. Periodically, the glacial dam would break up, triggering enormous floods of water rushing toward the Pacific Ocean. Then the dam would build again.

Its waters flooded the valleys of western Montana. Five hundred cubic miles of water over 3,000 square miles of land. Glacial Lake Missoula filled and drained some 40 times over a period of 2,000 years.

PLUMMER, Idaho.—More than a dozen family members and friends gathered to greet a young boy who was released from the hospital Sunday afternoon, following a vicious dog attack in North Idaho.

A pit bull attacked 5-year-old Hallah while he was playing in his aunt’s front yard Friday in Desmet. His father, Vince Peone, said he received a startling call from his daughters at about 6:30 p.m.

“The dog did a lot of damage in a very short amount of time,” he said. “Nobody even heard it.”

Aided by U.S. and Iraqi airstrikes, Kurdish forces Sunday wrested back part of Iraq's largest dam from Islamic militants who had captured it less than two weeks ago, security officials said.

The U.S. began targeting fighters from the Islamic State with airstrikes Aug. 8, allowing Kurdish forces to fend off an advance on their regional capital of Irbil and to help tens of thousands of members of religious minorities escape the extremists' onslaught.

Recapturing the entire Mosul Dam and the territory surrounding its reservoir would be a significant victory against the Islamic State group, which has seized swaths of northern and western Iraq and northeastern Syria. The dam on the Tigris supplies electricity and water to a large part of the country.

Kathy Meader Associate

Police say a couple riding from Alaska to South America had their bicycles stolen in Washington state.

Mount Vernon police say they're asking the public to help them find the bikes, described as a black Trek hybrid with blue trim and a black Apollo Trace 2.0 hybrid. The Trek had two black bags on the back tire with a yellow bag above, as well as gray bags on the front tire. The other bike had two black bags on the back tire and two red bags on the front tire.
Police say the bags had the couple's clothing, sleeping bags, tents and other travel items.
The bikes were taken when the couple stopped to have dinner in downtown Mount Vernon.

 Rick Price