Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

  KENDALL -- Skagit County investigators have identified the body of a woman found Monday in the Paradise Valley Road area as Dawn Ruger, 45, of Skagit County.
  Law enforcement also arrested Benjamin Price, a transient with connections to Lynden, as a suspect in Ruger’s death.
  Skagit County Undersheriff Wayne Dowhaniuk said Ruger was last seen between Dec. 26 and 29, 2006, and was reported missing soon after when she failed to pick up her welfare checks from a friend.

Timothy Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

  LYNDEN -- The City of Lynden wanted to do something about sidewalk problems, so it took matters into its own hands.
  In a policy instituted late in 2007, the city, not the homeowner, is now responsible for replacing damaged sidewalks. This change is the latest in the city program of repairing and upgrading, according to Duane Huskey, public works director.

Timothy Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

  BELLINGHAM -- Two former Meridian High School students received sentences last week after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide for a death stemming from a street racing incident Feb. 1, 2007, on Guide Meridian Road in Bellingham.
  The pair, Ryan Franks, 18, and Vitaliy Sushch, 17, were cutting class and racing south on Guide Meridian, weaving in and out of traffic, according to witnesses.

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

LYNDEN -- When city employees reported for work Monday morning, they discovered over 10 vehicles spray-painted and one window broken among the vehicles stored at the Lynden Public Works Department.

Calvin Bratt
Tribune editor

  LAUREL -- Office and teaching staff may have to be reduced in the Meridian School District to deal with a budget shortfall of at least $460,000 for the current school year, Superintendent Tim Yeomans announced last week.
  Enrollment in the district's four schools is down 44 students from last year, and an additional decline of 32 students is projected for the 2008-09 academic year, Yeomans says in a district website message April 29. Lower enrollment means less state funding.

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

Rylee TenKley

LYNDEN -- Rylee TenKley is cancer-free at the moment, but doctors are keeping a close eye on the 6-month-old.
  Rylee’s parents, Jeremy and Heather TenKley, of Everson, had been monitoring a lump on his back for some time when they decided to get an MRI done at Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

David Lewis
Tribune reporter

  WHATCOM -- A recently revised seismic hazard map from the U.S. Geological Survey now includes the Boulder Creek Fault that runs north-northeast along the Mount Baker Highway near Kendall.
  The USGS revised its previous assertion that this fault line had been dormant for approximately 30 million years, instead saying that the fault has been active in the last few thousand years.

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

(back to front): Alcoa Intalco Works employees Bob Bird, Dan Timmer and Jason Swendt work at Fisher Elementary with mom
Gidget Gallegos.

LYNDEN -- Teacher Appreciation Week is in full flower at Fisher Elementary School where members of the Parent Volunteer Committee arranged to have the teachers' lounge decorated and refurbished over the weekend.

Mark Reimers
Tribune reporter

  LYNDEN — A barn on Benson Road just north of Badger Road burned down Wednesday evening, destroying a hay baler and causing an estimated $50,000 worth of damage.
  The barn may have caught fire after owner Ray Stuit put down a cutting torch which he had been using to disassemble a milking parlor, said North Whatcom Fire and Rescue Chief Tom Fields. Stuit had injured his hand and gone to the house to apply bandages when he noticed flames in the barn and called the fire department.

  WHATCOM -- Searchers Tuesday were unable to locate a Lynden man missing on Mount Baker, and the search was suspended until weather conditions improve, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office reported Tuesday.
   The missing climber is identified as Kevin Lafleur, 31, a former science teacher at Lynden Christian High School.
  Lafleur told friends before he went out Saturday that he planned to summit Mount Baker, according to a sheriff's office press release. When he did not show up for one of his jobs on Monday, he was called in missing.