NW briefs

Navy's Blue Angels returning to Seattle Seafair

SEATTLE - The Navy Blue Angels flight team will return to Seattle's Seafair celebration next summer, with air shows over Lake Washington during the hydroplane races on the first weekend in August.

The military canceled the Blue Angels' show this past summer because of forced budget cuts.

The Seafair organization said the Blue Angels announced their schedule Tuesday at a convention in Las Vegas. The squadron also plans to perform in Seattle at the 2015 Seafair.

Lawsuit challenges timber sale near Crater Lake

Conservation groups are challenging U.S. Forest Service plans to log and thin outside Crater Lake National Park in an area that the groups want to see protected as wilderness.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene by the groups Cascadia Wild and Oregon Wild.

They are asking a judge to stop the Loafer timber sale in an area east of Diamond Lake on the Umpqua National Forest.

The lawsuit argues the Forest Service should more fully examine the project's potential harm to protected species like northern spotted owls and red tree voles.

It adds the logging requires building a road through two areas of virgin forest, making them ineligible for future wilderness designation.

A Forest Service spokesman said they don't comment on pending litigation.

Helena man gets nearly 4 years for tax evasion

HELENA, Mont. - A former Helena man who was convicted of attempted tax evasion has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison and ordered to pay $730,000 in restitution.

U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell sentenced 51-year-old Brad Charles Fisher of Kenmore, Wash., on Tuesday. The Independent Record reported Fisher apologized, saying he was humiliated and had embarrassed his family and friends.

Court records say Fisher worked as an insurance salesman but did not file tax returns from 2001 to 2006. An IRS audit determined he owed nearly $445,000, plus penalties and interest. Fisher repaid about $44,000.

As the IRS sought to collect the money over the years, prosecutors say Fisher failed to disclose his ownership interest in five vehicles and a boat and took expensive vacations. The IRS eventually seized and sold his house.

Train hits SUV near Idaho Falls

IDAHO FALLS - A 22-year-old man suffered minor injuries when his sport utility vehicle crossed into the path of a freight train northeast of Idaho Falls.

KPVI-TV reported the driver, Brigham Young University-Idaho student Brent Lee, was taken to the hospital in Idaho Falls after the collision Tuesday afternoon.

Bonneville County authorities said the train was traveling about 38 mph when it hit the passenger side of the SUV. Lee told deputies he did not see the train.

Associated Press