Here are the top local news stories that ran in The Bellingham Herald last week.
FERNDALE-AREA BOY'S RECOVERY LINKED TO BLESSED KATERI SAINTHOOD
Pope Benedict XVI has decreed that a Sandy Point boy's recovery from the flesh-eating bacteria that nearly killed him in 2006 is a miracle that can be attributed to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's help, making possible the canonization of the first American Indian saint in the Catholic Church.
Monsignor Paul A. Lenz, the vice postulator for the cause of Blessed Kateri, confirmed on Monday, Dec. 19, the link to Jake Finkbonner. Doctors who treated Jake, as well as a committee of doctors at the Vatican, came to the same conclusion, Lenz said.
Jake's fight for his life began after he fell and bumped his mouth in the closing moments of a basketball game on Feb. 11, 2006, and became infected with necrotizing fasciitis that spread across his face and chest.
The Vatican decided Jake's recovery was a miracle that is beyond the explanation of medicine and that could be attributed to the intercession on his behalf by Blessed Kateri, who was born in 1656. Jake's family and church members had prayed to Blessed Kateri for his recovery.
DRUG RING LEADER ARRESTED
The leader of a violent drug-dealing ring based in Bellingham was arrested this week, along with five others who conspired to deliver "extensive amounts" of drugs throughout northwest Washington, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Todd Robert Hamilton, 34, and his girlfriend Denali Dawn Wood, 23, are accused of running the heroin and methamphetamine ring out of a condominium in the 500 block of Darby Drive. Hamilton has ties to an Aryan Nation prison gang known as the "The Hated" or "8854," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Charging documents filed in U.S. District Court allege the couple obtained more than $100,000 in drugs (6.5 pounds of methamphetamine and 57 ounces of heroin) between mid-November and early December. The drugs were trafficked to Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties.
ONE ARRESTED IN LUMMI RESERVATION STABBING DEATH
Police have arrested one of two men suspected of stabbing a man to death on the Lummi Reservation last weekend.
Johnathan Casey "Otter" Phair and Dezi-Ray Thomas Arnez Louie are accused of working together to stab Lamar Felipe James, 22, with a butcher's knife. James was killed during an apparent drug deal gone bad early Saturday, Dec. 17, at 2953 Smokehouse Road, according to court documents.
Phair, 24, was arrested by Lummi Nation police early Tuesday on investigation of homicide. He has been charged with first-degree murder. Louie was still being sought.
WWU ADMISSIONS BOSS FIRED
Karen Copetas, Western Washington University's admissions director for more than 20 years, has been fired after an internal audit found evidence that she had illegally used scholarship money as compensation for students who worked in her office, including at least four students who did not have legal immigrant status.
Copetas had been placed on administrative leave on Sept. 29, 2011. The internal audit was critical of Copetas' handling of the admissions and financial aid applications from her relatives. Copetas disagreed with the audit's conclusions and said many other departments at WWU handled financial aid similarly and that she was unfairly being singled out.
MILLION-POUND CYLINDER SALVAGED, BROUGHT TO BP REFINERY
A million-pound, multimillion-dollar piece of equipment that spent much of December in the waters off Cherry Point was safely brought into the nearby BP refinery Friday, Dec. 23.
The 130-foot-long cylinder was on its way to the BP Cherry Point refinery when it fell off a barge about 500 feet offshore from Gulf Road on Dec. 9.
Cranes mounted on a barge lifted the cylinder out of the water and placed it on another barge Wednesday. Crews were able to get the cylinder's barge up a temporary ramp on the beach at the end of Gulf Road during high tide, at about 4 a.m. Friday.
It was driven up Gulf road and arrived at the refinery at about noon.
