January 31, 2009 in News, City We interrupt your Super Bowl beer, brats and burp fest revelry with the following important food announcement … The all-you-can-eat pancake record at Spokane’s East Sprague IHOP still stands at …

  January 31, 2009 in Sports The best defense in the West Coast Conference managed to slow down No. 20 Gonzaga, but that’s about all it did. Austin Daye scored 17 points and the Bulldogs still …

  January 31, 2009 Zinc from the Teck’s mine in Metaline Falls, Wash., is used to rust-proof steel, much of which ends up in new cars and trucks. Over the past year, sharp declines … 2

January 31, 2009 in News, City, Idaho Beginning Monday, 21,000 Idaho parents will no longer feel judged when they use their child-support payments, because the payments will be loaded onto Visa debit cards, instead of the Quest …

  January 31, 2009 in Sports TUCSON, Ariz. — Chase Budinger was having a hard time hitting anything, but once the defensive effort started to pick up, so did his shot as he scored 19 points …

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A1 WASHINGTON – Republicans on Friday elected former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to lead their party, selecting the GOP’s first black national chairman. The outcome also signaled a clear break …

January 31, 2009 in City on Page A1 A $3 million jury verdict in Spokane sends a message to Washington counties: It’s past time to end their practice of flat-fee contracts for public defenders, legal experts said Friday. … 1

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A3 Zimbabwe’s main opposition party announced Friday that it would enter a unity government with autocratic President Robert Mugabe, bending to pressure to end a nearly five-month impasse that had paralyzed …

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A3 BAGHDAD – Iraq imposed a nationwide security lockdown as voting began today in key regional elections with blanket measures not seen since the deadliest years of the insurgency, underscoring the …

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A4 WASHINGTON – The federal government’s $700 billion bailout program continues to lack adequate oversight to make sure that banks receiving the taxpayer funds are using them properly, congressional investigators said …

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A4 Nadya Suleman’s goal in life was to be a mother, her friends and family said. That is why, even with a brood of six including 2-year-old twins, she decided to … 1

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A5 WASHINGTON – Federal health officials opened a criminal investigation Friday into the Georgia peanut-processing plant at the center of the national salmonella outbreak. President Barack Obama pledged stricter oversight of …

January 31, 2009 in Nation/World on Page A6 WASHINGTON – For anyone expecting Vice President Joe Biden to disappear in a sea of strong-willed Cabinet heavyweights, an event at the White House on Friday morning was a signal: …

January 31, 2009 in City on Page A8 Attracting buyers was more difficult last year for Kootenai County residents who had their homes for sale. The number of homes sold in the county fell by 22 percent in …

January 31, 2009 in Business on Page A8 Boxy, rusty, antiquated and unreliable. To understand how Fiat engineers and designers feel when Americans talk about their cars this way in discussions of their proposed alliance with Chrysler, Detroiters …

January 31, 2009 in City on Page A8 U.S. Customs and Border Protection is preparing to fill 11,000 positions nationally this year and Blaine, Wash., is one of 15 locations across the country hosting a “National Career Day” …

  January 31, 2009 in City on Page B1 Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said this week that he may ask the state attorney general’s office to help decide if manslaughter charges should be brought in the case of … 1