July 24, 2011 PARIS — Cadel Evans has been keeping fans back home up all night watching him become the first Australian to win the Tour de France. It’s a victory that’s been …

July 24, 2011 COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Roberto Alomar stared at the adoring crowd and was nearly rendered speechless, the tawdry episode of his stellar career long since forgotten. Bert Blyleven was more composed …

July 24, 2011 in Sports BOSTON — A new look. A different pregame attitude. Same result. Seattle manager Eric Wedge was trying to keep things relaxed about an hour before the game, walking around and … 2

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A1 WASHINGTON – Precariously short of time, congressional leaders struggled in urgent, weekend-long talks to avert an unprecedented government default, desperate to show enough progress to head off a plunge in … 33

July 24, 2011 in City on Page A1 Can Mary Verner break the curse of the one-term mayors? For a big clue, residents can look to the upcoming primary election. No Spokane mayor has won re-election in four … 21

July 24, 2011 in City on Page A1 1. Politicians continue to haggle over the details of a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. When it was created in 1917, what was the country’s original debt limit? …

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A2 DALLAS – Some airline customers won’t see savings this weekend even though several federal taxes on tickets have expired. US Airways and American Airlines say they’ve raised fares to offset …

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A4 BEIJING – A bullet train crashed into another high-speed train that had stalled after being struck by lightning in eastern China, causing four carriages to fall off a viaduct and …

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A4 RIGA, Latvia – Latvians voted to sack their Parliament in a historic referendum Saturday as the recession-weary country attempts to dismantle a culture of graft existing between politics and business. …

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A4 CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez made an unannounced return to Venezuela on Saturday night after spending a week in Cuba undergoing chemotherapy, saying that he expects a series of … 2

July 24, 2011 in Nation/World on Page A5 NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – Gay-rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were legally married the very first moment they could be during a midnight ceremony at Niagara Falls that ushered …

July 24, 2011 in City on Page A7 1: D. The debt ceiling was created with the Second Liberty Bond Act to finance the United States’ entry into World War I. 2: B. NASA announced Monday that Dawn …

July 24, 2011 in City on Page B1 From our archives, 100 years ago Spokane audiences had a wide choice of entertainment over the weekend, from vaudeville to classical music.

July 24, 2011 in City on Page B1 It all started with an email from a highly reliable source. An old single-engine plane, my buddy wrote, was parked (landed?) at Mitch Silver’s lot on Monroe and Shannon. Did … 1

July 24, 2011 in Idaho on Page B1 The Idaho Public Utilities Commission will take up to six months to consider Avista Utilities’ request for higher electric and natural gas rates, officials announced last week. Avista had hoped … 4

July 24, 2011 in City on Page B1 Beginning Aug. 15, Social Security offices nationwide, including those in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, will close 30 minutes earlier as a result of budget cuts approved by Congress. For the … 2