Seattle Mariners pitcher Ryan Franklin (pictured above) was suspended 10 days for violating his sport's steroids policy, the eighth major league player caught under the tougher rules enacted this year prohibiting performance-enhancing substances, according to the Seattle Times here.

1. Milt Priggee/Puget Sound Business Journal takes a look at organized labor's problems here.

2. "Piegans," a 24-by-36-inch oil painted by "cowboy artist" Charlie Russell in 1918 at the height of his most productive period, was sold for $5.6 million at the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction in Reno, Nev., a record price for a Russell, here.

3. Spokane City Council members voted unanimously Monday to take over a city investigation into allegations of misconduct by Mayor Jim West, according to Mike Prager/Spokesman-Review, here.

4. A wildfire near Lake Wenatchee grows to 1,000 acres and threatens 140 homes here.

5. A Spokane man didn't have to go to Glacier Park to see a moose; all he had to do is go around the corner and play tennis at his neighborhood park here.

6. IMHO-NW: Doug Floyd/Spokesman-Review (Collect Web cig taxes), Helena (Mont.) Independent Record (PETA's Fish Empathy Project), Jere L. Bacharach/UW prof emeritus (New vocabulary for Iraq), Bill Virgin/PI (Marketing to oldsters has rewards), and John Levesque/PI Sports (Seahawk defense).

*An initiative to ban indoor smoking qualified for the Washington ballot here.

*Veep Dick Cheney is vacationing in southeastern Montana, beginning with some fishing here.

*Energy savings from new daylight-saving time likely to be negligible in Northwest here.

Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here.

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