Chloe Chalfant, 13, a seventh-grader a East Farms, raises her hand during math class on March 6. SR photo/Tyler Tjomsland

There was a bunch of news packed into Saturday's Valley Voice. First is a primer on your commuting routes this summer - a story outlining all the road construction projects coming up this year in Spokane Valley. There's also a major project planned in Liberty Lake, the installation of a roundabout at Harvard Road and Mission Ave. Major projects are also coming to Argonne Road, Sullivan Road, Pines Road and Sprague Ave.

Reporter Lisa Leinberger had a story on the SeaPerch team at North Pines Middle School. The two students built an underwater remote-operated vehicle (ROV) and won a regional contest. There are a series of fundraisers planned to send the team to the National Sea Perch Challenge in Indianapolis.

Now that Lisa is back, so is the East Farms Diary. This most recent entry focuses on discipline at the K-8 school. School staff report that older students typically don't mix with younger students and when they do, the older students are on their best behavior.

A Spokane County Superior Court Judge has ruled that the Hollywood Erotic Botique location on East Sprague in Spokane Valley is a public nuisance and in violation of the city's zoning ordinance. The court case is expected to continue, however, since the attorney representing the business owner indicated he was prepared to argue that the city's ordinance was unconstitutional.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department saw a large spike in reported firefighter injuries in 2012, but it is the result of a new focus on reporting every injury, no matter how slight. The number of arsons was also up in 2012, but that blip can be traced to an arson spree last summer than involved fires in dumpsters behind businesses.

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