Features

Several months ago I shared a story about my first experience with luxury vinyl plank flooring. I installed the flooring in a basement room that experienced water damage caused by a leaking water pipe. The product was affordable, it was easy to install, and after six months it looks as good as the day it was put down.

Showcasing their newly acquired diverse manikins and training kits, Providence Sacred Heart hospital gave hands-on training to Rogers High School students during a field trip Friday.

A downtown Spokane site has joined a statewide drug-checking network aimed at reducing overdoses. It's also a glimpse into what's new in illicit drug supplies. In recent months, fentanyl powder has shown up as a substance more potent than fentanyl pills. Hints showed last summer of the powerful veterinary sedative xylazine, sometimes mixed with illegal fentanyl. Compassionate Addiction Treatment, a barrier-free drug treatment center, began nearly a year ago to test small samples of drugs, anonymously and voluntarily given by people who come to the center. The statewide network is led by the Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington.

Washington State University

West Plains residents can now sign up to have their private or shared well tested for PFAS. The service is free and will be conducted by the Washington Department of Ecology.

I started seeds of three kinds of onions and six of peppers last weekend.

Spokane County just had its first case of measles since 2015, and the Spokane Regional Health District expects the number of cases to grow before the outbreak is over.

Would you book a cruise if you didn’t know where you’d be sailing?

A Spokane County resident has tested positive for measles, spurring health officials to warn residents of possible sites of exposure to the highly contagious virus.

Q. I keep reading that aspirin is dangerous. But when I went to the emergency room thinking I might be having a heart attack, the first thing they did was give me four baby aspirin. I wasn’t having a heart attack after all, but they seemed to think it would be protective if I was.

My landlord recently installed a fence around the shared front yard of our building in Upstate New York. Each of her tenants has a dog, and she thought it would be nice to provide a safe off-leash space where they can run around and chase a ball. But this act of kindness has introduced an unfortunate new temptation. When it’s time for one of my dog’s three daily walks and the weather is bad, or I’m particularly busy (or particularly lazy), I now sometimes think: “Maybe I’ll just let him into the yard?”

Vanessa Delgado says that when she was growing up, gender and sexuality weren’t discussed as being on a spectrum. She didn’t see books that addressed such topics.

Washington State University

WARREN, Mich. – Wearing a lab coat, Eve Vitale asked a chemistry class at Warren Mott High School if anyone had heard anything bad about plastics. Hands shot up. It doesn’t degrade, said one student. It hurts the environment, said another.

While others focus on New Year’s resolutions, my family and I come up with a dream list of where we want to go. Places we missed the previous year (Thailand and the Cook Islands) often get rolled over, but we always add new places (this year, South Korea) that can – with careful planning – be done affordably.

Christian music radio station KEEH-FM has sent a signal from Spokane for 30 years, but a 2016 rebrand as Shine 104.9 has led to both wider audience and expansion. As Shine, the station sought to broaden connections with local churches and nonprofits in sharing events and doing interviews with regional leaders. In recent years, Shine also has steadily climbed toward the top in Nielsen ratings among Spokane-area radio stations.

As West Plains residents have learned more about how PFAS has seeped into their groundwater for decades, many are still in the dark about how much of the chemicals are in their body.