Picture stories

Runners flocked to Spokane County Raceway Saturday, June 15 to run five kilometers, but more importantly, to get doused colored cornstarch along the way. The racers gathered for an after party to throw more color in the air and at each other and bounce to pounding dance music.

Downtown Coeur d’Alene is the location for the annual Friday night cruise Friday, June 14, 2013. The cruise was the kickoff for the annual Car d’Lane car show weekend, put on by the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association. On Saturday, the show continues with displays of hundreds of cars on downtown streets. Line up begins at 8 a.m. and runs through 4 p.m. with music, food booths and awards for top cars. More information is available to www.cdadowntown.com

Members of the 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry, based in and around Spokane, will go through training exercises including live fire in an Abrams tank and a Bradley armored vehicle. Live fire exercises are limited by sequestration.

Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with her husband Todd Palin, came to Republic, Washington to address the graduating class of Republic High School. The class had wooed the Alaska resident to address their graduating class in the remote north central Washington town. Surprisingly, she agreed and revealed that her family has a bit of family history there.

The signs pop up every hour or so along Interstate 90 west toward Snoqualmie Pass. A brown recreation sign with a golf bag and clubs. An exit for Golf Course Road. S-R sports reporter Jim Meehan and freelancer and former S-R staff photographer Christopher Anderson stopped in Cle Elum, in Ellensburg, twice in Moses Lake and in Ritzville to check out the courses.

A public memorial was held at the Inland Northwest Bank Performing Arts Center for Capt. Mark Tyler Voss, Capt. Victoria Pinckney and Tech. Sgt. Herman “Tre” Mackey III, the patriots who lost their lives onboard a KC-135 that crashed May 3.

The Washington Civil War Association organizes The Battle At Deep Creek, a Civil War reenactment at a farm on the West Plains on Memorial Day weekend. Formal battles are staged daily and period clothing and camping skills are observed through the weekend. Visitors are welcome with a small admission fee at Deep Creek Farm at 811 N. Deep Creek Rd. and formal battles are staged at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, and 1 p.m. Monday. More information, including a schedule of events, is available at http://spokanecivilwar.com.

From Medical Lake, Washington, to Hayden, Idaho, veterans past and present are honored in annual ceremonies.

The small farming town of Sprague, Washington is getting a reputation for its cars. And trucks. There are dozens of vehicles in the collections of Dave Jones and Dave Thompson, who have accumulated lots full of unrestored classics. To some, they are an eyesore, rusting away in the elements. For car lovers, they are a cross between a museum and a time machine to a better, more innocent time.

The Inland Northwest has a strong military tradition. For generations it has sent its sons – and now too, its daughters – into harm’s way when the nation is at war, knowing that not all will come back. The men and women in this slide show are part of a national toll of some 1,084 military personnel who have died in Afghanistan since the fall of 2001 and 4,400 who have died in the Iraq war since March 2003.

Summer is around the corner. Until then, take a look at rainy weather features shot by S-R photographers this year.

A monstrous tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs, Monday, May 20, 2013, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds up to 200 mph. At least 24 people were killed, including at least seven children, and those numbers were expected to climb.

As many as 160,000 people are expected to line the streets of downtown Spokane tonight for the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. It’s the 75th celebration of the Spokane Lilac Festival.

Here is a gallery of photos from the 3A/4A Regional track meet held Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18 at Spokane Falls Community College. Top runners, jumps and throwers earned a berth to the state tournament.

The Spokane Shock take on the New Orleans VooDoo in a home game, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Shock recover a fourth quarter New Orleans fumble and seal a 65-54 victory.

The 2013 Armed Forces Torchlight Parade will be held on Saturday evening, May 18, 2013. Take a look back at the Lilac Parade through the years.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported last month an 8 percent increase in the number of people seeking asylum worldwide from 2011 to 2012. Last year’s total was the highest since 2003. Congolese refugee Dakie Tshilobo recently moved to Spokane with her parents Patrick Kazadi and Jolie Ngenda. World Relief, the organization helping Dakie’s family get their bearings has resettled about 12,000 people in the Inland Northwest during the past two decades, about 100 of them Congolese.

The Spokane Shock take on the Orlando Predators at home in the Spokane Arena, Saturday, May 11, 2013. The Shock had possession of the ball and a 13-point lead with less than 1 minute remaining, but a turnover and the inability to recover an onside kick allowed Orlando to pull out a stunning 83-82 victory in front of 8,370 Saturday night at the Arena.

Middle school and elementary groups danced, played and tumbled for the audience at the annual Junior Lilac Parade Saturday, May 11 in downtown Spokane.

When the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association met Friday, May 10, Tyler Voss was on the agenda. He and two others, Capt. Victoria Pinckney and Tech Sgt. Herman Mackey III, died in the May 3rd crash of a KC135 tanker aircraft in support of the war in Afghanistan. Voss was a member of the EAA chapter and was rebuilding a homebuilt aircraft in their hangar. So friends and colleagues showed up to honor Voss and the EAA organizers recruited the flyover pilots to perform the “missing man” formation, where a single plane, trailing smoke, pulls away from the other three planes and slowly flies away.