Nicholas Deshais

The Spokane City Council approved $500,000 for the design and construction of a greenway on Cincinnati Street between Spokane Falls Boulevard and Euclid Avenue.

Spokane Mayor David Condon’s choice to investigate the handling of personnel matters at City Hall has been pushed aside because of growing concerns from city council members about the investigation’s independence.

They draw the curtains in a room of Spokane City Hall when the cameras roll. On Sept. 22, reporters were given eight minutes to rush to that room adjacent to the mayor’s office on the seventh floor, where the mayor’s lectern already was set up, and the three flags of country, state and city hung as backdrop for a hastily called news conference about the forced resignation of police Chief Frank Straub.

Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart said he is “severely disappointed” in Mayor David Condon for the handling of allegations of sexual harassment against former police Chief Frank Straub, saying he can’t trust Condon or members of his cabinet after being “lied to.” Stuckart is “working on a draft of a letter with a very long list of questions” for Condon, part of which questions the timing of a records release this week, even though those records show that Condon knew in April the police chief had been accused of harassment.

Spokane Mayor David Condon knew in April that a female city employee accused former police Chief Frank Straub of sexual harassment because he had “grabbed her ass, tried to kiss her.”

The season’s first snow fell as a reminder: Winter is coming, and even at its coldest and hardest, there is beauty to see if you look hard enough. Outside of the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, thousands of people lined up for a bit of that beauty and the makings of a great free meal: a 12-pound turkey, 5 pounds of potatoes, 5 pounds of apples, canned goods, bread. Maybe a jug of milk.

A golf course with a storied past may have a moneyed future, as advocates urge city officials to fund a multimllion dollar renovation of the degraded course. Friends of Indian Canyon Golf Course wants $4 million from the city park board to repair and improve the 80-year-old course, saying it will match the outlay with $2 million of its own and bring national golfing events to the city.

Following more than a year of controversy, debate and a ballot measure, Spokane Mayor David Condon is getting a pay cut.

New rules governing the location of cell towers were praised and unanimously passed by the Spokane City Council on Monday. It was a long way from six months ago, when Allen had predicted a lawsuit as all but certain after the council unanimously approved a moratorium on cell tower construction in the city.

For the first time in more than four decades, Spokane voters have given a mayor a second chance. Mayor David Condon coasted to victory with 62 percent of the vote in today’s election. A Spokane mayor hadn’t been re-elected since 1973.

A controversial measure to bolster worker rights in Spokane failed at the polls tonight, as 62 percent of voters rejected it. City of Spokane Proposition 1 would have amended the city charter to require large employers to pay workers a “family wage,” ensure equal pay for equal work regardless of gender or race and add protections against termination. The measure would make the rights of corporations secondary to people’s rights.

Plans to build an Olympics-level indoor sports facility on the north bank of the Spokane River got a little closer to reality this week, as a report showed that the facility would generate four dollars in economic impact for every dollar spent to build and operate the complex during its first five years. The 185,000-square foot “sportsplex” is planned to sit on five acres of land just east of the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, and would house a 200-meter hydraulic banked indoor track, the same type used in the Olympics. The track would be just one of 10 in the country.

Planned Parenthood plans to build a $5 million facility in Spokane, which will open in 2017, the nonprofit announced Wednesday.

As part of a five-year project to replace 30,000 company-owned streetlights with energy-efficient bulbs, Avista has begun switching out the orange glow of sodium lights with the bright white of LEDs.