Thomas Clouse

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  2024-04-21

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  2024-04-14

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News >  Washington

Insurance companies abandoning victims of Medical Lake and Elk wildfires

UPDATED: Thu., April 18, 2024

Eight months after the fire, some companies are dropping clients, telling others they won’t be renewed or, even in cases of homeowners who avoided damage, raising monthly rates to impossible levels.

Sports >  NCAA

Sports pioneer Moos fears for future of programs: ‘It’s against everything I believe college athletics should be about’

Sun., April 7, 2024

For a man who will always bleed crimson, the current fate of Washington State University, and college athletics in general, causes him great distress.

News >  Sci/Tech

How Bankman-Fried sentence ties back to Whitman County’s Farmington Bank

UPDATED: Thu., March 28, 2024

The sentencing Thursday of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison was the bookend of a legal case in New York. But the case also had implications for Eastern Washington: it helped kill a community bank.

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Sports

University of Idaho places embattled volleyball coach on leave

UPDATED: Wed., March 27, 2024

The University of Idaho has placed its women's volleyball coach on leave following a series of complaints by current and former players who accused the coach of verbal and physical abuse.

News

WSU and OSU agree on $65 million payout with 10 former Pac-12 members

UPDATED: Mon., March 25, 2024

After two major legal victories gave them control over what was left of the Pac-12 Conference, Washington State and Oregon State both announced Monday that they have come to an agreement with the 10 departing schools about how to distribute the remaining revenues.

News >  Business

Former office of Witherspoon Kelley closing in Spokane

UPDATED: Fri., March 29, 2024

In a match that apparently wasn't made in heaven, a law office is shuttering in downtown Spokane after a merger didn't work out.

News >  Business

Powerful realtor group settles lawsuits over sales commissions

UPDATED: Fri., March 15, 2024

American homeowners could see a significant drop in the cost of selling their homes after a real estate trade group agreed to a landmark deal related to the bedrock of the industry, the 6% sales commission.

Sports >  Area sports

New Spokane Velocity soccer team asks fans to bring ‘electric’ energy for Saturday’s first home game

UPDATED: Tue., March 12, 2024

On Saturday, a brand new professional soccer team will run out of a brand new locker room into a brand new stadium to try to kick their way into the hearts of Spokane fans.

News >  Business

Washington’s Insurance Commissioner urges companies to work with fire victims

UPDATED: Wed., March 6, 2024

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler announced Wednesday that he sent letters to insurers in the Spokane area urging them to make it easier for victims to file claims resulting from the Gray and Oregon Road fires that devastated rural areas last summer.

News >  Higher education

Idaho Supreme Court to hear case involving University of Phoenix purchase

UPDATED: Mon., March 4, 2024

The Idaho Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a case brought by Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who earlier this year had a judge dismiss his lawsuit challenging the decision by education officials to purchase the University of Phoenix.

Sports >  NCAA

New Pac-12 commissioner, WSU’s Schulz vow to press forward in murky NCAA straits

UPDATED: Fri., March 1, 2024

On a day when the official schedule for Washington State's football team was officially announced, about the only thing WSU president Kirk Schulz could guarantee about the future for Cougar fans: They get some "terrific" new college towns to visit on Saturdays.

News >  Local business

Downtown Spokane office vacancy continues to climb

Sun., Feb. 25, 2024

Spokane's downtown office-space vacancy rate is climbing at the same time several owners of commercial properties face the prospect of refinancing mortgages at the interest rates that have stifled housing markets nationwide.

News >  Business

Clearwater Paper purchases Georgia paperboard facility

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 23, 2024

Clearwater Paper Corp. announced this week that it has purchased a Georgia-based paperboard-manufacturing facility for about $700 million.

Sports >  NCAA

State hearing highlights divergent fortunes of WSU and UW in new era of college athletics

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 21, 2024

Facing $100 million in debt and an uncertain athletic future after the Pac-12 Conference imploded, Washington State University officials told state lawmakers Wednesday that they will channel their inner underdogs and do what 'Cougs' have always done: persevere.

News >  Spokane

Visionary Spokane downtown preservationist Ron Wells, who later was disgraced in fraud scam, dies

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 14, 2024

Historic buildings of Spokane have lost their greatest advocate. 

Sports >  Area sports

Attorneys close to completing Idaho volleyball interviews as former players reflect on coach’s abuse allegations

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 14, 2024

Shannon Webb inadvertently helped recruit two players into her personal "nightmare" that is now the subject of an investigation of alleged verbal and physical abuse against Idaho women's volleyball coach Chris Gonzalez. 

News >  Weather

Forecaster: Spokane area to get warm spring, dry summer

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 6, 2024

The Weather Man brought farmers a typhoon of mostly good news during his annual address Tuesday, but he also warned that a new perpetual cycle of weather has emerged that is conducive to the continued threat of wild fires in the Pacific Northwest.

News >  Higher education

Judge rules for University of Idaho in open records case involving University of Phoenix deal

UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 31, 2024

Idaho Board of Education members did not violate Idaho's Open Meeting Law when they conducted three secret meetings last year to discuss the potential purchase of the University of Phoenix, a judge has ruled.

News >  Business

Chick-fil-A owners seek building permit on the South Hill as effort to quash drive-thrus picks up steam in neighborhood

UPDATED: Mon., Jan. 29, 2024

What came first, the Chick-fil-A or the newly hatched plan that would prohibit drive-thru businesses on East 29th Avenue on Spokane’s South Hill?

News >  National business

Why U.S. union membership has dipped to a record low despite recent high-profile wins

UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 24, 2024

In a year full of worker stoppages from the writer's and actor's strikes in Los Angeles to Midwest autoworkers, it seemed like unions had somehow figured out how to claw back into labor discussions as the economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

News >  Business

The Dirt: New apartments coming on former Spokane property

UPDATED: Thu., Jan. 25, 2024

A site long used by the city of Spokane's fleet of snow plows and other vehicles is about to become a very large. multi-family housing complex, according to permit requests submitted earlier this month.

Sports >  NCAA

University of Idaho president urges patience during volleyball investigation

UPDATED: Fri., Jan. 19, 2024

The president of Idaho for the first time on Friday commented about months-long inquiry into claims of physical and emotional abuse lodged by several members of the women's volleyball team against their coach.

News >  Local business

Avista seeks electricity and gas rate increases

UPDATED: Fri., Jan. 19, 2024

Avista Utilities is seeking two new rounds of rate increases, for both electricity and natural gas, that would make it much more expensive for Spokane area residents to heat their homes and keep lights illuminated.

Sports >  NCAA

University of Idaho won’t force volleyball players to practice before embattled coach

UPDATED: Thu., Jan. 18, 2024

University of Idaho women's volleyball players learned after a 9 p.m. message Wednesday that those named in complaints alleging abuse against their coach wouldn'twill not have to practice in front of him on Thursday.

Sports >  NCAA

‘Fighting for what I know is right’: Idaho volleyball players will face coach accused of abuse

UPDATED: Thu., Jan. 18, 2024

Emma Patterson, a 22-year-old senior from Boise, will walk into Memorial Gym on the campus of University of Idaho in Moscow on Thursday and practice in front of a volleyball coach that she personally accused of physical and emotional abuse against both her and her teammates.