Cantwell to endorse city for skate championships

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., plans to say it in writing: Spokane would be the perfect place for the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships.

Cantwell will present a letter to the U.S. Figure Skating site-selection committee today at the office of skate promoters Star USA. The committee will be in Spokane today and Monday, with a red-carpet rally planned from 11:15 to 11:45 a.m. Monday.

The royal treatment, orchestrated by Star USA, will be staged on Post Street, one block south to one block north of River Park Square. Post Street will be closed to traffic from Riverside to Main from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mayor Dennis Hession has asked city employees to greet the skating committee by turning out on the Post Street Bridge and waving as they arrive. The public is encouraged to attend.

U.S. Figure Skating will decide which city to recommend to the International Skating Union on April 15.

Star USA is the promoter of next year’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 21-28, at the Spokane Arena and Convention Center.

– Hilary Kraus

Student’s condition satisfactory after fall

A University of Idaho student who fell out of a third floor fraternity house window remained in satisfactory condition Saturday at a Spokane hospital.

Gawain “Dewey” Neighbor, 21, of Boise, fell out of an open window on the sleeping porch at the Beta Theta Pi house in Moscow, about 4:15 a.m. Friday, said Joni Kirk, UI spokeswoman.

Ken Henderson, house president of Beta Theta Pi, the largest fraternity house on the Moscow campus, said Neighbor suffered broken heels, ankles and a small fracture in his lower back and may undergo surgery either today or Monday.

Neighbor will not be back at school this semester.

“The doctor said … after a summer of recovery he should be able to come back. He’s doing great. He’s in high spirits. He has full movement,” said Henderson.

He confirmed that Neighbor had been drinking at a bar in the area Thursday night.

– Kandis Carper

Families displaced in midnight blazes

Spokane Fire Department crews were kept busy early Saturday by two blazes that started around midnight.

No one was injured in either fire, but two families were displaced as a result of the damage.

At about 11:57 p.m. Friday, firefighters were called to a two-story apartment building at 1714 W. Boone. When they arrived, they found flames coming from some construction material left on the front porch. Smoke damaged one of the apartments, according to a dispatcher, forcing its residents to seek temporary shelter from the American Red Cross.

About half an hour later, crews responded to another fire at 2121 N. Freya. That fire, which burned the attic and other parts of the house, was out by 3 a.m., and the residents are now under the care of the Red Cross.

– Virginia de Leon