In brief: Car crashes into credit union

A car smashed into a South Hill credit union Monday, injuring the elderly driver and passenger.

Firefighters arrived at the Spokane Teacher’s Credit Union, 820 E. 29th Ave., at 12:45 p.m. and searched the building as medics treated the two, who were still inside the vehicle with minor injuries, according to the Spokane Fire Department.

Avista Utilities shut off power to the building so fire crews could dig into the wall searching for the source of smoke. The fire was limited to an electrical meter arcing from the impact of the crash. Police are investigating the crash.

The credit union is arranging to repair the building, according to the Fire Department.

La Nina’s return could spell snow

Temperatures may be hovering in the 80s and 90s this week, but the National Weather Service said it’s not too early to talk about winter.

Forecasters said they see a possibility that the Inland Northwest could get hit with another snowy winter by year’s end.

The basis for this is a Climate Prediction Center outlook last week that calls for a return to La Nina cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean starting around the holidays and continuing into 2012. La Nina is the term used to describe colder-than-normal water in the tropics, a pattern that energizes the storm track in the Northern Hemisphere and can bring a lot of snow to the Inland Northwest. It is believed to be the triggering mechanism behind heavy snowfall in three of the past four winters, including the 68 inches of snow in Spokane last winter.

News of demise is premature

KENNEWICK – Cheri Schumann would like Kennewick High School’s class of 1971 to know she is very much alive.

A story in Saturday’s Tri-City Herald about Kennewick High’s reunion focused on seven classmates who were slain out of 80 who had died. Schumann – now Cheri Taylor – was included.

But Taylor lives in Mill Creek, north of Seattle, with her husband and four children. She says she’s happy, healthy and not ready to be buried.

Reunion co-chairwoman Debra Blum told the newspaper the report of Taylor’s premature demise came by email, apparently from another classmate. Blum says she used other sources to verify it.

Blum says another classmate listed in Saturday’s story – Leo Marcel – also wasn’t murdered. He died in 2004 after a lengthy illness.