Joe Dunlap, president of Spokane Community College, will be the new president of North Idaho College. The NIC Board of Trustees announced today that it picked Dunlap to succeed Priscilla Bell, who will retire in June. Dunlap has been SCC president since 2008. Before that he was vice president of instruction at SCC (2004-08) and at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Wash. (2002-04). He also spent four years as dean of science and industrial technology at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon; served as founding director of the School of Aviation Sciences; and was a professor of military science at Western Michigan University/Spokesman-Review. More here.

Thoughts?

NATURE — Andy Buddington, a hiker and local science prof, will give a free slideshow on “Flowers and Trees of the Highest Sierra” on Wednesday (Nov. 16), 12:30 p.m., at Spokane Community College, Buildling 27, Room 201. 

Spokane police Detective Chet Gilmore walks near an alley at Ralph Street and Riverside Avenue, where a woman's body was found Saturday. (SRphoto/Jesse Tinsley)

When Tarah Krivenko last spoke with her mother on Friday, she said the 48-year-old Spokane Community College student was planning to help a friend with her homework.

 But when her mother didn’t return home that night, Krivenko suspected something was wrong.

Those fears were confirmed Saturday after the body of Krivenko’s mother, Evon M. Moore, (pictured) was found in an alley behind an east Spokane warehouse.

“This is the biggest tragedy of so many people’s lives,” said Krivenko, who also is a student. “She’s such a loving person, and all these people are grieving her.”

Read the rest of my story here.

Got a thought on how to help solve the state’s budget woes?

Thursday may be your chance in Eastern Washington. That’s when the Office of Financial Management brings its road show to the Lair Student Center auditorium at Spokane Community College, for two hours, starting at 5 p.m.

The hearings are proving pretty popular — or at least well-attended. The first session in Tacoma drew 450 people and the second in Everett close to 400. The governor’s office moved the Spokane session to a larger venue to accommodate a similar response in Spokane.

Because of the big crowds, people who speak will be asked to keep their comments to two minutes to allow as many other speakers as possible. They’ll take written testimony, and people who want to offer ideas but don’t want to speak will be allowed to submit comments in writing.

And if you’ve got other plans for Thursday, but want to submit your ideas, you can do it online, by clicking here to go to the governor’s budget web site .

Gov. Chris Gregoire assigned OFM to hold the hearings to keep them focused on budget matters, but she stopped by the first two. There are no plans for her to show up in Spokane, despite what you may have heard on TV.

Gov. Chris Gregoire’s two-year budget plan, released Thursday, suggests closing a $5.7 billion budget shortfall with deep cuts.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest cuts, local cuts, and some new local spending:

Education:

-do away with cost-of-living raises for teachers and other school staffers for the next two years: $349 million.

-eliminate a variety of school pilot programs, including the reading corps, civics curriculum, and math helping corps: $23 million.

-”suspend” about a quarter of the money for class-size reduction: $178 million.

Higher Education:

-across-the-board cuts of up to 13 percent at four-year colleges and 6 percent at community and technical colleges. The colleges can decide what to cut, although effects may include cutting faculty, cutting support staff and offering fewer classes. Savings: $342 million.

-doing away with faculty and staff cost-of-living raises at community and technical colleges: $33.4 million.

Human services:

-do away with the Adult Day Health program, which serves about 1,900 elderly and developmentally disabled people: $20 million.

-reduce nursing home reimbursement rates by 5 percent: $46 million.

-shrink mental health funding for Regional Support Networks: $31 million.

-toughen accountability for welfare recipients and push them into jobs quicker: $30 million.

Health care:

-stop buying vaccines for children not covered by Medicaid: $50 million.

-cut the state’s Basic Health Plan for the working poor by 42 percent and shrink the things it will cover.

-halt plans to let parents buy state-subsidized health coverage if they’re between 250 percent and 300 percent of poverty level. For a family of 4, that’s $53,000 to $63,600 per year. Savings: $6 million.

-eliminate General Assistance for the Unemployable, which provides health care and issues checks of up to $339 a month to thousands of people. Savings: $251 million.

-cut hospital reimbursement rates by 4 percent: $47 million.

Natural resources:

-close 7 fish hatcheries: $7 million.

-close 13 state parks, plus other parks during off-peak seasons: $5 million.

Law enforcement:

-shortening probation and eliminating probation supervision for misdemeanors and low-risk felonies: $69 million.

-shrinking drug and alcohol treatment: $11 million.