Spokane

The farmland will be restored to its natural state and permanently protected from development. 

Israel Garcia is identified in federal court documents as the man who stepped out of a dark-colored sedan and shot at officers at Cedar Street and First Avenue on Oct. 16. Police, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, were communicating with Garcia through a confidential source that had arranged to buy drugs at a nearby apartment. Garcia is identified in court records, prepared by a DEA special agent, as a courier in the transaction with an unnamed drug source. 

A group of concerned Spokane residents is trying to raise awareness about proposals to preserve a plot of land along the bluff overlooking Latah Valley before it goes up for auction next week.

Blaine Binger will be 7 years old next week, but he’s already thinking beyond his years.

Gary A. Stokes, longtime general manager of local PBS station KSPS and active member of various community organizations, will join the Spokane Public Library Board at the start of the new year.

When Doug Beernink was five, his sister enlisted his help to collect insects that she needed for a school project. She sent him out with a jar and a butterfly net. Sixty-one years later, he’s still collecting.

When Kiantha Duncan speaks, people listen.

A number of classrooms at Stevens Elementary suffered extensive water damage Monday after burst pipes in the ceiling caused flooding, according to school officials.

Untreated sewage and stormwater was released into the Spokane River Tuesday, as some of the system was overwhelmed by weeks of snow and sub-freezing temperatures followed quickly by days of rain and relative warmth.

Retail services have temporarily been suspended at the Mancito Post Office, located at 3120 S. Grand Boulevard, after melting snow caused “minor structural issues” at the building, according to a spokesperson.

The wound is still fresh this Christmas, even though Dylan Krogh has been dead from a fentanyl overdose for almost two years. But Todd Krogh, and his family, continue to talk about Dylan and the dangers of the drug, holding an audience with newspaper and TV reporters, Newport high school students, a federal judge and more. 

Charles Barbee, 70, and Verne Merrell, 77, had their convictions on counts of armed bank robbery, destruction of a building and use of a firearm during a crime of violence reheard this month by U.S. District Court Judge William Fremming Nielsen. Their sentences were reduced by 15 years apiece, but both will remain in custody for at least another decade. 

The outcome was anyone’s guess, because virtually every piece of testimony on either side had been flatly contradicted by testimony from the other side.

Boris Borisov helped pull the Spokane Slavic community together in a grassroots effort to create a soft landing place for the thousands of Ukrainians who sought refuge in Spokane this year.

Mako the arson dog, who dedicated years of his life to investigating fires in the Northwest and worked even after he had officially hung up his badge, died earlier this month. He was almost 14 years old.

Ilina Logani, 23, of Spokane, received the prestigious Rhodes scholarship in November. 

The long-running drama known as the Maurice Codd subornation of perjury trial reached new heights when Ruth Fryett, 26, one of the defendants, fainted.

Firefighters responded to more than 60 calls of damaged pipes or broken sprinklers over the weekend, according to a news release Monday. The department urged people who have been out-of-the-office over the holidays to check offices, shops and warehouses for standing water.

Anna Bondarenko is the assistant manager at the Thrive Center, a hotel run by the nonprofit Thrive International, where refugees, mostly Ukrainians, stay while transitioning to life in Spokane.