Steven MacDonald is new to the city of Spokane, but has a career’s worth of experience in community and economic development.

The former Keystone Elementary School on South McDonald Road in Spokane Valley opened Monday as a safe harbor for Central Valley School District students and families, offering everything from social workers to a food bank to laundry facilities.

The city has experienced a surge of resignations among staffers of all levels within its Community, Housing and Human Services Department this year. The Spokane City Council adopted a resolution on Monday supporting Mayor Nadine Woodward’s use of outside consultants to help the city apply for federal housing funds, as well as the administration’s creation of a “strike team” of top officials to help right the ship.

Glover Middle School will host a community open house Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Masks are required.

After last week’s column I got several requests for the method to get rid of fairy rings; so here is Mushrooms 2.0. Save this column for next spring as that is when fairy rings usually come out. This method is going to seem tedious, but it works.

Washington State University and the Riverside School District have teamed up to offer a class in WSU’s School of the Environment that will have students develop a forest management plan for the 97-acre Community Learning Forest on the school district’s land.

Like many of us, Frank and Marianne DeMarco found themselves with time on their hands during the pandemic.

Good news for families itching to sit around a backyard campfire and have some s’mores as the fall weather sets it – the burning restrictions that covered Spokane County for the summer and early fall have been lifted.

As we wrap up the first half of October, autumn colors are spectacular in our region. Bursts of orange, red and yellow in trees are putting on an especially good show this season.

The decision to step away has been a long time coming, but was really only solidified in the past few weeks after a visit with his wife, Donna, to Seattle to visit grandchildren, Kleckner said. 

Liberty Lake’s lone contested race for City Council features two candidates who are focused on preparing the city for continued growth.

Community COVID-19 testing sites are set to open in Spokane County next week.

Spokane County sent out the first batch of ballots Wednesday for the election.

The Inland Northwest and even the South Hill saw snow Wednesday as the cold season nears.

Kermit Shaull said he can’t remember the last time gas and food cost so much.

The former head of the Spokane County Public Defenders Office, and the man who's seen most of the federal criminal defendants in Eastern Washington for the past eight years, is stepping down at the end of the month after a career in law that began in the 1970s. Rodgers, son of former Mayor David H. Rodgers, said his pursuit of criminal defense was at odds with the wishes of his dad.

Chris Kopczynski – a mountaineer who has braved the highest peaks on all seven continents over the course of his life – said he was “scared to death” when he printed the first 50 copies of his memoir. “I thought they would sit down in the garage,” he said. They didn’t.

It's clear at this point what the Republican and Democrat committee members think makes for a fair commissioner district map. But what do the people who have been watching all the committee meetings think?