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A 10-year tango over the Air Force tanker contract dances on, leaving Spokane aerospace interests to anticipate potential effects. Those aerospace interests gathered Thursday in Spokane to meet with Sen. Patty Murray to discuss what’s next in the Air Force’s quest to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers.

For some Spokane residents who have questions about child custody or their rights as renters, the bigger question is whether they can afford legal advice. A lot of people in Spokane don’t have the financial resources to consult an attorney, the Center for Justice realized. So, for the past six years, the center has sponsored Street Law, a partnership with local attorneys and law students to offer free legal advice. Each Saturday during the summer, three lawyers and a law student set up tables and chairs in Riverfront Park, near the South Howard Bridge and the Looff Carrousel.

The Shegruds got to hold their 16-month-old grandson as he died, because smaller details such as food and sleeping arrangements were taken care of. Now they hope to do the same for other families in medical crisis.

LauraLi Gilliam sailed over the mounded dirt of Spokane’s new BMX track on her 20-inch tires, christening the track with a herd of others on Saturday. The track is one of several new features added in the expansion of the $11 million, 76-acre Dwight Merkel Sports Complex near Joe Albi Stadium in north Spokane. The complex, on North Assembly Street, has six full-size grass soccer fields, two synthetic fields, five softball diamonds, a BMX track, a skate park, a splash pad and walking trails. In 2007, voters passed a park improvement bond that helped finance the expansion of the old facility. Construction started in 2008.

LauraLi Gilliam sailed over the mounded dirt of Spokane’s new BMX track on her 20-inch tires, christening the track with a herd of others on Saturday. The track is one of several new features added in the expansion of the 76-acre Dwight Merkel Sports Complex near Joe Albi Stadium in north Spokane. The complex, on North Assembly Street, includes six full-size soccer fields, two synthetic fields, five softball diamonds, a BMX track, a skate park, a splash pad and walking trails. In 2007, voters passed a park improvement bond that helped finance the expansion of the old facility. Construction started in 2008.

On what would have been Bill Pickard’s 39th birthday, his family and friends stood below the bridge where he was hurled to his death in late June. On Friday evening, they shared stories of the man who taught their children how to dive, who bargained with car salesmen for their dream rides, and who water-skied with them on the lake. They propped his picture against the trees and circled around rocks spray-painted with “We love you Bill,” telling their stories over candlelight.

A year ago, Derek Garcia was shot in the stomach in a drive-by shooting in West Central. That didn’t keep him from celebrating the community Tuesday night. It is, after all, the neighborhood where he grew up and where he lives with his wife and two children.

When Andrea Parrish was 6 years old, she wasn’t yet dreaming about her wedding day. Instead, she was petitioning the mayor of Blackfoot, Idaho, to start a recycling program. The groom came later, and luckily Peter Geyer shared Parrish’s passion for recycling. The couple collected more than 400,000 cans to pay for their wedding Saturday at the Corbin Art Center. It took them six months, 15 days to raise about $4,000 with help from friends and family, and people who heard the story after Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark wrote about their goal. In the month before the wedding, the porch of the couple’s home was consumed by aluminum.

When Andrea Parrish was 6 years old, she wasn’t yet dreaming about her wedding day yet. Instead, she was petitioning the mayor of Blackfoot, Idaho to start a recycling program.

Multiple bomb scares and an alleged pipe-bomb murder attempt have kept the Spokane Explosive Disposal Unit busy in recent weeks. But the number of incidents isn’t unusual for the bomb squad. The unit is a collaborative effort between city, county and federal police agencies. Since 2006, the squad responded to an average of 90 calls per year, said Spokane Police Department Lt. Brad Arleth, squad commander.

As the woman in red tumbles through the sky in her aerobatic biplane, the smoke trail can barely keep up with the dizzying changes in altitude and rolls of her Pitts Special. And when she dived and climbed and rolled on Saturday, the terrain below pilot Jacquie “Jacquie Baby” Warda and her plane Red Eagle probably looked familiar. After all, Warda knows Spokane fairly well; she lives in San Francisco, but called Spokane home for 22 years. It’s where she learned to golf, ski and, more importantly, fly a plane, out at Felts Field.

As the woman in red tumbles through the sky in her aerobatic biplane, the smoke trail can barely keep up with the dizzying changes in altitude and rolls of her Pitts Special.

Thursday afternoon about 30,000 feet in the air over the caramel-colored plateaus and ridges of Nevada, a KC-135 Stratotanker from Fairchild Air Force Base had an important meeting, but the other party was a few minutes late. The Stratotanker turned a sharp right above the barren landscape, counting down 11 miles, then 6, until the other party was in sight – the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.

Thayne McCulloh on Friday was promoted from interim president of Gonzaga University to president, becoming the first non-Jesuit to hold that title since the school was founded in 1887. Gonzaga’s bylaws prohibit the election of a lay president. But after two years of searching for a suitable candidate, the board of members, a group of nine Jesuits that represents the ownership of the university, voted to suspend, not permanently amend, the bylaws, said university spokesman Dale Goodwin.

Amid another recall of drop-side cribs, the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted this week to implement new standards for manufacturing and selling cribs, including a ban on the production of drop-side cribs. Drop sides gained popularity for their design – a side that slides up and down to make it easier to place babies in and lift them out of the crib. But worries about the suffocation danger caused when a crib’s sides separate, creating a gap where a baby could be pinned between the mattress and the frame, have consumer safety advocates pushing for a ban.

Thayne McCulloh on Friday was promoted from interim president of Gonzaga University to president, and becomes the first non-Jesuit to lead the school in its history.

Col. Paul Guemmer was named commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base late last month in a ceremony attended by hundreds of military personnel, civilians and local officials. Guemmer comes to the area from Washington, D.C., where he spent four years in Air Force strategic planning. Q.Who came to Spokane with you?