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Benjamin Shors

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News >  Spokane

Moving forward

Like any recent high school graduate, Melanie Albo looks forward to a steady paycheck. But the 21-year-old has a few requirements: a job coach to help her with interviews and applications and an on-site trainer to answer her questions at work.
News >  Spokane

Suicide spike over, county official says

For more than a year, health officials puzzled over the high number of suicides in Spokane County in 2004. Some attributed the increase to turmoil in the public mental health system. Others said the 50 percent increase may have merely been an anomaly.
News >  Spokane

Humor, tenacity all in a day’s work

Lovable "Knuffle Bunny" was drying out on a tabletop, next to the wavy and waterlogged pages of "Gilbert the Great" and "The Ants Go Marching." Yet Marilee Roloff remained surprisingly sanguine. She strolled through the basement offices of Volunteers of America, assessing the damage from a broken pipe that left several inches of murky water on the floor and threatened her vast supply of free children's books.
News >  Spokane

For performers, a healthy expression

The lights dimmed, and the piano keys twinkled. Offstage, Annita Powell took a deep breath, squared a black cowboy hat on her head and sauntered into the spotlight. In a gravelly basso buffo, Powell launched into song.
News >  Spokane

Implant may help treat depression

A controversial implant the size of a pocket watch is now being offered as an option for Spokane patients with severe depression who have failed to respond to more conventional treatments. The device – known as the Vagus nerve stimulator – won federal approval in 2005, but the dearth of clinical evidence has worried skeptics, including some insurance companies.
News >  Spokane

Spotlight focuses on volunteers

Before his acceptance speech as Spokane's Volunteer of the Year, Bill McMillan made several ill-fated attempts to flee the stage, its microphone and the popping glare of camera flashes. After finally being prodded to the microphone, the 57-year-old volunteer at Crosswalk, a homeless center for teens, politely thanked his wife and his parents.
News >  Spokane

DeLay probe grazes church

COLVILLE – A small evangelical church has found itself entangled in a federal investigation into public corruption and a disgraced lobbyist. In the summer of 2000, Shiloh Fellowship Ministries had a notable benefactor: a national "pro-family" nonprofit run by Edwin A. Buckham, once a top adviser to outgoing Rep. Tom DeLay.
News >  Spokane

Machete attack victim files claim against state

A social worker who survived an attack by a man with a machete has filed a $750,000 tort claim against the state of Washington, alleging the state failed to properly equip social workers in isolated areas of Eastern Washington. The claim, which was filed by social worker Edith Vance, also alleges that the state failed to protect Vance even though it received information that Bryan Russell was a potential danger three months prior to the Feb. 16 assault.
News >  Spokane

Moving forward with no past

Somewhere on a quiet stretch of Alaskan highway, Barry J. Lehinger's past vanished. When a sport utility vehicle tumbled from the roadside nearly two years ago, it jarred loose the collected memories of Barry: the name of his sister; the death of an uncle; the details of a first date; in short, the bulk of memories acquired during more than three decades of life.
News >  Spokane

Panel criticizes state’s foster care reforms

The state of Washington has failed to make dozens of changes legally required to improve its troubled foster care system, a panel of child experts concluded in a report released late Tuesday. The panel found the Children's Administration failed to complete about two-thirds of its "action steps" – including steps to better monitor children's mental health, reduce the caseloads of its social workers, and provide more staffers to work with children who had been moved to multiple foster homes.
News >  Idaho

High prospects for fun at Post Falls show

Gold is in Bob Lowe's blood. Not strictly speaking, of course, because that would be dangerous. But gold runs deep in his family heritage, and even to this day, Lowe likes gold very, very much.
News >  Spokane

County to bid on mental health contract

After mulling a merger with another mental health system, Spokane County decided Friday to apply alone for a contract with the state to oversee care – just two months after state analysts gave the county a failing grade. "It does appear that the merger with Greater Columbia is not going to go forward," Commissioner Mark Richard said.
News >  Spokane

Group calls for video’s release

The president of Washington's largest mental-health advocacy group wants Spokane Police to immediately release a videotape of a mentally ill man's fatal encounter with officers. "The public has a right to know," said Gordon Bopp, of NAMI-Washington's board of directors. "Their inclination is to justify what they did. The longer they delay, it just opens up more opportunity for doubt and suspicion."
News >  Spokane

Mental health answers sought

In the 34 years since she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Terri Marklein has watched friends struggle against government bureaucracies and social stigmas. Now 60, Marklein has sat on a bevy of boards and countless committees to improve the public mental health system.
News >  Spokane

State marks $10 million for mental health in region

Spokane County's troubled mental health system received a big boost this week from the state Legislature, which directed more than $10 million to Eastern Washington services. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown pushed for increased funding for local programs, a state repayment of fines to Spokane County and an expanded ward at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake.
News >  Spokane

Albi’s turf called a risk to athletes

A private consultant found that the turf at Joe Albi Stadium presents an "unacceptable risk of injury" to athletes, raising further questions about the future of the city's beleaguered facility. Brett Sports, which commissioned the study by BioMechanica of Portland, said Wednesday its minor league soccer team will not play at the stadium this season.
News >  Spokane

Bill prevents suit against DSHS

Tucked in a Senate bill on mental health is a provision that could cost Spokane County $2.6 million, according to county officials. The legislation could prevent the county from suing the state Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees the state's 13 mental health systems, according to Jim Emacio, the county's chief civil attorney.
News >  Spokane

Bills raise gambling age limits

Each day, dozens of poker players plop down $27 for a chance to qualify for a Texas Hold 'Em tournament where the prize money can reach thousands of dollars. Scattered among the contestants at Players and Spectators, a card room in the Spokane Valley, are college students and teenagers. In the past two years, general manager Scott Letsch has lowered the age limit from 21 to 18 as competition from tribal casinos and other card rooms grew.
News >  Spokane

Lakeland workers allege reprisal

One of three employees who have filed a multimillion-dollar claim against the state said a supervisor at Lakeland Village instructed her not to reposition her severely disabled patient or check for soiled clothing. Stacy Green, a 22-year-old counselor, said she surreptitiously checked on the patient's condition despite the instructions from her supervisor two years ago. Later, although her supervisors urged her not to, Green said, she called a state hotline designed to ensure the protection of vulnerable patients.
News >  Spokane

Groups seek more mental health funds

OLYMPIA – After historic gains in last year's state legislative session, mental health advocates descended on the offices of senators and representatives last week with a simple message: Washington's public mental health system continues to teeter on the brink of collapse. The response from legislators – who provided $80 million to ease a federal funding shortfall and required companies to provide better insurance coverage for mental illness – is expected to be muted.
News >  Spokane

More like family

When Patrick Powers graduated from a Spokane high school and left the state's foster care system, his financial troubles began. With no health insurance, Powers avoided going to the doctor until he developed pneumonia. Without free school lunches he received as a foster child, the outgoing teenager stopped eating regularly. By age 21, he had tallied more than $3,000 in medical bills while attending a vocational school to train as a sheet-metal worker.
News >  Spokane

Thousands donated to Partners

When state officials cut funding to a well-regarded Spokane center that cares for abused children, the nonprofit appealed to private donors. In response, Partners with Families and Children received $129,000 in donations – enough to sustain the program while it lobbies the state Children's Administration to restore its funding.
News >  Spokane

Highway begging ban called ‘despicable’

OLYMPIA – A senator who proposed a bill that would make panhandling on public highways a misdemeanor compared the practice to bears begging for food in Mount Rainier National Park. "It used to be OK to feed the bears," said Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood. "When people stopped feeding them, they did not starve to death. They became productive bears."