Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Benjamin Shors

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

All Stories

News >  Spokane

Housing agencies bracing for cutbacks

Changes in federal housing policy will boost the rents of poor, disabled and elderly residents on voucher programs in Spokane County, according to local officials and a recent national survey. The changes, enacted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this spring, will increase rents about $25 a recipient, according to the Spokane Housing Authority.
News >  Spokane

Housing agencies bracing for cuts

Changes in federal housing policy will boost the rents of poor, disabled and elderly residents on voucher programs in Spokane County, according to local officials and a recent national survey. The changes, enacted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this spring, will increase rents about $25 a recipient, according to the Spokane Housing Authority.
News >  Spokane

Rape suspect was on mental hospital’s radar

State records detail a history of complaints against a nurse for alleged sexual contact with mentally ill patients dating back nine years, but provide few insights into why state officials did not discipline or fire the nurse. The state Department of Health released 80 pages of complaints and reports Tuesday on Guy M. Johnston, a 42-year-old nurse arrested last month for allegedly raping a patient at Eastern State Hospital. But the department withheld hundreds of other documents from Johnston's personnel file, citing privacy laws.

News >  Spokane

A home of their own

Homelessness runs generations deep in Tasha Lantto's family. By her teens, she knew well the haunts of the homeless – the aging motel rooms, the drug houses, the crowded shelters with stacked bunk beds.
News >  Spokane

Rally shuts down office

Spokane police arrested three people after a rally of home health-care workers briefly forced the shutdown of a state office Thursday. Dozens of protesters gathered inside the offices of the Department of Social and Health Services in north Spokane to rally against cuts to services for elderly and disabled clients. "The worse I get, the less help I get," said Paul Sheppard, a 75-year-old Spokane man who uses a wheelchair. "And that's not hardly right." Sheppard, who was hit by a car two years ago, said the state cut the amount of home care he can receive from 95 hours a month to 69 hours. The state's 26,000 home care workers, including about 2,500 in the Spokane area, have proved to be effective protesters in the past. Last year, workers rallied in front of the home of Mayor Jim West – then Senate majority leader – after he promised to fight their contract requests. In the end, the workers secured a 50-cents-an-hour pay increase beginning this fall, as well as health benefits that will begin next January. But some protesters allege the state responded by cutting the number of hours they could bill to care for elderly and disabled clients, specifically targeting live-in caregivers. The state currently pays the workers $8.43 an hour to help clean, feed and otherwise care for the clients in their homes. According to protesters, DSHS cut 5 million hours from the current budget, or about 13 percent. A state official in Olympia said a new computer system evaluated the clients and determined how many hours of care they needed. State officials could not say whether the changes will save money or increase costs. "Obviously, we care about getting quality care to people who need it," said Meagan Macvie, spokeswoman for the state's Office of Financial Management. "The policies were really intended to provide equitable treatment for clients. The focus was on the needs of the clients, not compensation." But while the state had few details about the changes, protesters offered their own anecdotal evidence. The rally began on the sidewalks outside DSHS offices at 1427 W. Gardner. Protesters used bullhorns to lead chants, then marched into the parking lot and tossed "dirty" laundry into the buildings' bushes – a symbol, they said, of the effect the cuts will have on their clients. "Both for our workers and clients, there's a lot at risk," said Adam Glickman, spokesman for Local 775 SEIU, the workers' union. "For clients, it's about whether they can stay at home or whether they have to go to nursing homes." The rally quickly attracted notice. State workers pulled a steel gate across the counter at the front desk. A neighbor complained the chants and songs were waking his newborn. "We should be done by noon," a union organizer told the man, as the crowd behind her chanted, "Union-busting, that's disgusting. Contract-stalling, that's appalling." Police cars slowly began to arrive, first in the parking lot and then pulling into a nearby alley. Michael D. McDonald, 47, powered his wheelchair across the parking lot, chanting and shaking a sign. McDonald, who has muscular dystrophy, said his homecare worker helps him with everything he does, including cooking, medical care and rotating McDonald while he sleeps to prevent sores. "I can't make it by myself," McDonald said. Without the care, he said, "I'd probably end up in a nursing home." By 11 a.m., dozens of people sat in the waiting room of the offices, chanting and singing as volunteers passed out water. After several minutes, Linda Dugger, a program supervisor for DSHS's Adult Protective Services, arrived to ask the protesters to leave. "I need to let you know you have broken the law by being on state land," Dugger told the protesters. "We've called the police." Dana Simmons, who cares for a 64-year-old woman with a brain injury, told Dugger they would leave if she would deliver a letter to DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock, and he would respond. Dugger didn't budge. "It is not up to me to send the letter to him," she told the crowd. "It's your letter." Outside, police Officer K.J. Busse called for backup. "They've taken over the building," he told reporters. "They've effectively closed the public office. If you interfere with the government's operation, then you've committed a crime." By noon, at least a dozen cops were on scene. When they informed the protesters they had to leave, most gladly headed for the exit after an hour in the hot, cramped offices. Police arrested three protesters who refused to leave, carefully documenting the incident on film. They led the three home care workers – Simmons, Catherine Byrd and Alicia Marks – to waiting patrol cars. Police did not release the protesters' ages. The other protesters lined the driveway to the offices, cheering for the arrested and chanting. As police drove away, the chants only grew louder.
News >  Spokane

Patriotism mixes with fun

From a footbridge spanning the meandering Spokane River, the rows of booths and streamers ran out like a child's dream. Here one could sample chocolate-covered berries and shaved ice and that midway staple, kettle corn. Vendors offered to scrawl your name on a grain of rice or read the future in the creases of your palm, sticky and hot. In the shade of the tarps, they offered up temporary tattoos and beaded necklaces and tiny plastic fans that whirred in the hot Sunday sun.
News >  Spokane

Exercise in teamwork

Down on the blacktop, with the crowds and the morning sun pressing in, tempers can be as hot as the asphalt. An elbow sent Heather LaBrie, 13, sprawling to the ground. Her face turned red, but she dusted herself off and checked the ball in play.
News >  Spokane

Local AmeriCorps receives vital grant

On the brink of extinction last year, a Spokane AmeriCorps program won a $640,000 grant this month to build and repair homes for low-income residents. The program, named the Spokane Service Team, teaches troubled young people building and construction skills and provides them a monthly stipend and a $4,725 education grant for a year of service.
News >  Spokane

Rape suspect subject of earlier reports

Eastern State Hospital officials received several reports of sexual abuse by a nurse dating back nearly a decade but did not report those incidents to law enforcement or discipline the man, who now stands accused of rape, according to court documents and interviews. Guy M. Johnston, a 42-year-old nurse, allegedly had "inappropriate contact" with a mental patient in 1995 and was accused of having oral sex within the hospital – with whom is not clear – in 1997, according to documents filed in Spokane County District Court on June 16.
News >  Spokane

Bush sweeps through

While hundreds of protesters lined the streets outside, President Bush basked in applause at a Republican fund-raiser Thursday night, pressing many of the same ideas that won him the White House – but not Washington state – four years ago. Bush called for a renewal of tax cuts and a strong military, and defended his administration's handling of the war against Iraq, just one day after a federal 9-11 commission found no evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terrorists in plotting the attacks.
News >  Spokane

Taxpayers to pick up Bush’s tab

President Bush could raise $500,000 for Senate challenger George Nethercutt and briefly shine a national spotlight on Spokane today. But it will come at a cost to local taxpayers.
News >  Spokane

Bush visit has backers dishing out

What do you wear to meet the president? On Tuesday, the Crane sisters – teenagers from Brewster – searched the shopping malls and boutiques of Wenatchee for something appropriately presidential.
News >  Spokane

Home stayed open despite deaths, rapes

SPRINGDALE, Wash. – In the final days of his life, Herbert Kurtzhall whispered one phrase again and again to the nurses watching over him: "I'm in hell." The 82-year-old Alzheimer's patient arrived at Spokane's veterans hospital so filthy that a doctor wrote an order for him to be bathed before he was treated. His broken hip had slid into his abdomen. Yellow bruises covered his chest and biceps. A weeping rash had spread across his groin, according to sworn depositions from hospital doctors and nurses.
News >  Spokane

Bush confirmed for Spokane visit

The White House confirmed Friday that President Bush will visit Spokane next Thursday to attend a fund-raiser for U.S. Senate challenger George Nethercutt. The president will speak at a $1,000-per-person dinner for the Spokane Republican, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Patty Murray for the U.S. Senate seat.
News >  Spokane

County won’t treat 125 who are mentally ill

Spokane County's public mental health system will stop treating 125 people with serious mental illnesses next month. It is unclear where treatment will come from for the patients, considered by mental health experts to be among the most at-risk in the county system.
News >  Spokane

‘One Big Table’

The students milled around on the loading dock, dwarfed by slates of grape jelly, stacks of white bread and barrels brimming with jars of peanut butter. "Are you the mayor?" a curious third-grader asked bystanders.