Chelsea Bannach

One Spokane family got a very big Christmas surprise in a very small package: a new puppy. Dawn Gust and her teenage sons, Andrew Hopkins, 19, and Alec Hopkins, 15, lost everything they owned in a fire that gutted the north Spokane apartment complex where they lived on Oct. 31.

A Hayden man died Wednesday after shooting himself in the face during a traffic stop in Dalton Gardens, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

One Spokane bar is restricted from serving shots after 1 a.m. Down the street, a restaurant is allowed to serve only “upscale wine and microbrews.” Around the corner, bartenders aren’t allowed to mix liquor and energy drinks. The restrictions, contained in what the city of Spokane calls Good Neighbor Agreements, have been around for five years but just recently became a new point of contention between city officials and local bar and restaurant owners.

Jane Montaney’s eyes brimmed with tears and her voice quavered as she described how it felt to place a wreath on a veteran’s grave at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery Saturday afternoon. “I don’t know how to explain it,” an emotional Montaney said. “You get a tingling sensation throughout your body. I don’t care how cold it is, you feel warm when you’re doing it … you feel a sense of connection.”

Jane Montaney’s eyes brimmed with tears and her voice quavered as she described how it felt to place a wreath on a veteran’s grave at the Washington State Veterans Cemetery Saturday afternoon. “I don’t know how to explain it,” an emotional Montaney said. “You get a tingling sensation throughout your body. I don’t care how cold it is, you feel warm when you’re doing it ... you feel a sense of connection.”

Eight homeless hounds are no longer living in a broken-down Toyota Corolla. Five of the dogs were adopted early Saturday, after a story about them appeared on the front page of The Spokesman-Review. The remaining three were taken to the SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. shelter, which will keep them temporarily.

Eight thin, dirty dogs, small and large and of varying breeds, scramble over each other in the small, beat-up, gray four-door sedan they have been living in for almost a week, wagging their tails and eagerly sniffing and pawing at the window when passers-by peer in. Trisha Hair said she and her 11 dogs were displaced when her home, on 20 acres in Stevens County, burned down Nov. 27. With no place to go, she put the dogs in her car and has been staying at a friend’s apartment since.

Some Spokane elementary schoolchildren got a gift Thursday that many take for granted – good vision. Prevent Blindness America and Essilor Laboratories of America teamed up to give 51 Audubon Elementary School students and 15 Holmes Elementary School students prescription eyeglasses.

Spokane County sheriff’s Deputy Damon Simmons spends much of his time hunting for online sexual predators with the Spokane County Child Sexual Predator Task Force. But Simmons’ time with the task force may be running out.

Diversity is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Spokane. For those who think it’s a culturally desolate place, the Fall Folk Festival is a multicultural oasis.

Diversity is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Spokane. For those who think it’s a culturally desolate place, the Fall Folk Festival is a multicultural oasis.