Dan Hansen

Lindy Cater figures the empty coffee can was her downfall. "I'm usually tanked up on coffee," she said. "We didn't have any in the house." So Cater started her weekly drive from her Spokane home to her Seattle job without her usual dose of caffeine that Sunday afternoon in 1992. She set the cruise control and settled in for the long commute.

The proposal to build a north-south freeway through Spokane was already 5 years old when Dale Stedman went to work for the Inland Automobile Association in 1951. Stedman spent much of his 43-year career championing the freeway that would ease congestion on Division Street and other arterials.

FOR THE RECORD: August 29, 1995: Clarification: A version of The Spokesman-Review will not be available through the Prodigy on-line computer service until sometime this fall. An article Saturday implied otherwise.

Momentum, which helped bankroll the 1992 election of Spokane County freeholders, has earmarked $100,000 for convincing voters to support the city-county merger those freeholders proposed. "Unified government, a single government, is clearly the vehicle that allows a community ... to build a prosperous future," said Susan Meyer, executive director of the economic development group.

Ernie Sims, foreground, and Wendy Kapelke of the state Department of Transportation work on sprinklers along I-90 just west of the Sprague interchange. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Visitors to Glacier National Park face more travel restrictions along the Going-to-the-Sun Road for the rest of the tourist season. No parking is allowed at Logan Pass, a popular tourist destination. The road itself - the only route through the northwest Montana park - will be closed for construction for at least three days before winter. Completed in 1933, Going-to-the-Sun Road pierces some of the most rugged scenery in the Northern Rockies. It is on the National Register of Historic Places as an outstanding engineering achievement.

Traffic on Spokane's Post Street bridge will have to lighten up and slow down. In an effort to keep the 78-year-old bridge from crumbling into the Spokane River before it is replaced, the city Transportation Department last week dropped the speed limit on the concrete bridge to 20 mph.

Jim Hanley's father, Arch, founded Acme Electric in Spokane after WWII. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Ten rutted miles of Interstate 90 will be repaved this summer because asphalt put down in 1991 lasted only half as long as expected. The work, between Pines Road in the Spokane Valley and the Idaho border, will cost about $1.3 million. The original paving was part of a large package of I-90 improvements that cost $3.3 million.

Raising Upriver Dam may anger fishers and silence rapids, but researchers predict it would do little damage to plants along the Spokane River. City engineers want to add 1-1/2 feet to the height of the dam, located near Felts Field airport, to generate an additional $170,000 worth of electricity each year. The extension would add another half mile of slack water to the pool that extends four miles behind the city-owned dam. Researchers Michael Folsom and Robert Quinn counted 142 trees and numerous shrub thickets they believe would be drowned by the rising water.

(For the Record from Wednesday, August 2, 1995:) Brigham Young led Mormon pioneers to Utah in 1847. A story in Sunday's Regional section named the wrong church leader. Church members gather in a meadow just west of Spirit Lake, Idaho, Saturday morning before beginning the trip to Mount Spokane.

Bus riders now face longer commutes because Spokane Transit Authority's new downtown station can't handle all the buses at once. Buses used to pull into downtown - and leave - about the same time. The $20.6 million STA Plaza, which opened July 16, can handle only a third of those buses at a time.

Travelers soon will have a cheaper alternative than cabs or private shuttles for getting to and from Spokane International Airport. The Spokane Transit Authority plans to provide airport bus service beginning Aug. 13. Riders will pay 75 cents to take the bus between the airport and downtown, compared to $8.75 for a private van service or about $15 for a taxi.

In a case strikingly similar to one sending a father to prison, another Spokane man has admitted severely injuring his infant daughter because she wouldn't stop crying. David A. Lee, 22, is charged with second-degree child assault for squeezing 2-1/2-month-old Alicia Lee so hard he broke five of her bones. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 3-1/2 years in prison.

Holly Hollenback, 18, gets help from an STA worker. "I guess I like it - it's different," Hollenback says of the new station. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

The Spokane City Council will decide tonight whether to pursue a money-saving partnership with three county fire districts.

Here's how construction costs for the Spokane Transit Authority's $20.6 million downtown bus station compare with other recent public projects: Spokane Arena (1995), $45 million; Foley Center library at Gonzaga University (1992), $20 million;

Here are some of the more commonly asked questions about the Spokane Transit Authority's new downtown bus station. Q. Where do I catch my bus downtown? A. At one of 10 loading zones on Sprague and Riverside avenues outside the station. The zones have electronic signs (not yet in operation) to help riders spot their buses.

1. Workers spent Saturday preparing the STA Plaza for this morning's grand opening. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jim Crownover tops off the preparations. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Grinalds

More than 100 people filled the Spokane City Council chambers Monday night to argue about the city's proposal to annex 212 acres of pastoral Glenrose Prairie. They included polished attorneys, persuasive developers and descendants of pioneers. There were shaky-voiced retirees, determined homemakers and urban refugees.

Many Spokane police officers want City Councilman Chris Anderson removed from the Police Pension Board, saying he discloses information that should be kept private and talks disparagingly of police. "You have numerous policemen down there who are in a lynching mood, for you," Cpl. Mark Wheelwright, a member of the pension board, told Anderson during Thursday's board meeting. Another officer, Capt. Chuck Bown, sent a letter to Mayor Jack Geraghty on Thursday saying that 75 percent of the officers hired before 1977 - those whose pensions are administered by the board - have signed petitions asking for Anderson's removal.

Councilman Chris Anderson says use of consultant Cary Bozeman a mistake. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane attorney Bob Henderson died Wednesday in San Diego. The San Diego County Medical Examiner had not yet performed an autopsy Thursday afternoon, and the cause of death was not known. Henderson, 51, was being treated for congenitive heart disease at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, said his former wife, Mary Owen.