Dan Hansen

Schoolchildren in Springdale get a mini-vacation today while officials at the Mary Walker School District make sure that propane from a leaky underground pipe isn't filtering into classrooms. Officials sent the 600 students home about noon Tuesday after a construction worker using a torch ignited the gas. Workers hadn't realized the pipe, which had been uncovered and reburied weeks ago, was leaking, said school superintendent Mike Sowder.

A man accused of paying Spokane children to perform sex acts on camera was sentenced Monday to six years in prison. Clyde Loshbaugh, 42, originally was charged with six counts of communicating with minors for immoral purposes, six counts of sexual exploitation of minors, one count of first-degree child molestation and one count of possessing child pornography. He pleaded guilty to one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes and one count of second-degree child molestation.

Washington's largest conservation group doesn't spike trees. It doesn't file lawsuits to stop logging or save salmon.

Thirty years after beginning its work in North Idaho, the Nature Conservancy has opened a Panhandle office. In 1964, the international organization bought 141 acres near Upper Priest Lake, its first Idaho purchase. But it settled in the south, in rapidly growing Sun Valley, when it opened an Idaho office in 1986. The Hayden Lake office opened Nov. 1 in recognition that the lakes and forests of the Panhandle are worlds apart from the grasslands, gorges and peaks farther south, said Mark Elsbree, North Idaho director.

Never were the Spokane city limits as obvious as they were Tuesday, when city libraries started charging non-residents for library cards. "Apparently, I'm not a city resident," said Terry Pugh, after librarians at the main branch told him he couldn't check out books without paying for a card.

Apple pie and coffee mugs may prove the undoing of Spokane's biggest Independence Day celebration. Organizers say they need money to pay 1994 Neighbor Days' bills or there won't be a festival at Riverfront Park this July 4.