David Wasson

Three administrators at Community Colleges of Spokane who hired their own sons for unadvertised, part-time office jobs last year are facing ethics charges following a state investigation. The college district’s Chief Administration and Human Resources Officer Greg Stevens, his executive assistant Frances MacDonald-Davis and Human Resources Information Systems Director Melody Matthews plan to contest the investigative findings of the state Executive Ethics Board. The trio’s sons were hired last spring to help convert thousands of paper personnel files into electronic form for a new computer system.

Four years after pushing to demolish a century-old warehouse on its growing Spokane campus, Washington State University has decided the historic structure should be preserved as a centerpiece. The university now envisions the six-story Jensen-Byrd building as the focal point of a new plaza and gathering place that also will serve as a downtown gateway to the Spokane campus. No budget or specific timeframe has been established, but the decision is part of WSU’s new master plan, which the university’s regents approved last month.

Eastern Washington University is no longer providing gun storage for students and others, mostly because it lacks enough space and personnel to accommodate the growing requests, but also due to liability concerns. “We made that decision based on the resources that I have available,” said EWU police Chief Tim Walters, explaining that it required extensive check-in and checkout procedures each time a firearm was either dropped off or picked up.

The first bill from the state Transportation Department arrived last year at Airway Heights City Hall. It was about $50,000 and represented the amount spent by state crews clearing snow from the 2.5-mile section of U.S. Highway 2 located within city limits. The state plans to send another bill for the current season, too, and Airway Heights officials are turning to Olympia for help.

Spokane Valley will pay the owners of an apartment complex $40,000 to resolve a lawsuit over construction of a traffic roundabout. The out-of-court settlement was approved Tuesday night by City Council members following mediation after years of litigation over access restrictions to the Montgomery Court Apartments created by the roundabout’s construction.

The family of a Tri-Cities man who died after being found bloody and unconscious on the floor of an Eastern State Hospital restroom in 2013 is suing. Misael Rodriguez, 43, was involuntarily committed for observation purposes in mid-August of that year and suffered the fatal injuries 11 days later in what his family members allege was an assault by another patient, according to a lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court last week on behalf of the victim’s children. Rodriguez died Nov. 13, 2013, without regaining consciousness.

Spokane’s Riverpoint campus soon will have a 43,000-square-foot medical clinic that will be used as a training site for new doctors and other health care professionals. Washington State University’s board of regents gave final approval Friday for the $16.25 million project, which will house a physician residency consortium known as the Spokane Teaching Health Center and bolster the school’s expansion of its health and medical sciences programs.

The legislators backing Washington State University’s bid to establish its own Spokane-based medical school said Tuesday the rural doctor shortage is so severe the state needs more than one approach to physician training. “This is something that is long overdue,” state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said of plans to seek legislative removal of legal restrictions designating the University of Washington as the state’s only medical school.

The University of Washington’s plans to expand physician training in Spokane may have found a powerful new partner: Gonzaga University. The private Jesuit school announced Monday it is exploring the possibility of a public-private partnership with UW, which pitched the idea to Gonzaga President Thayne McCulloh.

The battle over medical education in Spokane took an expected twist Friday. A new study commissioned by the University of Washington concludes that doubling the size of its physician training program in Spokane represents the most efficient option for boosting the number of doctors and warns that Eastern Washington’s health care system would be unable to support two medical schools.