Doug Clark

The good news is that this Chattaroy family is together again. The bad news is that the reunion is being held behind bars at the Spokane County Jail. Joey Brooks, 17, waits on the sixth floor. The teen is charged with second-degree murder for the May 21 shotgunning of his 16-year-old girlfriend, Dianna Meyer.

They blew into Spokane the other day, two strangers armed with saxophones and a trunkload of books. Bill Hargrove and Bob Ratcliff are latterday Blues Brothers on their own offbeat mission: to get the musically timid off their fannies and out tooting their own horns. Or twanging guitars.

Kayla and Sarah Irwin pay close attention to Mr. Cotton during a visit to Riverfront Park. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Next time this poor guy shops for wheels, he might consider something along the lines of a rusty Ford Pinto. No car-napper would be tempted to swipe an old beater and take it on a wild joy ride to the coast. Unfortunately, Randy Buell's automotive tastes run more to the sleek and supercharged.

Nate Grossman has compiled a map of 17 viewpoints for Spokane Falls. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

All great musicians from Bach to Beck know the most artistically satisfying moment of a concert: Unleashing your backed-up spit valve all over the carpet. Sploooooosh! Well, at least that's a big moment for us brass players.

Spokane residents are rightfully apoplectic over two 13-year-old punks who went on a $100,000 rampage inside Sacajawea Middle School during the wee hours last weekend. The boy vandals spent 90 minutes smashing windows, trashing computers and splashing paint. They were finally busted, of course, but so many questions remain: What kind of little jerks would do such a thing? Who raised these monsters? Why can't they all get the electric chair? Also on everybody's mind is the inaction of police who began arriving at Sacajawea shortly after the creeps tripped a silent alarm.

As proof not every kook left Earth to ride the Hale-Bopp comet, whacked-out Walk in the Wild zoo boosters still are - pause for insane laughter - begging for money. That's just a sample of the mail I've received concerning chicken longevity, mysterious phone bills, Gypsy curse removal and the Mayor's Alimony Fund. Yes, it's time for Reeaaader's Windbaaag - the forum that gives my adoring fans a chance to pop off without being arrested and used as filler in the city's new experimental Jimmy Hoffa pothole repair program.

Jock and Eileen Swanstrom stand by their collection of bats, balls, boxes, pictures and other items autographed by famous and infamous people. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Suzanne Bettinger's Dump Truck Barbie won the manly make-over contest's top prize. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Stay tuned Spokane for an important message from Heidi and Tim Tueth: We're not dirtbags. Honest. Well, of course they're not. Married last summer, the two 23-year-olds are about as squeaky-clean as a young couple gets.

Lindsay Sweat, 12, shows a little embarrassment as she walks down the runway Friday during the Spring Fashion Show at Shriners Hospital for Children. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Rattlesnake hunter Don Ashenbrenner holds up the catch of the day near Wilbur, Wash. Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

For Armenians such as Spokane's Sona Cassem, the genocide that started in 1915 is no less painful than the Holocaust is for Jews. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Sorceress Susan Johnson with her crystal ball and Ouija board. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

He wanders off and gets lost like a befuddled pothead. He cruises the halls slightly faster than a sloth with gout and has been known to fall asleep on the job.

Gene "Pappy" Johnston and Anita Koontz hope to make it to the silver screen in "The Postman." Photo by Doug Clark/The Spokesman-Review

1. A security guard stands on the empty third floor of the Intermodal Center, which overlooks the train tracks. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. The front entrance to the 2-year-old Spokane Intermodal Center is lined with basalt columns and cable. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

That she can travel to Spokane and deliver a speech is proof AIDS no longer is such a hopeless, high-speed ride to the grave. "I'm 33 years old and extremely proud of that fact," exclaims Barbara Barnhart, a Salt Lake City resident, who believes she contracted the dreaded disease as a Billings, Mont., high school student way back in 1980. That was the Stone Age in terms of AIDS treatment. Getting a will filled out before the Reaper came calling was about the best most early sufferers could hope for.

Bullets, not bunnies, bounce in Don Morton's Easter story. There's no baked ham on the table. Only franks and beans cooked in haste in a steel helmet. Every year at this time, the north Spokane man's thoughts drift back to the gritty Easter he celebrated over a half-century ago. "You know what happened April 1st, 1945?" the retired trucker asked when he called the other day.

They may move massive objects for a living, but I doubt our unappreciated tow truck drivers will ever impound the Golden Rule. They're tugging at it, though. Like blown radiators, these people are fuming at interfering do-gooders who pull stuck drivers out of ditches before the tow trucks show up.

To: Ron Rankin, Kootenai County Commission. Subject: Ethnic Language Cleansing.

Ten minutes past noon, a nondescript guy in a gray suit stepped onto a podium and fiddled nervously with his microphone. The 120 people attending the Inland Northwest Electrical League Thursday luncheon applauded politely. They paid $20 each for a plate of bland food and a rah-rah speech by the deputy director of the Department of Energy.

1. Super 8 employees Joni Hower, Erin Davis and Sam Polack do their version of the "YMCA" song before the start of the Northwest Regional bed-making contest on Wednesday. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Bonnie Bolinger, a Super 8 worker from Moses Lake, whips a blanket into place Wednesday.