Jim Camden

Like its population since the late 1800s, Spokane’s political landscape has been largely, although not exclusively, white. But it can claim some successes, such as electing a black mayor before many other Western cities its size or larger.

Washington state may be headed for tougher times, and the state’s budget may reflect them, but programs designed to help people with developmental disabilities should be protected, candidates for governor and the Legislature said Monday evening in Spokane. Gov. Chris Gregoire and GOP challenger Dino Rossi told a crowd of about 250 people at Spokane Community College that they would protect programs for “the state’s most vulnerable” in the upcoming biennium.

Helen Hodsdon was getting dinner that evening 50 years ago when her husband, Ed, yelled to come outside of their house in Airway Heights. There were two B-52s in the sky, and Ed Hodsdon, a gunner on the big bombers stationed at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base, knew something wasn’t right.

A yearlong federal investigation into the River Park Square mall found no proof of fraud, but evidence surrounding the death of a Pullman woman whose car broke through a barrier and plunged over the side of the parking garage was given to Spokane County prosecutors for possible criminal charges. The mall and parking garage are affiliates of Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Ernie Peluso has survived much in his 83 years of life – serious falls, car accidents, hunting accidents and a kamikaze attack that sunk his aircraft carrier during World War II – but he’s not sure why. “I guess God had a plan for me. But I don’t know what it was,” the Post Falls resident said when searching for a reason why he lived through the sinking of the USS Bismarck Sea and a night alone in the South Pacific during the battle of Iwo Jima.

Surrounded by more than 100 other Spokane-area Democrats, Emelda Brown and Patricia Maddox were transfixed Thursday night as they watched something they never thought they’d live to see. An African-American had just accepted their party’s nomination for president.

Before 2005, Wolf Lodge Bay was a place to eat a steak, watch ospreys hunt fish in Lake Coeur d’Alene or find an easy campsite. Now it’s also the site of the empty house where a killer and child rapist came searching for prey on May 16, 2005. Along with committing the sexual assaults and four murders that followed, Joseph Edward Duncan III changed the community’s sense of place.

Television viewers who like to watch people survive difficult circumstances in primitive conditions have a new show to watch this fall. Forget “Survivor,” with its artificial contests, immunities and votes off the island. Now there’s “Survival School.” Independent producers filmed a 10-episode series that follows a group of would-be instructors who are trying to pass the grueling five-month course at the Air Force Survival School at Fairchild. The 30-minute episodes will air weekly, starting Sept. 9, on a relatively new, high-definition cable network that shows up on Spokane’s Comcast HD lineup as channel 664.