Jim Camden

City Councilwoman Mary Verner is joining the race for Spokane mayor. Verner confirmed Monday she will run for the city's top executive spot, campaigning as someone with "positive, decisive leadership" who has knowledge of City Hall but is not entrenched in the bureaucracy.

City Councilwoman Mary Verner is joining the race for Spokane mayor. Verner confirmed Monday she will run for the city's top executive spot, campaigning as someone with "positive, decisive leadership," who has knowledge of City Hall but is not entrenched in the bureaucracy.

U.S. Air Force officials promised Wednesday to look for a way to keep helicopters at a base near Spokane, where they are frequently used for civilian rescues as well as military duty. Under pointed questioning from Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said taking all four helicopters away from the Survival School at Fairchild Air Force Base may present "too much risk that we need to mitigate."

VA hospitals and clinics around the Northwest have a wide array of maintenance problems such as leaking roofs, mold, peeling paint and broken tiles. And, in one instance, bats. But the large colony of Mexican wing-tailed bats in the White City, Ore., Rehabilitation Center isn't necessarily a bad thing, an internal audit of the VA's 1,400 facilities contends. The bats help keep down problems with bugs.

The U.S. Senate may set aside $425 million as a short-term fix for the loss of federal money to rural schools and counties in timber country. A Senate appropriations subcommittee added that amount to the spending bill designed mainly to pay for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That supplemental appropriations bill will be put to a Senate vote later this spring.

Washington could join about two dozen other states with a Feb. 5 presidential primary next year. Secretary of State Sam Reed, the chief elections officer, said Monday he will recommend moving the primary to that date when a special committee meets Friday.

Incumbent Dennis Hession has a substantial lead over challenger Al French in the quest for money to run their campaigns for mayor. Reports filed this week with the state Public Disclosure Commission show that Hession has more than $29,000 in cash and other contributions – much of it coming last month. French, who didn't officially start his campaign until mid-February, lists just three donors and a total of $850.

Although the number of employment discrimination complaints by reservists and guardsmen has declined in the last three years, the federal prosecutor for Eastern Washington said he wants part-time soldiers to know they do have several options if they think their rights have been violated. The state Legislature is also moving to add military service to race, religion, age, ethnic background and sexual orientation to the list of protected "classes" in its anti-discrimination law.

The Washington and Idaho congressional delegations are stepping up efforts to keep the helicopter rescue squadron at Fairchild Air Force Base. A pair of letters sent today to Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees ask that Congress prevent the Pentagon from moving the 36th Rescue Squadron out of the region.

As other states rush to advance the dates for their presidential primaries, Washington political leaders still are discussing when to start the complicated systems they use to pick their delegates. Washington and Idaho voters both could find that the major parties' nominees are selected before they get a chance to pick.

OLYMPIA – In Washington, it has long been illegal for the state's elected insurance commissioner to accept campaign donations from the insurance companies he regulates. That only makes sense, some lawmakers say. Someone sitting across the table from insurers, they say, shouldn't be getting cash from them.

An Army paratrooper from Colville was among six soldiers killed Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicles while they were on patrol near Samarra, Iraq. Spc. Ryan M. Bell, 21, died from wounds suffered in the bombing, the Army said Thursday.

The owner and operator of River Park Square is running out of options to contest the $6.5 million a Spokane jury said it owes its former mall manager. The state Supreme Court this week denied a request to hear the appeal of the case involving Cowles Co. development firms and RWR Management, a company owned by Bob Robideaux. The denial leaves intact a 2004 jury award previously upheld by a state appeals court.

A high-ranking Northwest Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said Monday he supports a White House plan to study problems with the military and VA medical systems. But a high-ranking Northwest Democrat on the same panel said the nation can't wait for another study by another commission. "We're not going to wait around for a bipartisan commission to come up with a report that nobody's going to read or do anything about," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who has been warning about shortcomings in the VA and military medical systems for years.

In a mayor's race that could come down to a question of who's the strongest leader for Spokane, the dismissal of Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch could be seen as a plus or a minus for incumbent Dennis Hession. But the impact might not be large, or long-lasting, Spokane political observers said.

Former Rep. George Nethercutt vehemently denied there was anything improper about his work for Isothermal Systems Research, either while he was in Congress or since he left. Although he did not comment for the Seattle Times story, he did agree to an interview with The Spokesman-Review when told this newspaper was planning to run the story.

Inland Northwest Republicans opposed the nonbinding resolution on Iraq as the House of Representatives on Thursday debated whether to support the president's plan for a troop surge in that country. Here's a sample of what they had to say: Members of Congress who say they support the troops in Iraq should oppose a resolution against the president's latest strategy, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said.