Jim Camden

The reports of Spokane Valley voter Robert B. Johnson's demise, to borrow a phrase, are greatly exaggerated. Johnson was one of two dozen "deceased" voters turned up recently by a Seattle Times investigation into potential problems with ballots cast in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election. The newspaper matched names and birthdates of people listed in state Health Department death records with the names and birth dates of voters in Spokane and five other counties, and concluded in a story Friday that as many as 24 ballots were illegally cast for dead people in those counties.

A federal judge has approved some building blocks of the complicated settlements between the city and several of its legal opponents in the River Park Square garage fight. U.S. District Judge Edward Shea signed several orders Tuesday that will keep different groups from suing each other to shift their settlement costs. But he agreed they need further hearings on other points in the settlements, such as what is the deal between the city and the Cowles development companies worth?

State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt came under fire Monday for the razor-thin margin in the governor's race and the way the recounts were handled. His critics, however, weren't Republicans, but his would-be replacements who appeared with him at a Democratic luncheon in Spokane.

The federal trial over the River Park Square parking garage is being delayed until April to sort out some of the proposed settlements between the city of Spokane and some of its former legal opponents. The long-awaited trial was scheduled to begin the first week of January, but U.S. District Judge Edward Shea ruled Thursday that there are too many settlements to review, and too few working days left on the calendar to do that.

The Spokane Parking Public Development Authority is out of the parking business. Some people would argue that it has been out of the parking business for years, because the River Park Square garage it was set up to oversee has been such a financial disaster that the agency never had any revenue to manage.

A bankruptcy filed by the Cowles development company that owns the former J.C. Penney's building is scheduled to be formally dismissed today by a judge who says it's unnecessary. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams recently called the bankruptcy filing by CPC Development Co. "simply a device" to avoid posting a bond in the appeal of a $6.5 million judgment against CPC and three companies connected to nearby River Park Square mall.

For the first time in years, the city agency that oversees the financially strapped River Park Square garage has some money. It's not much, only $80.

Some defendants in the federal lawsuit over the River Park Square garage may have objections to the settlement between the city and the mall's developer. The settlement is so complicated that attorneys for the city's former bond counsel and the underwriter of bonds sold in 1998 to buy the garage said they don't know yet how it affects their case.

Like card players dealing solitaire, Spokane County elections workers began Friday sorting the ballots in the governor's race into seven piles on the tables before them. But the recount wasn't a solitary game. Every stack they laid, every count they made was watched by at least one Republican volunteer and one Democratic volunteer.

The Spokane City Council has scheduled an unusual Saturday public meeting to discuss something even more unusual in recent years, a proposed settlement with the developer of the River Park Square mall. The meeting, which begins at 8 a.m., will be televised live on City Cable Channel 5, with repeat showings at 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.

The city of Spokane and the companies that developed the River Park Square Mall would trade assets, set aside cash and drop a wide range of legal claims against each other, according to a tentative settlement released Wednesday. The city would protect programs for low-income neighborhoods by getting solid financial assurances from the developer to repay a federally guaranteed loan. It would get as much as $2 million to settle a pending federal lawsuit and another $1.05 million by 2018, according to the city's most recent version of the complicated settlement, which was posted Wednesday evening on the city's official Web site.

Spokane County's recount of the Nov. 2 gubernatorial votes didn't involve any actual counting Wednesday of votes cast for Republican Dino Rossi or Democrat Christine Gregoire. Instead, it was a day of sorting, stacking – and watching.

OLYMPIA – As the state prepares to hand-count nearly 2.9 million votes, Republican lawyers want to be sure that the delicate ballots are treated with kid gloves. No, wait – that's plastic gloves.

There are many unknown numbers in a proposed settlement between the city of Spokane and the River Park Square developer that the City Council is expected to consider Monday. Lawyers and accountants will spend much of the weekend filling those numbers in, because without them, the council will likely ask for a delay.

The proposed settlement in Spokane's ongoing dispute over River Park Square could end a major threat to one of the key programs helping the city's low-income residents and poorer neighborhoods. The threat grew more serious in recent weeks when the developer of the mall disclosed it was considering bankruptcy as one of its options for dealing with financial problems at the mall, city officials said.

The first recount did more than leave the Washington governor's race closer. It also raised the possibility – an extremely remote one, to be sure – that the race could end up tied and create even more unprecedented political theater.

It's very possible – but not probable – that a recount will change the result of Washington's governor's race, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday. Some minor changes in the totals for Republican Dino Rossi, the current winner, and Democrat Chris Gregoire are almost inevitable as the 39 counties re-tally some 2.8 million ballots by running them through their respective vote-counting machines, Reed said at a press conference in Spokane.