Jim Lynch

John Clute is mediating the talks. File/The Spokesman-Review

Florrie Brassier of the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance says her group prefers to educate, not litigate. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Pat Keller was going to play a round of golf at Painted Hills Golf Course on Friday, but after hitting a bucket of balls in the rain on the driving range, he changed his mind. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Grant County prisoners may soon be living like American soldiers in combat. Sheriff Bill Wiester wants to save county taxpayers' money and jail more criminals by housing inmates in Army tents and Quonset hut-style buildings.

President Clinton's welfare reforms sounded like bold social surgery when they were announced last weekend, but they will do little to alter the welfare face of the Inland Northwest. In his Saturday radio address, Clinton introduced an apparent get-tough policy for teenage parents on welfare. The executive order forces young mothers to stay in school and live with their parents if possible. Otherwise, they risk losing their welfare checks.

Tearful parting 1. Brenda Argo is comforted by a friend after handing her two small children back to their father. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Argo fears she'll lose Ariel, 5, and Stephanie, 4, once again.

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, May 3, 1996): Alloy Trailers and the Teknon Corp. received commendations from the governor Wednesday for their involvement in a state program to get people off welfare. An article Thursday misidentified the companies.

The federal government is permanently closing the Spokane Urban Indian Health Clinic after examining the clinic's books. Indian Health Service investigators found no proof that clinic managers intentionally mishandled money, but did determine the clinic was failing to meet the terms of its federal contract.

In the beginning, it took loads of hype, an Olympic hero and perfect timing. The city was aching for an encore to Expo. The running craze was just starting. And the mayor was reminiscing about the Boston Marathon whooshing past his childhood home. Spokane's first Bloomsday on May 1, 1977, was a startling novelty, a celebration of health and anarchy. City streets were sealed off like never before as 1,200 people stormed through town led by Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter.

Washington Water Power Co. has bought more property tainted by its controversial underground oil spill in downtown Spokane. The utility recently paid $200,000 for a lot east of the Rodeway Inn, which it bought in 1994. WWP intends to use the lot as part of its spill containment and cleanup effort.

Kiddee College Child Care Center was a dangerous, chaotic place where kids had been dropped, spanked and bitten, a state investigation concludes. The administrator of the north Spokane center also failed to protect children and staff from her son who sexually harassed employees and exposed himself to a neighbor, the state asserts.

Valley firefighters try to free a victim from a smashed car. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The case of a missing 12-year-old double-amputee has turned into a murder investigation. Colville police announced Monday that Julie Harris' artificial feet were found at the mouth of the Colville River over the weekend. Police Chief Damond Meshishneck said his department is now handling the girl's disappearance as a possible homicide.

Cheryl Powell's educational ride along with a state trooper turned into a heart-thumping police chase and brawl early Sunday. Before the adventure ended, the 17-year-old Ferris High School senior would have to grab the police radio and call for help. The night shift Powell observed for her journalism class jolted out of routine shortly before 2 a.m. when Washington State Patrol trooper Mike Shaw chased a speeding car off Interstate 90.

The Spokane Urban Indian Health Clinic is attracting federal scrutiny after financial woes forced it to shut its doors last week. A review team from the Indian Health Service will visit the clinic on Monday to examine its books and investigate allegations that federal cash was mishandled. Funded mostly with U.S. tax dollars, the clinic at 905 E. Third runs a $1 million budget and offers care to about 3,000 low-income Native Americans.

Two men are charged with the execution-style killings of a young Vietnamese couple in Hillyard last summer. Fingerprints, a jail house boast and the recollections of a 5-year-old boy led detectives to pin the murders on Asian gang members Run Peter Chhoun and Giao Ly. Chhoun is in jail on another murder charge in California. Ly recently was arrested in Connecticut and is being extradited to Spokane for trial.

Aging computers sold for $2 a pop. Hardback books went for a dime each. A "Powershred" paper shredder sold for $32.50. But the best steals at the Fairchild Air Force Base auction Tuesday were new items still in boxes - surplus equipment the Pentagon bought but never needed.

Some exasperated landlords say Spokane police are breaking the law. The state requires police to notify owners of rental units whenever a drug bust occurs on their property.

Eastern State Hospital is in turmoil and its CEO under investigation as the state reviews whistleblower complaints at the mental hospital in Medical Lake. When Steven Covington took control of Eastern in 1994 he was given the delicate task of running the expensive institution in a more frugal manner. His management decisions soon sparked worker complaints that now border on mutiny, hospital sources say. The state auditor's office and the state Executive Ethics Board are investigating allegations about Covington filed by a well-placed hospital whistleblower.

Deborah Senn

Federal agents are investigating a Spokane doctors' clinic suspected of intentionally overbilling Medicare and Medicaid for years. The fraud probe at Northwest Nephrology Associates is extremely secretive, but has been going on for at least five months.

Harris

Kenneth "Maggot" Fisette, a member of the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang in Spokane, gets a state welfare check to raise a child who isn't supposed to live at his home. The 15-year-old is his, but judges say the boy should be with his mother and that Fisette is flouting a court order by not returning him to her home.

The assault on housing discrimination in Spokane continued Wednesday as the owner of two apartment buildings agreed to pay off families who claimed they were refused rentals because they had kids. The U.S. Justice Department's $76,000 settlement with the owner of Cedar Springs Estates and Cedar Creek Village apartment buildings was announced by U.S. Attorney James Connelly and the Northwest Fair Housing Alliance.