The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
50°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

John Craig

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

All Stories

News >  Spokane

Park name can be yours for right price

Ever wonder why Spokane County's splashy, state-of-the-art water park has a ho-hum name like North Side Aquatics Facility? It turns out the mushy mouthful was a deliberate attempt to make other names sound good under a money-raising sponsorship program.
News >  Spokane

County to fix zoning error

Spokane County commissioners plan a two-step repair of a zoning mistake that jeopardized Spokane International Airport and Fairchild Air Force Base. They tentatively agreed Tuesday to apply the county Planning Commission's recommended solution to the West Plains right away while taking more time to see how it would affect other parts of the county.
News >  Spokane

Assessor will have to skip staff lunch

The next time the Spokane County assessor plans a staff appreciation luncheon, he may want to invite county attorneys. Ralph Baker planned to close his office for three hours Wednesday so he could take his 53 employees to lunch, but the lawyers found out.
News >  Spokane

Cabela’s traffic may stress bridge

The Appleway Bridge over the Spokane River, to be replaced over the next several years, is in worse shape than Spokane County engineers thought. They're worried about traffic the new Cabela's sporting goods superstore in Post Falls may add to the faulty span.
News >  Spokane

Ex-cop admits harassing woman

A former Spokane County sheriff's deputy and Tukwila, Wash., police officer has admitted harassing a woman he accused of "betraying him" in one of his unsuccessful campaigns for public office. John George Kallas, 55, recently pleaded guilty to telephone harassment in exchange for dismissal of a second Spokane County District Court charge: that he stalked a woman who ran a political sign business.
News >  Voices

Portion of North Road changed to Yukon Road

Conventional wisdom says things can't be in two places at once. At least they shouldn't be, according to Spokane County commissioners. Commissioners voted last week to rename one of two sections of North Road that have the same numbers. The change is intended to keep emergency responders from going to the wrong house.
News >  Spokane

Developer offers donation of Liberty Lake park land

Developer Jim Frank on Tuesday offered Spokane County commissioners 120 acres of free parkland overlooking Liberty Lake and water needed for the county's nearby Liberty Lake Regional Park. "Even if we had no water issues, I'd be here jumping up and down with a smile on my face," parks director Doug Chase said.
News >  Spokane

Wife convicted of killing husband

A 61-year-old Newport, Wash., woman faces at least 25 years in prison for murdering her 70-year-old husband last year – a crime her 71-year-old boyfriend helped cover up. With a backhoe. A Pend Oreille County Superior Court jury took two hours Wednesday to convict Mary Rosalee Gray of first-degree murder in the May 2006 shooting death of her husband, Robert Allen Gray.
News >  Spokane

Spokane County considering ‘reverse 911’ calling system

Spokane County plans to join several area organizations that use the sort of electronic notification equipment that has been warning thousands of Southern California residents to flee from advancing wildfires. Known generically as "reverse 911," systems similar to those used by telemarketers or doctors' offices can send emergency messages to home and cellular phones, e-mail addresses, fax machines, pagers and other devices.
News >  Spokane

County’s planning chief turns whistleblower

Spokane County Building and Planning Director Jim Manson has filed a legally protected "whistleblower" complaint against the planner who lodged a successful complaint against him. Manson said in an e-mail Thursday to county Prosecutor Steve Tucker that a newly discovered e-mail from planner Bruce Hunt to County Commissioner Bonnie Mager in May was "subversive" as well as inaccurate and possibly a violation of the state Public Records Act.
News >  Spokane

County wants audit, not trash talk

Frustrated county commissioners are demanding an independent audit to restore their confidence in the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System as it prepares for a future that might not involve a garbage incinerator – or management by the city of Spokane. City officials are moving to placate commissioners and other critics with an audit as well as an ongoing study that suggests it would be cheaper to close the system's waste-to-energy plant when construction bonds are paid off in 2011, and use a landfill.
News >  Voices

Fire Districts 5 and 3 seek funding OKs

Voters in two West Plains fire districts are being asked to provide additional tax money in next month's general election. Fire District 5 for the first time is seeking an emergency medical services levy of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, which would raise an estimated $43,903 next year.
News >  Voices

Tough race for Cheney council

Cheney voters must decide three contested City Council races in the Nov. 6 general election. Doug Nixon is challenging – and, so far, outpolling – incumbent Councilman Patrick Rast. Nixon had 52.3 percent of the vote in a three-way primary, compared with Rast's 27.6 percent.
News >  Spokane

County won’t waive zoning appeal fees

Opponents must pay to challenge proposed zone changes in which the beneficiaries don't have to pay, two county commissioners said in a decision the third commissioner called "hocus pocus." Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard accepted Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio's opinion that county regulations don't allow anyone – even commissioners – to waive environmental appeal fees.
News >  Spokane

Sheriff to run Geiger unit

The Geiger Corrections Center will become a division of the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, county commissioners unanimously decided Tuesday. The minimum-security facility in old military barracks near Spokane International Airport currently is operated by the commissioners.
News >  Spokane

Groups recommend new creek name

Spokane and Whitman counties and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe have agreed that Squaw Creek should be renamed for pioneer farmer John Paulson. Their recommendations and letters of support for John Paulson Creek will be considered by the Washington State Board on Geographic Names in May. The consensus developed at the board's Sept. 21 meeting, when several descendants presented Paulson as an alternative to two names already under consideration.
News >  Spokane

Conservation tax could be permanent

Twice in 10 years Spokane County voters have told county commissioners they want to buy land for conservation. Now commissioners wonder whether they should stop asking. The Conservation Futures tax – 6 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value – likely will become permanent if voters consent in an advisory question on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
News >  Spokane

Officials like Critical Areas plan, but not advice

A proposed update to Spokane County's Critical Areas Ordinance came with too much advice to suit County Commissioners Todd Mielke and Mark Richard. Commissioner Bonnie Mager welcomed a Planning Commission suggestion to hire a wetland biologist and another planner to enforce the ordinance, but Mielke and Richard felt planning commissioners – and the county planner who advised them – had overstepped their bounds.
News >  Voices

Funds to aid domestic violence victims

The Spokane County Prosecutor's Office and the Spokane YWCA have scheduled a public meeting Tuesday to receive ideas on how to spend a small fund for the benefit of domestic violence victims. The YWCA is the only state-recognized provider of domestic violence services in the county, according to Debby Kurbitz, administrative attorney for the prosecutor's office.
News >  Spokane

Zoning-change foes ask for equal billing

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, according to Peone Prairie residents who must pay to oppose zone-change proposals in which proponents aren't being charged. County commissioners sent 13 proposed zone changes in rural areas and six in urban growth areas to the county Planning Commission for hearings today without charging thousands of dollars in fees that proponents ordinarily would have to pay.
News >  Spokane

Sales tax plan awaits voters

Proponents and opponents of a sales tax increase for emergency communications agree that Spokane County needs to restore Crime Check and build a new digital radio network. They just disagree on how to pay for it.
News >  Spokane

10-story building draws concerns

A 10-story office building is proposed a block west of the Spokane County Courthouse, prompting county commissioners to call for more information Tuesday. Commissioners asked their facilities director, Ron Oscarson, to get the heights of other nearby buildings – including their own jail – to help them decide how to react to the office tower proposed by West Central Development LLC.
News >  Spokane

Cleft lip, palate funding sought

Spokane County commissioners want city officials to join them in a last-ditch effort to save a program that serves children with cleft lips and palates. Commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday to help restore $35,000 in local funding for the program if the larger cities in the county will pitch in on a per capita basis.
News >  Spokane

Rural zone plan fuels debate

Records show Spokane County planning commissioners didn't miss any information, as a county commissioner suggested, when they rejected a proposal to allow gasoline convenience stores in rural areas. Commissioner Todd Mielke persuaded his fellow county commissioners Tuesday to schedule their own hearing next month on the proposed zoning-code amendment on grounds that planning commissioners didn't receive a "clarification" that would have limited the effect of the proposal.
News >  Spokane

Sheep thrills help bring big bucks at fair

Results of this year's Spokane County Interstate Fair had county commissioners smiling this week as though they'd just seen a little kid tossed off a sheep. A new "mutton busting" event was one of several successes in the Sept. 7-16 fair, according to Commissioner Mark Richard.