John Stucke

Two children hospitalized last month in Spokane County were sick with a virus that causes a severe respiratory illness.

The Rockwood Health System is expanding into the insurance business by offering plans to Spokane-area companies and employees that would erase co-pays and deductibles. The moves are designed to tighten the financial and medical bonds between Rockwood, businesses and patients, according to the company. The plans could result in cost savings to businesses and employees as Rockwood becomes more vertically integrated, offering insurance plans, primary and specialty care through its network of clinics, and hospital care with its Deaconess and Valley hospitals.

Wearing leg shackles and an orange jumpsuit, James T. Henrikson pleaded not guilty Friday to hiring a hit man to kill two people over business dealings in North Dakota’s booming oil patch. Federal prosecutors may pursue a death penalty case against Henrikson, who is accused in an 11-count murder-for-hire case of ordering the contract killing of South Hill businessman Doug Carlile in December.

A multimillion-dollar lawsuit pitting the Catholic Diocese of Spokane against the lawyers entrusted to shepherd it through its 2004 bankruptcy is set for a February trial. Bishop Blase Cupich quit using the legal team at the Paine Hamblen law firm after he arrived in 2010. He has since directed a malpractice complaint that accuses the firm – and specifically attorneys Shaun Cross and Greg Arpin – of failing to use a strategy that could have saved the diocese millions of dollars and prevented a new round of priest sex-abuse claims from continuing to threaten Eastern Washington parishes.

Heidi Stanley, who for two decades helped build Sterling Financial into a Northwest banking powerhouse and rose to chief executive officer, accuses two subordinates of leveraging her struggle with breast cancer into a palace coup that toppled her career. The allegations come during a critical stage of her lawsuit against the bank: Spokane County Superior Court Judge James Triplet is expected to rule this week on whether the case should be dismissed or whether Stanley can bring her discrimination complaint to a jury this summer.

Deaconess and Valley hospitals are scaling back their pediatric units as patient admissions remain low. The two hospitals are not renewing an employment contract with a group of four doctors that specialize in treating children and work inside the hospitals.

A pit bull attacked a police dog chasing a burglary suspect Monday evening, sending the K9 to a emergency veterinarian.

The leader of a major Ponzi scheme involving payday lender Little Loan Shoppe pleaded guilty Thursday to 110 charges of fraud and money laundering. Doris “Dee” Nelson, the 55-year-old Canadian who turned a fledgling payday loan store near Vancouver, B.C., into a sprawling Spokane-based enterprise making online loans in two countries and multiple states, faces a possible prison term of decades and fines in the millions of dollars.

Doris “Dee” Nelson pleaded guilty in Spokane to a massive payday lending Ponzi scheme that involved 465 investors and $137 million.

The state of Washington will pay $3 million to a woman who alleged Child Protective Services agents failed to protect her from her mother's abusive boyfriend in the mid-1990s, even after she gave birth at Deaconess Memorial Hospital in Spokane when she was 12 years old. The man impregnated her again within two months. That time she gave birth in Boise.

State troopers are investigating an Eastern Washington University student for killing two of her passengers – both college friends – in a suspected drunken-driving crash two weeks ago near Colfax. Records detailing the vehicular homicide investigation say Erica Polito Moss, 21, drank a cocktail made with up to 2.5 shots of liquor at a Pullman bar in the early morning hours of Feb. 21.

State troopers are investigating an Eastern Washington University student for killing two of her passengers – both college friends - in a suspected drunken-driving crash two weeks ago near Colfax.

Two Eastern Washington University students were killed Friday morning in a car crash south of Colfax on U.S. Highway 195. The two young women, Ashley Marie Gonzalez and Nancy Zepeda Zarate, were part of the university’s Chicano Education Program that recruits and mentors the children of migrant workers.

A Bonner County man in his 50s died over the weekend from influenza-related complications.

A Spokane County woman in her 40s has died from influenza.

Eight Gonzaga fans were stung by a Craigslist ticket scam for the Monday night men’s basketball game. Spokane police are investigating, and department spokeswoman Monique Cotton said the fraud should serve as a familiar cautionary tale: “People should not buy tickets from Craigslist.”

Valley Hospital announced a lockout of many nurses and technical workers who expected to return to work Thursday morning following a one-day strike.