John Stucke

RICHLAND – As the Pacific Northwest's only nuclear power plant unplugs Saturday to refuel its core with new uranium rods, decades-old questions about how to handle nuclear waste are on display at the Columbia Generating Station about 10 miles north of Richland. Outside the nuclear power plant, spent fuel rods have been encased in 15 special steel cylinders and then encased in concrete cases parked upright like small grain silos on concrete pads. These waste containers are ringed with razor-wired chain link fence and monitored by security cameras. It's a similar scenario at dozens of other nuclear plants in 31 different states; a stopgap solution for the reactors' radioactive waste.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a $48 million plan that will free the Spokane Catholic Diocese from bankruptcy protection after two and a half years. The confirmation of the plan by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams was a key step. Now, the 82 parishes of the diocese can begin raising money to pay claims by the more than 170 victims of clergy sex abuse.

Kenny Olson had thick dark hair and a kind smile. His high-pitched voice didn't break until he was 20, prompting his big sister to tease him that he should audition for the Vienna Boys Choir. He was also a heroin addict when he died in a Spokane Valley motel room two years ago at age 22. He overdosed on a mixture of drugs as his father, Kristopher Olson, lay passed out several feet away.

Four prominent Spokane Catholics have asked Bishop William Skylstad to resign, saying the $48 million bankruptcy deal he struck to settle sex-abuse claims against the Spokane Catholic Diocese is a "complete disaster." The four men, Donald Herak, Thomas Tilford, James Workland and Ronald Caferro, met with and wrote letters to Skylstad and vowed, "we will not contribute one dime to this unfortunate, costly and mistaken mediated settlement."

COLFAX – Martin Marler squinted and pointed a finger to a wire running far above a new high-voltage line strung by Avista Utilities near his wheat farm. "I don't like it. Not one bit," he said. "I told them: 'You're putting up a fence that's affecting my farming.' "

The decorated Spokane police sergeant who shot and killed a man Saturday morning east of downtown after a fight is Daniel Torok. Law enforcement sources say Torok, a 16-year department veteran, is on administrative leave after being treated at a hospital.

Work crews will erect hundreds more giant windmills across the Pacific Northwest within 17 years to generate enough electricity to light five cities the size of Seattle. The projects are key to meeting the region's power needs, but aren't a cure-all, regional power experts said in a report released Wednesday.