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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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John Stucke

John Stucke

Current Position: Asst. Managing Editor (Front Page)

John Stucke joined The Spokesman-Review in 2000. As Metro Editor, he directs local news coverage and oversees newsroom reporters. He has reported on business, health care, bankruptcy and agriculture for the paper.

Email
johnst@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 459-5419

All Stories

News >  Business

Maintenance mechanics, millwrights keep economic engine running

Their stories couldn't have started much differently. Dave Embree was screwed up on drugs for nine years. Ask him to roll up his sleeves and he'll show you the needle holes. Though he didn't finish the 10th grade, Embree has turned his life around and is learning a trade.
News >  Business

Engines of change

Ed Willey shakes his head when he hears people complain about job prospects. "Send them to me," he says with a laugh. "We're the best-kept secret in town!"
News >  Spokane

An excellent impression

The impressionist paintings gracing the walls of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture drew hundreds of visitors Sunday. By showing the works of some of art's greatest names including Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the museum is proud to have gained the prestige necessary to display such paintings and sculpture.
News >  Business

The rewards are heartening

Every day, Darren Powell teaches students how to thwart a leading killer of Americans. It's not work for the squeamish or the nervous. But the rewards – both personal and financial – are high for cardiovascular technologists.
News >  Spokane

Diocese wants committee dissolved

Worried that lawyer fees will run into the millions of dollars, the Catholic Diocese of Spokane wants the federal judge overseeing its bankruptcy case to dissolve a committee representing victims and cap legal costs. Now two and a half months into the bankruptcy, the diocese and competing victims' groups are still fighting over one of the most basic steps in Chapter 11 cases – establishing creditors' committees that represent the interests of investors and lenders, or in this case, the victims.
News >  Business

Met denied access to documents

A judge's ruling Wednesday scuttled efforts by Metropolitan Mortgage to collect potentially damaging documents pointing to alleged malfeasance by its former auditor. The ruling is a small victory for that auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, which is fighting claims that it was negligent in an accounting fraud that ultimately sent Metropolitan into bankruptcy.
News >  Business

Sacked by a scam?

Lola Emter is exhausted. From the moment her little Spokane Valley sports-bag company went public, her life has been dominated by angry investors, lawyers, unscrupulous stock dealings and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
News >  Spokane

Farm cuts worry Palouse

Jerry Snyder's family has deep roots in the Palouse and a long history with one of wheat country's most popular government programs, Food for Peace. So the fourth-generation wheat and cattle farmer was disappointed, al- though not terribly surprised and not yet overly worried, when the Bush administration proposed cuts to that program, also known by its government designation of PL 480 Title II.
News >  Business

Unraveling Met’s mess

Workers have stripped the big green letters that once glowed "Metropolitan Financial Center" from the downtown Spokane highrise. At 17 floors, the white building beamed strength and prosperity.
News >  Spokane

Motion seeks to include parishes

Plaintiffs suing the Diocese of Spokane for sexual abuse filed a court action Friday asserting that Catholic parishes, schools, charities and other entities should be made available to settle the diocese's bankruptcy debts. The move has been anticipated and came amid a rapid-fire series of events this week.
News >  Business

Benchmark of excellence

"Built in America with Italian passion." That's how Giorgio Usai sums up his work making and selling weight lifting benches. So sturdy, so reliable, and so elegantly simple, the weight benches and racks have become the standard at prestigious championships of pure human strength.
News >  Spokane

Group added to diocese case

The U.S. trustee has appointed a second creditors' committee in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane bankruptcy case, reacting to sharp criticism that alleged victims who have pressed sexual-abuse lawsuits were being marginalized. Wednesday's development is the latest wrinkle in the bankruptcy, which got off to a troublesome start with allegations that the diocese somehow tampered with the committee established to represent victims in the case.
News >  Business

SEC halts trading in Courtside Products

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended the trading of Courtside Products Inc.'s stock, a small Spokane company that makes sports bags. Listed on the pink sheets, which detail over-the-counter stock prices, Courtside shares were worth less than half a penny when the SEC suspended trades for 13 days beginning Friday.
News >  Spokane

Diocese readies aggressive defense

Greg Arpin, with stacks of legal papers and studies about memory tucked under his arm, is a lawyer with a daunting task. He is defending the Catholic Diocese of Spokane against monstrous claims that priests sexually abused boys decades ago.
News >  Business

Deaconess to close onsite daycare operation

Deaconess Medical Center plans to close its onsite daycare operation and refer parents and their children to the new St. Anne's Children and Family Center. Just five blocks away, the new St. Anne's center is a vibrant choice for parents who now have their children enrolled at Deaconess, said Deaconess spokeswoman Christine Varela.
News >  Business

Success is child’s play

All together now: Thank you, Little Mermaid. The doe-eyed Disney sea princess has helped Irv Zakheim sell millions of sturdy little dishes and cups that make dinner a little more palatable for even the most discerning toddler.
News >  Spokane

Firefighters give motel a hot send-off

A fire swept through an abandoned motel owned by Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities on Saturday morning, and nobody seemed to mind. In fact, the fire turning the old Skyline Motel just west of Spokane into rubble was carefully planned, lit and extinguished by members of the Spokane County Fire District as a training exercise.
News >  Spokane

Plaintiffs fight trustee’s decisions

Alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests filed a toughly worded rebuke of the U.S. Trustee and the creditors' committee she appointed in the Spokane Catholic Diocese bankruptcy case. Asserting that U.S. Trustee Ilene Lashinsky was wrong when she appointed Catholic Church sympathizers to the key victims' committee during the bankruptcy, well-known Seattle attorney Dillon Jackson asked federal Judge Patricia Williams to intervene.
News >  Business

Health insurance premiums to rise in county

Many payroll stubs in Spokane County are again showing a double-digit rise in health insurance premiums, the unpleasant but all-too-familiar realization that cost of living raises are being gobbled up by, well … the cost of living. Spokane City Hall, for example, is dealing with a 19 percent premium hike, said spokeswoman Marlene Fiest. There are 2,000 city workers. While they don't pay a premium for themselves, they are hit with rising rates to insure spouses and dependents.
News >  Business

Deaconess to reduce children’s care services

Deaconess Medical Center said Wednesday it's laying off 56 employees and closing several of its children's care services as it attempts to improve its financial condition. The hospital, along with sister operation Valley Hospital and Medical Center, will shift its pediatric intensive care, pediatric oncology and pediatric surgery patients to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital.
News >  Business

McMorris promises to advocate for farmers

In her first organized talk with farmers as a member of Congress, freshman Rep. Cathy McMorris said she would be a strong advocate of farm policies that encourage crop production and maintain Washington's status as a leading food exporter. Though she didn't draw a seat on the House Agriculture Committee, McMorris sought to reassure farmers at Spokane Ag Expo that she could still work effectively on issues important to them. The big annual farm-industry trade show runs through today.
News >  Business

Triumph wins Airbus contract

Triumph Group Inc. has landed a $35 million contract to manufacture floor panels for the Airbus A380 plane at its Spokane factory. The deal marks the first time that employees at the former Boeing plant will count Airbus as a customer rather than a competitor.
News >  Business

Friendly atmosphere

Rain and cool temperatures predicted this spring should give relief to farmers worried about dry conditions, a well-known meteorologist said Tuesday during Spokane Ag Expo. Art Douglas, a weather prognosticator with a reputation for accuracy, said the wet weather will arrive beginning in April and last through June — perfect for the fields of wheat stretching across Eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
News >  Spokane

Something’s afoot at the playhouse

Six days before the curtain lifts for "Something's Afoot," Lake City Playhouse volunteers were hustling Saturday to put in new seats. When finished, the little theater will have 180 plush purple seats.
News >  Spokane

Makeup of diocese committee in dispute

Amid the numerous questions fired at Spokane's Catholic bishop during a special creditors' meeting Wednesday, attorneys representing clergy abuse victims focused on two controversial issues: the makeup of the creditors' committee and the ownership and value of the parishes, schools and other entities in the diocese. Dozens of creditors – victims and others potentially owed money by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane – filled the third-floor courtroom to learn more about Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and to ask questions of Bishop William Skylstad, the diocese's attorneys and other officials.