Jonathan Brunt

A half dozen girls point with urgency at the body displayed on the screen, identifying several broken bones. They are examining the digital corpse at Mobius Spokane’s autopsy exhibit and have spent much of their field trip in this room. “It catches my interest,” said Chanelle Bridges, 10, a Hamblen Elementary fifth-grader. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot.”

The first crews to arrive at two South Hill house fires Monday were from a fire station that lost its first-response firefighting capability this year due to budget cuts. Fire officials say it’s hard to say how much difference having a full engine crew on scene would have made.

The label in the potted soil reads “Freedom Fireworks,” but they will explode with color slowly, over the course of months. In the near-triple-digit temperatures of last week, Liberty Park Florist and Greenhouse in Spokane’s South Perry District received its first 800 of the 3,500 poinsettias it will sell for Christmas.

Perhaps lost in the recent debate about a proposed pedestrian bridge in Spokane’s University District is its massiveness. It wouldn’t be an inconspicuous walkway like the three pedestrian bridges over Interstate 90 east of downtown. Nor is it much like the quaint-by-comparison pedestrian suspension bridges in Riverfront Park. 

When he was 7, Aaron Crummett got his first bicycle for Christmas. It was stolen from his front yard.  He got his second bicycle for his eighth birthday. It was soon stolen from his side yard.  He got his third bicycle last Christmas. It was stolen in May, gone within five minutes after he parked it on his front porch to run inside and get a snack. In three years, the Crummett family, which lives near Gonzaga University, has been the victim of five property crimes. Aaron’s dad’s bike was taken from the yard, and his mom’s keys recently were stolen from a locker at the downtown YMCA. If it seems like thieves and criminals are running amok in Spokane, it’s probably because they are. One out of every 11 Spokane residents was the victim of a theft, burglary or other property crime last year.

The Spokane Park Board this week honored its vice president who died last month. Jim Quigley, 79, who worked as a dentist for about four decades in Spokane, served on the board for nine years.