Jonathan Brunt

The films playing on Eastern Washington’s largest movie screen loop through 41 rollers to feed the film up and down and around Spokane’s Imax projector. Before a Tuesday showing of the newest release, “Great White Shark,” Dat Nguyen threads the film in a dazzling 2 minutes, 3 seconds. It took 13 minutes to rewind the film from the last showing. His speed allows for a nearly on-time start for the 11 o’clock show.

Parts of Riverfront Park are majestic, beloved, historic, popular or whimsical. But parts of Riverfront Park are broken, dilapidated, vacant, stuck in the wrong century or losing money.

As Dave Randolph approaches the pedestrian suspension bridge from Canada Island, it’s unmistakable: bright, freshly painted graffiti covering a retaining wall just above the river. He has just started his daily vandalism check of Riverfront Park, a walk that begins at 4:30 a.m. or earlier with a goal that’s sometimes hard to achieve: remove graffiti before it’s noticed. This find, along the steep riverbank, will make that goal nearly impossible to reach today. He or one of his employees must strap up in a harness to cover it safely – as was done a couple weeks ago when the wall was hit last.

By the time Spokane’s new library director finishes story time with his kids, he rarely has time for pleasure reading. He has four kids, after all.

It was failure upon failure, four times over, that shut down Spokane County’s 911 system for nearly a half-hour in November. Documents obtained through a public records request show that 130 calls were missed during the 911 outage Nov. 26.

It’s almost like money growing on trees. A new city report has counted, measured and placed a monetary value on nearly every tree on city property.

The cause of a fire that damaged a downtown parking garage and gutted a pickup owned by the Downtown Spokane Partnership remains unknown. Witnesses reported the pickup ablaze just after 5 p.m. Monday in Parking West, 1102 W. Sprague Ave. Smoke poured out of the garage until it was extinguished by Spokane firefighters.

A large, graffiti-covered abutment that marked the northern edge of what was once Spokane’s tallest bridge will soon be torn down. Kendall Yards officials say the concrete structure on the west side of the growing residential and commercial development in West Central Spokane attracts climbers and will be removed soon because it is a hazard.

Assistant police Chief Scott Stephens’ 27-year career with the city is over. The Spokane City Council agreed to pay its former interim police chief $190,000 to depart in exchange for Stephens’ abandonment of any legal claims.

Fairchild Air Force Base officials said Sunday that they are planning a public memorial service for the first Fairchild crew killed in a tanker plane crash since the beginning of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a decade ago. Three airmen were killed when, according to witnesses, the KC-135 they were flying exploded Friday over Kyrgyzstan.

In July 2010, more than 100 warriors formed armies in the woods surrounding Spokane. They didn’t invade the city and likely couldn’t have gotten far with their foam swords.

Nearly a decade after Spokane first offered residents the ability to pay their bills online, the vast majority of city water, sewage and trash customers continue to receive paper bills. While this reluctance to pay with a computer instead of writing a check has begun to fade, city officials say there’s a long way to go before city billing is a paperless exercise.