Jonathan Brunt

Spokane voters on Tuesday resoundingly approved a city charter amendment granting the police ombudsman more authority and a tax to ensure that branch libraries won’t close. The most debated proposal on the city ballot, a rule increasing the threshold for City Council votes needed to raise taxes to five of seven members, had a narrow lead after Tuesday’s counting and likely won’t be decided for days.

Turnout, ballot drop info for today's election

Spokane Mayor David Condon stuck with consistent themes in his annual State of the City address on Friday: change at City Hall and making Spokane “the city of choice in the Northwest.” In his first year as mayor, he replaced numerous administrators, reorganized several departments, changed the city’s legal strategy and halted plans to significantly raise utility rates.

The Spokane Teachers Credit Union announced today that it will move its commercial lending operations to the Hutton Building, a building it owns as a result of foreclosure last year.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has confirmed that the man who died in a fire north of Spokane on Tuesday was the man who lived at the mobile home.

Spokane Teachers Credit Union is turning a foreclosed downtown building into one of its most prominent offices. The credit union announced Friday that it will move its commercial lending operations to the Hutton Building, a 105-year-old landmark at 9 S. Washington St. that it owns following a foreclosure last year.

Two Spokane City Council members have apologized for using their city email accounts to send campaign messages. Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart and Amber Waldref sent electronic newsletters to supporters that included their opinions on the three proposed measures that will be decided by voters in the city’s Feb. 12 special election.

Library campaign reports $21,000

Firefighters found a body in a burning mobile home Tuesday morning north of Spokane. Doug Bleeker, deputy chief of Spokane County Fire District 9, said the body was found in the living room.

A city parks instructor manual appears to ban city-sponsored kayak trips in the kind of weather that led to a chaotic and deadly excursion organized by Gonzaga University and sponsored by the Spokane parks department, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. Christopher Gormley, 18, died from hypothermia after his kayak tipped in the frigid waters of Rock Lake during the trip on April 1. He was one of seven people on the trip organized by Gonzaga Outdoors, which contracted with the city parks department to provide the equipment and guide for the trip. Gormley, a freshman honors student, was majoring in political science and was a recent graduate of Henry M. Jackson High School in Everett.

Evidence is piling up at the new recycling center serving the Spokane region: More is being recycled. One of the biggest signs of the change is the increasing demand for smaller trash cans.

Library campaign promises to fix reporting violations