Jonathan Brunt

Spokane police officers soon will no longer respond in person to take reports of stolen vehicles. It’s a move, officials say, to “work smarter” and more efficiently after several rounds of budget cuts. They also say some cars could be recovered more quickly if victims provide information about their stolen car by phone instead of waiting until an officer can respond.

A lot has changed since 1998, the last time Mike Guerdette had to design a resume. Guerdette, who has a Gonzaga University engineering degree, has been out of work since October. He is focusing his search on about 15 local businesses, but the shaky economy has made finding a job difficult.

Spokane International Airport will pay nearly $2 million for land it wants to keep bare near Felts Field. The purchase of 6.9 acres, which includes three commercial buildings, is intended to improve the safety of Felts, airport officials say.

Thirty-three years after the Sunset Boulevard Bridge over Latah Creek opened to traffic in 1913, one of its designers came back to Spokane and reminisced about the project. “The city was looking well ahead into the problems of highway transportation when it built that bridge,” said Ernest Howard, the bridge designer who was in town in 1946 for a meeting of civil engineers. “That was long before the day of widespread use of the automobile.”

The five guidelines that defined the administration of former Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick are history. Interim police Chief Scott Stephens told the city’s Use of Force Commission Thursday that he has eliminated Kirkpatrick’s “cardinal rules” from the introduction of the Police Department policy manual. He also has rewritten the list of the department’s “workplace expectations.”

The price to park in downtown Spokane is going up and down – but mostly up. City street employees are working to adjust meters to reflect price changes the Spokane City Council unanimously approved in December.

A decade ago, Spokane was stuck with thousands of tons of unwanted compost that killed tomato plants. It was a mixture, city officials said at the time, that forced the end of the city-run Spokane Regional Solid Waste System’s composting operation in Colbert.

A couple of decades after voting for independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, Greg Keller regrets the choice. Keller was one of nine participants in his precinct caucus Saturday morning at the Corbin Senior Activity Center, and he was outnumbered by supporters of Ron Paul as he argued politely against the Texas congressman’s candidacy.

Paul draws about 1,000 to Spokane Convention Center

In the biggest shakeup of his administration yet, Spokane Mayor David Condon on Thursday fired City Attorney Howard Delaney following worsening criticism of the legal office’s handling of a series of high-profile cases. Condon informed Delaney Thursday morning, said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist, who also announced the appointment of new City Attorney Nancy Isserlis, a former chairwoman of the city’s Ethics Commission.