Jonathan Brunt

Spokane would have to pay a $5,000 fine and upgrade its regional trash incinerator under a proposed deal being considered by Mayor Mary Verner. The settlement, proposed by the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency late last month, is in response to a violation related to mercury pollution in June at the Waste-to-Energy Plant.

What started out as 71 city of Spokane layoffs has dwindled to only a couple. In September, Mayor Mary Verner announced that 71 employees would lose their job the day after Christmas to deal with the city’s $13.6 million budget shortfall.

Homeowners connected to Spokane’s sewer system will pay 17 percent more for service in 2011. The Spokane City Council voted 4-3 on Monday in favor of the new rate.

Spokane Police accidently caught a man suspected of robbing the downtown Nordstrom Monday evening. The alleged robber was struck by a passing Spokane Police patrol car as he darted across Main Avenue shortly before 5 p.m. while being chased by a Nordstrom security officer, said Major Crimes Sgt. Mark Griffiths.

The Spokane City Council’s decision last week to cut a deputy fire chief position has angered administrators and Mayor Mary Verner. “It was not discussed with me. It was not discussed with the chief. It was completely unexpected,” Verner said. “What has been created here is an impossibility for getting the job done.”

Spokane’s YWCA finally has sold its prime riverfront campus. The property, which overlooks the North Channel of the Spokane River, sold Dec. 9 for $3.2 million to The Falls, said Trish McFarland, executive director of the YWCA of Spokane.

The former YMCA in Riverfront Park is headed for a date with the wrecking ball. The Spokane City-County Historic Landmarks Commission voted 9-0 on Wednesday that the building is not eligible for historic registries, clearing the way for the city’s Park Department to demolish the building.

The concessions agreed to by Spokane’s police force to save jobs and help balance the city budget include giving up a scheduled 4 percent pay raise, increasing out-of-pocket costs for health insurance and reductions in one of the two taxpayer-financed retirement plans that officers receive. Details of the concession plan, agreed to by officers last week, were adopted Monday by the Spokane City Council.

Vehicle tax won't be used to balance budget

It could be the final chapter for the former downtown YMCA. Or it could be the start of more painstaking, political maneuvering.

Spokane County GOP picks new leader

Spokane’s endangered East Side Library will remain open at least another year. The Spokane Public Library branch had been on the chopping block to deal with budget cuts.

Spokane GOP leaders are in the midst of a nasty fight that could shape local elections for years to come. The internal battle for control of the Spokane County Republican Party pits “mainstream” GOP members against surging “tea party” activists hoping to maintain and extend their influence in Eastern Washington’s political arena. At stake is the direction of regional Republican politics, everything from priorities to candidate recruiting and support.

Spokane’s endangered East Side library will remain open at least another year. The Spokane Public Library branch had been on the chopping block to deal with budget cuts. But the proposal proved extremely controversial and united an unusual faction of liberal and conservative activists as well as dozens of school children.

Spokane’s unionized library workers will get a 1 percent raise next year, under a contract ratified this week. Not knowing how contract negotiations would end, the library’s preliminary budget set aside money for a 5 percent raise, said Spokane Public Library Director Pat Partovi. Money that won’t be needed for raises can be shifted to help prevent the closure of the East Side branch, at 524 S. Stone St.

Listen to Shogan's sharp words for his City Council colleagues

The Spokane City Council is balking on plans to impose a new $20 tax on vehicles this year, and in a surprise move shifted money away from road plowing and repairs to be spent instead rewarding departments whose labor unions made requested wage and benefit concessions. The council voted in October to give itself the authority to create the local tab tax, but it has since deferred a decision.

Spokane’s library workers approved a new contract Tuesday that likely will save enough money to keep the East Side Library open next year. Library trustee Rick White said he has a “very strong sense” that approval of the labor contract by the library board would save the branch. The planned closure of the East Side Library has been one of the most contentious proposals within the city’s 2011 budget.