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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Jonathan Brunt

Jonathan Brunt

Current Position: Asst. Managing Editor (Govt)

Jonathan Brunt joined The Spokesman-Review in 2004. He is the government editor. He previously was a reporter who covered Spokane City Hall, Spokane County government and public safety.

Email
jonathanb@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 459-5442

All Stories

News >  Spokane

Blaze can’t keep ‘Oliver!’ off stage

Despite losing its sets, props and costumes in a warehouse fire Thursday, Spokane's Christian Youth Theater is standing by the bedrock rule of entertainment: The show must go on. "Oliver!" will open Friday at the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center thanks to a massive volunteer effort and donations from area schools, theater companies and other groups.
News >  Spokane

Bicyclists tie up traffic in rush hour

A group of bicyclists protesting society's dependence on cars created traffic headaches during Friday afternoon's rush hour in downtown Spokane. After a half-hour ride during which they would not allow motorists to pass, police forced the protesters to stop and gave about 10 of them $46 citations for being pedestrians in the roadway. At least two were briefly handcuffed.
News >  Spokane

Woman jailed in homicide

A Spokane woman was arrested Friday, accused of murdering a 48-year-old man in the West Central neighborhood earlier in the day. Investigators believe Sheri M. Ramsey, 33, shot the man in a dispute about rent and his accommodations.
News >  Spokane

Many at Spokane vigil call for Iraq withdrawal

About 35 people marked the deaths of 2,000 American service members in a small vigil Wednesday night in downtown Spokane. While the event focused on the lost troops, many used the candlelight vigil to call for a withdrawal from Iraq.
News >  Spokane

Police find unusual gun during arrest

Tuesday's early morning arrest of a bicyclist suspected of breaking into cars and possessing drugs was rather ordinary – until police found the gun in his backpack. The high-powered handgun, valued at $1,200, could shoot through bulletproof vests, police said at press conference Tuesday afternoon.
News >  Spokane

Body found after house fire

One person was found dead Friday night when a Spokane Valley home was destroyed by fire. After dousing the flames, firefighters initially did not find anyone inside the home at 2612 N. McMillan Drive, said Spokane Valley Fire Battalion Chief Dave Umthun. The body was found in an area that appeared to be the bathroom after investigators were able to conduct a thorough inspection.
News >  Idaho

Lakeland school levy passes

Lakeland School District voters on Tuesday approved a $14.2 million tax proposal aimed at easing school overcrowding in booming northern Kootenai County. The levy will pay for a new elementary school, an expansion of Lakeland High School and land for future secondary schools.
News >  Spokane

Young racer dies after falling from bike

Willie McCormick had done so well racing motorcycles this year that all he had to do to claim a first-place trophy on Sunday was show up. The 10-year-old from Mead, who earned more than 100 trophies during a six-year racing career, died Saturday after he fell from his motorcycle at the Spokane Off-Road Vehicle Park near Airway Heights.
News >  Spokane

Deputies in doghouse after chase

Spokane County sheriff's deputies, apparently horsing around in downtown Spokane earlier this month, led unsuspecting city police on a bogus chase that ended with two damaged police cars and guns drawn at a plainclothes deputy. The deputies appear to have violated state law and department policy by engaging in the unnecessary chase, said sheriff's spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan.
News >  Spokane

Man hospitalized after being shot in chest

A west Spokane man was hospitalized Friday evening after he was shot in his home. The victim, Terry Herzog, who is in his 50s, was shot in his chest while he was sitting on a couch, neighbors said.
News >  Spokane

Man may have set deadly trap for firefighters

Spokane Valley firefighters are investigating whether a man tried to kill them by blowing up an oven when they responded to his call for help last month. "Our expectation is that they call us because they want us to be there," said Dave Lobdell, assistant chief of the Spokane Valley Fire Department. "We don't expect to become targets when we get to the scene."
News >  Spokane

Fewer call for help after police cut 24-hour phone service

Since law enforcement agencies in Spokane County changed how they take reports of non-emergency crimes, citizens have called in 40 percent fewer crimes where an officer was not required. That worries officials like Spokane County Sheriff's Lt. Earl Howerton.
News >  Spokane

West urges prayers for leaders

Spokane Mayor Jim West said Saturday night that local leaders need the prayers of the community. "We elect them and assume that they are smarter than us, and they aren't," he told a prayer conference at the Korean Presbyterian Church in east Spokane. "… They are sinners. They have faults, any number of faults."
News >  Spokane

Donations to be shipped to Louisiana

The last time Michelle Busick organized a hurricane relief effort, she was living less than 200 miles away from the victims. Although she now lives in Spokane, some 2,500 miles from a coast ravaged by two powerful storms, Busick once again is leading an effort to help hurricane victims.
News >  Spokane

Jail readies new fire detection system

A new fire detection system is scheduled to be activated next week at the Spokane County Juvenile Justice Center – days after a blaze forced the building's evacuation for the second time in less than a year. Neither Saturday's fire, which was confined to a laundry room, nor an earlier one that caused significant damage to the probation department, was discovered until visitors smelled smoke.
News >  Spokane

Blaze forces evacuation of juvenile jail

A fire forced the evacuation of inmates from their cells Saturday afternoon at the Spokane Juvenile Justice Center. The blaze, which was confined to a laundry room, was the second fire in the last year at the justice center, which houses the jail, court and other criminal justice services for minors.
News >  Spokane

Reward offered for assistance in identifying man’s killer

A $2,000 reward is being offered for information that identifies who is responsible for the death of a man found on a downtown sidewalk last week. Medics were called at 7:55 a.m. Sept. 15 near Second Avenue and Madison Street, where Richard G. Morgan, 39, was laying after suffering head injuries. When crews arrived, Morgan could talk but refused to say what happened, according to an affidavit filed Thursday in district court.
News >  Spokane

Volunteers from Spokane obliged to wait out storm

Headed to the Gulf Coast with a truckload of food, water and other necessities for victims of Hurricane Katrina, three Spokane sisters have been forced to a motel until another brutal storm passes. Sharon Larson, Angela Geiss and Debbie McWilliams left earlier this week after gathering supplies from churches, schools and businesses. They made arrangements with a church to drop off the supplies in Hattiesburg, Miss.
News >  Spokane

Plane plunges into river, killing pilot

A man was killed Wednesday evening when the plane he was flying hit a power line and plunged into the Pend Oreille River near Ione, Wash. The four-seat Cessna manufactured in 1949 hit the power line about 5 p.m. and sunk to the bottom, according to a Pend Oreille County Sheriff's dispatcher.
News >  Spokane

Rec center defeated in Airway Heights

Airway Heights voters soundly rejected Tuesday a $5 million proposal to build a recreation center. Just 38 percent of voters supported the measure, which would have created a building with a pool and waterslides, a fitness center and meeting rooms. It needed 60 percent to pass.
News >  Spokane

Suspect arrested in man’s death

Detectives arrested a habitual criminal Friday evening on suspicion that he killed a man whose body was found Sept. 5 in a rural area near Elk. Ben Alan Burkey, 45, is accused of killing Rick L. Tiwater, who was discovered dead by a man riding an off-road vehicle near the 13400 block of East Laurel Road.
News >  Spokane

Spokane pair launch relief effort

It seemed crazy at first: Two Spokane citizens leading a hurricane relief effort. But only a few days after two sisters decided to rent a truck, fill it with supplies and drive 2,400 miles to reach Hurricane Katrina evacuees, a food bank is awaiting their arrival, and Spokane schools, businesses and churches have donated enough cash and food for the women to get a bigger truck.
News >  Spokane

Faithful step up to assist those stricken by disaster

The images from New Orleans may be shocking, but Inland Northwest religious leaders said the disaster of Hurricane Katrina may lead to a better world. "God makes no mistake," said the Rev. Dr. C.W. Andrews Sr., of Calvary Baptist Church in Spokane. "Out of all of this, some good will come."
News >  Idaho

Pair plead guilty in UI murder

Two brothers pleaded guilty Friday in last year's murder of a University of Idaho student. Brothers James J. Wells, 26, and Matthew R. Wells II, 27, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Eric McMillan, a 19-year-old freshman on the football team. The men shot McMillan in his chest and head at his Moscow apartment on Sept. 19; he died at a hospital the next morning.
News >  Spokane

Hate crime suspect in jail

A skinhead accused in last week's attack on a group of American Indian youths in Spokane was in jail Thursday – in Wyoming – after he allegedly assaulted another person. Daniel Gean Wilson, 28, was released from Spokane County Jail last week after Spokane Police failed to produce the necessary paperwork to keep him there.