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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Jonathan Martin

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News >  Spokane

Poll: Pot initiative favored

SEATTLE – A $2.8 million TV advertising blitz in October by the campaign to legalize marijuana appears to have given Initiative 502 a critical boost just as ballots are being cast. There are no marijuana leaves – or even admitted marijuana users – in the ads, reflecting I-502’s strategy to attack the ban on marijuana while not endorsing its use.
News >  Pacific NW

Pot-infused products exist in legal limbo

SEATTLE – The kitchen in the weather-beaten beachfront cabin near Olympia is cramped and freckled with mysterious brown stains. A shaggy dog named Butter is poking around, and a quarter-sized spider dangles at the window. It’s not the best situation, Jim Chaney acknowledges, for a home-based business making marijuana-infused products, called “medibles.”
News >  Nation/World

No evidence that woman miscarried

A Seattle teenager’s claim that abuse by Seattle police caused her miscarriage has become a viral Internet sensation of the Occupy movement, but no evidence has emerged to support her allegation. Jennifer M. Fox, 19, has accused Seattle police of kicking her and hitting her in the stomach with a bicycle during a Nov. 15 Occupy Seattle protest, then dousing her with pepper spray, even after she yelled, “I’m pregnant.” A viral video shows her reeling from the pepper spray, but not being struck.
News >  Nation/World

Bill Weighs Public Safety, Rights Of Mentally Ill Law Would Expand Power Of Judges To Commit People To Mental Wards Against Their Will

It began with a tragedy - a retired fireman randomly murdered while returning from a Seattle Mariners game with his family. The killer had fallen through cracks between the courts and mental hospitals, a paranoid schizophrenic who didn't get treatment after a previous crime. The tragedy last year angered lawmakers. Their attempt to fill the cracks should be signed into law soon by Gov. Gary Locke.
News >  Nation/World

Chronic Drunks Left Out To Dry Budget Cuts, Tougher Attitudes Turning Detox Shelters Into One-Night Stops

(From For the Record, March 23, 1998): Story incorrect: Terry Lawhead is operations director for the Downtown Spokane Partnership. Lawhead's title was unclear and the group's name was incorrect in a Sunday story. 1. Shortly after leaving detox, friends share a beer downtown. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Van driver Glen Dowd shakes hands with a man in the "sobering unit" at the detox center. Dowd had just transported another man from the Deaconess Medical Center emergency room to detox. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review
News >  Features

At Home In Eden Bringing Plants And Animals Into North Side Nursing Home Has Made A Dramatic Improvement In Residents’ Quality Of Life

1. Merril Knut Nystuen gets a kick out of Pickels, who came out of his cage when Nystuen's wife, Janet, came to visit at the Riverview Care Center. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. Below right, Riverview staff member Casey Morphis takes a break to play with Schurman the cat at the nurses' station. 3. Riverview Care Center resident Jean McAlister usually brings back treats from her meals to give to her two birds, Twee-Dee and JoJo. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review
News >  Spokane

Welfare Workers Will Offer Service, And Maybe A Smile Extra Training To Focus On Being Polite And Professional

Welfare recipients rarely hear a kind word but that's about to change. Complaints about inconsiderate treatment by welfare workers have prompted extra training on being professional and polite. "It's an ongoing process to personalize the faceless structure of the government," said Bernie Nelson, regional Department of Social and Health Services administrator.
News >  Nation/World

Rosie Watches Kids; State Watches Rosie

1. Colby Hagestad, left, and Quinton Swanson work on a computer at the preschool run by Rosie Zaring. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Preschool owner Rosie Zaring helps a child draw letters of the alphabet while others work on morning session projects. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review
News >  Nation/World

Unlicensed Day Cares Grow Along With Rising Demand

Parents drop off their kids at a northeast Spokane in-home day care, where a teenage child molester lives. A South Hill baby sitter takes breaks to sell crank out of her apartment. Fifteen kids are crammed into a Spokane Valley trailer, left with nothing to do but watch TV.
News >  Nation/World

State Offers Working Poor Free Tuition Spokane Community Colleges Looking To Give Away $160,000 In Waivers

A free quarter of college classes could be the ticket out of poverty for hundreds of Spokane residents. That's the intent behind a state program being launched today in Spokane. The Community Colleges of Spokane will begin handing out $160,000 in tuition waivers to people earning poverty-level wages. In particular, the waivers are meant for welfare recipients who, at the state's insistence, took the first job they found.
News >  Spokane

Senior Center Gets Spacious New Home Mid-City Concerns Will Move To Former Bakery On W. Second

A haven for downtown Spokane's elderly poor has a new lease on life thanks to some well-off friends. Mid-City Concerns Inc., which runs a senior center and catering service for house-bound elderly, last week signed a 25-year lease on a spacious West Second building. At the 7,100-square-foot former bakery, Mid-City will consolidate its senior center and Meals on Wheels program, currently run at separate locations.
News >  Spokane

Lawmakers Declare War On Welfare Fraud Say Reforms Need Tougher Policing, Bill Would Keep Out Neighboring Needy

Alarmed by stories of lucrative scams on the state tab, Washington legislators are rushing to give broad police powers to welfare fraud investigators. The bill, which cleared the House last week, was prompted by accounts of welfare families coming from Idaho and Oregon to take advantage of Washington's generous public assistance. The bill would create the Office of Chief Investigator, charged with cutting fraud in Department of Social and Health Services programs.