Jonathan Martin

The scam is as devious as it is simple. Teenagers posing as desperate out-of-towners promise high school students hundreds of quick dollars in exchange for cashing cashier's checks.

It wasn't Richard Smith's day. A Spokane County sheriff's deputy totaled Smith's Toyota Cressida when the officer lost control of his car during a chase Monday through the Spokane Valley. Then, Washington State Patrol officers investigating the accident smelled alcohol on Smith's breath and arrested the Spokane man, 37, for drunken driving.

Forced into a new life 1. Jill Schliebe, 29, holds a photo of her four boys who were killed when their north Spokane home burned last year. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. The Schliebe children, clockwise from top: Loren, Derek, Justin and Steven.

The fire that killed Rob and Jill Schliebe's four children was more than a personal tragedy. It hit the community, too. "I think there is recognition that this could possibly have happened to any of us," said Dick Avery, pastor of the Schliebes' Shadle Park Presbyterian Church. The Schliebes had no medical or fire insurance and lost almost everything in the Oct. 28 blaze. The community response was stunning. More than 1,500 people donated money. Rob Schliebe said about $200,000 poured in. Hundreds of people gave enough furniture and household goods to fill three storage units. The Schliebes gave the leftover furniture to families in St. Maries, Idaho, displaced by recent fires and floods. Deaconess Medical Center wrote off almost all of the Schliebes' bills. In the wake of the fire, Avery said he noticed parents hugging their children more. "In the last several months, I've seen God changing lives more frequently than any other time in my ministry," he said.

After pining for more than a year over a scenic plot on the Spokane River, the Spokane Parks Department discovered money to buy the land had been available all along. The Spokane Park Board has offered Hrair Garabedian $250,000 for 2.3 acres of riverfront property next to the Downriver Golf Course. Garabedian's agent, Jim Holly, did not expect any difficulties in closing the deal. The Parks Department coveted the Downriver site, in the middle of Riverside State Park, since it went on the market in February 1995. The department said at the time that it didn't have the $215,000 asking price.

Lost a stereo lately? The Spokane Police Department is holding a pair of car stereos confiscated from suspected car prowlers, but it can't find the owners. Until it does, the suspects - a 36-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy - probably won't be prosecuted, police said. "I just want to hold them responsible for what they have done, and I don't think I'm going to be able to," said detective Terry Boardman.

Keith Bjorklund, 10, struggles to keep his bare foot in ice water during a foot freeze competition during Brentwood Elementary's May Madness celebration. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Anita Endrezze has published five books and had stories and poems in dozens of compilations. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Forced to restructure programs for the many lowincome students at Bemiss Elementary, school administrators created a community education center now considered one of the best in the country. Principal Dale McDonald and his staff turned the federal "Title I" program, designed to improve education in poor areas, into a learning hub for the Hillyard neighborhood. "We are trying to use this building as a total place of learning," said McDonald.

The Pickle Barrel smelled more like charcoal than vinegar, but co-owner Ted Bare was ready to do business. "You want a latte? It's no trouble at all," said Bare, standing in an inch of water on the Pickle Barrel's charred floor. The NorthTown restaurant closed Monday, after a stereo system under the kitchen counter sparked a fire. Bare did not have a damage estimate, but said the stereo and shelves holding paperwork were destroyed.

Jackie Edwards holds up the sock that got her to the finish line. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

A 12-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy allegedly swiped crayons and calculators from Linwood Elementary last weekend during a vandalism rampage that tore apart a sixth-grade class. Spokane County sheriff deputies arrested the two youths as they fled the classroom. They were booked in juvenile detention for second-degree burglary.

Prom for Mead senior Adam Morris will bring back memories of plane rides, limos and a sunset dinner at the Space Needle - but probably not hundreds of air vents he made to finance the spendy extravaganza. Morris and fellow Mead senior Mandi Larson did their prom in no-expense-spared fashion last weekend, taking their dates on a cross-state flight for a limo ride to Seattle's show piece restaurant.

Shannon McNaughton was scouting the Midway Elementary cafeteria for a husband, because that's what Saudi Arabian girls do. But the 12-year-old in a black robe, head wrap and Adidas' saw no prospects among her prepubescent peers. "I would want to marry somebody who is cute and rich," said McNaughton. "There's no one here today." The play acting was part of Midway Elementary's World Fair day, an immersion into a dozen distant cultures. If Saudi law places a gag on giggling for 12-year-olds, McNaughton and her peers followed it. All sixth grade girls needed their father's permission to come to school, as per the Saudi tradition.

Softball association director Russ Sharp and project coordinator Pal Dalsanders plan to break ground next week. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Cecelia Kelly crosses the finish line as relatives cheer her on. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

The Curry family - Jerry, Barry, Aaron and Bernie - warms up for Bloomsday with an early morning workout. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Northwest Christian Headmaster Lewis Button and board member Jim Greenup go over plans for what they hope will be the new location for the school. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. Community activist Fern Farrell is thrilled with the new plan to make the former Mater Cleri Seminary a Christian high school. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Ryan Hill was a fixture on the Deer Park basketball courts, his baggy blue shorts, quick smile and smooth jump shot well known in the community. More than 300 people crowded into the Deer Park High School gym Sunday to mourn Hill's death. Hill, 15, was struck by lightning while walking home from school April 16.

1. Miller 2. Dunn

Heather Hemmingmore's Nut Bar bar is mottled green and white, tendrils of fungus waving in the water like a sick man o'war. One jar over, a butter toffee - her favorite - floats in sickly yellow water. The Snickers is a spongy mess. "This is what it looks like in your stomach," said Hemmingmore, a Brentwood Elementary fifth-grader. "The nut bar is the grossest. It's got the most colors of mold."

Spokane School District will have a fairly short timeline in which to select a successor to Shadle Park principal Mike Dunn. Rather than having five months to research and sort through dozens of applications, as the Mead School District did in selecting Dunn, the Spokane School District needs to appoint his successor by the end of June.

The Victory Chapel youths will do without Sunday school videos after burglars stole $1,500 in TV and video equipment last week. Burglars broke into the Victory Chapel, 1430 N. Washington, between 10 p.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Friday by prying the front door open with a crowbar. According to pastor Joel Robinson, they did not touch desk drawers or file cabinets. The burglars seemed to know where the electronics equipment was, Robinson said. "You open your doors to helping people and you get robbed," said Robinson.

For the first time in festival history, a Lilac princess lost her crown Tuesday. After hours of debate, the Lilac Festival Association executive board voted to expel Sharma Shields - not for driving drunk but for stretching the truth about what had happened. The action was taken after board members decided the Ferris High School senior's account of her April 7 drunken-driving arrest differs from the police report.