Jonathan Martin

Ozzie had his faults, but he didn't deserve to die. So says the director of the Spokane Humane Society, which accidentally euthanized the 6-year-old Rottweiler earlier this month. The death was the result of an error by an unidentified worker who failed to fill out vital paperwork.

The West Side Ballers are living down their reputations. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

A hulking shoplifter was arrested at the Logan neighborhood Safeway last weekend after store employees and customers held the 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound man for police. Store security guards saw a man stash a pack of cigarettes and food in a backpack. He paid for a bottle of soda and a quart of milk. When confronted by three store employees, he hit one in the face.

Eighty-year-old St. Patrick's, the grandmother of North Side parochial schools, is getting a makeover. Her outside is getting a coat of paint; her insides are getting shored up. She's getting a new string of shrubs. The face lift will be done Friday and Saturday by a team of Gonzaga University students young enough to be her great-grandchildren. More than 200 are expected to pull shifts with paint can and hammer. They are part of Gonzaga's April's Angels program, which chooses one needy community facility a year for a two-day rehab onslaught.

Gregoire

1. At the North Spokane Growing Tree, Clarity Ellison, 11, Ashely Hand, 4, and Jessica Hand, 7, have fun with a teeter totter. A new training center, or incubator, for Spokane's in-home day care industry will open in August, helping to create places like the Growing Tree. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. Neighborhood organizer Al French talks with Joanne Armsbury as day care officials look over the site of a North Side home day care incubation center. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Even the infants get lessons here. Teachers bend tiny limbs to the delicate lilt of Mozart, a lesson in motor development that looks like baby mamba. Jan Swanson's North Wall Child Development Center is Spokane's only nationally licensed day care and, with its well-educated staff and carefully formulated curriculum, its the Nordstrom of the child care industry.

1. Feeling exploited. Terry Boyden was first in line to remind Gov. Gary Locke of the plight of part-time teachers. Willene Goodwin holds a sign at left Friday at Spokane Community College. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Gov. Gary Locke talks to part-time teachers Friday.

While his peers at Central Valley High are winding up a week of vacation, Brannon Zahand is wading through quantum physics. Zahand, and 132 other Valley students in Running Start, had their spring vacation three weeks ago, when Spokane-area community colleges broke. The 18-year-old computer whiz spent that break improving Central Valley's on-line network. This last week, he's had his nose to the books while his high school friends cavort.

While her friends are cavorting on spring break, Katie Boileau is wading through geography textbooks in a classroom at Spokane Falls Community College. No chance for Hawaii in April, as she'd dreamed.

After seven months of debating protections for gay and lesbian students, the Deer Park School Board has struck a broad compromise: It wants to protect all students. Suggested policy changes would prohibit discrimination based on "human differences," which, loosely interpreted, could include everything from obesity to sexual orientation.

The wall above the Monroe Street bridge stands as a tribute to Doug McCray. Students painted the wall as a farewell to their much loved counselor. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

1. Two cars, which simulate the experience of drivers of slippery or icy roads, will help train students how to drive in bad weather. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. Bruneau

Unforeseen development 1. Her father fought to keep Long Lake pristine and Misty Miotke wants to preserve the late Len Miotke's legacy, but a property dispute is dividing family and friends. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. (Photo of Len Miotke)

Sharie Pearson was able to pick up her dog from an animal control shelter despite being charged with abuse so severe that it nearly killed the 11-month-old chow. According to court papers, Pearson didn't loosen Throck's collar from the time he was a puppy to when he was found by animal control officers in January.

1. Mosby 2. Mattozzi 3. Harris 4. Wagner

Consider Sally's problem: "A friend of her mother's touched her bottom under her panties and made her promise not to tell! He said he was teaching her about being grown up!" Mead elementary students will be reading about Sally's problem in class next year, as they get grown-up lessons in sexual abuse, incest and protecting their private parts. The district school board last week expanded its Personal Safety curriculum to kindergartners, first- and second-graders as a way to augment its current instruction in first and fourth grades. The Sally scenario will be presented to third graders.

More than 2,000 North Spokane elementary tykes will be riding with older secondary students next fall as the Riverside and Deer Park school districts combine bus routes. The two districts are ending separate bus pick-ups for elementary and secondary students in response to tighter transportation budgets.

1. Jim Barrett looks out over his backyard as the river floods through his neighborhood. The water had only another foot or two to go to hit his basement. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Arthur Miller walks through his driveway as water from the flooding Little Spokane cascades through his yard. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Flood waters covered the softball diamond at St. George's School. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

North Side seniors Joe Le and Rache Stotts-Johnson pulled in four-year, full-ride scholarships last week when they were named Washington Scholars. The award goes to the top 1 percent of graduating seniors based on academics, leadership and community activities.

Jim and his boys can stretch out now without fear of kicking off the car's emergency brake in a fit of bad dream. Their three hot meals each day are home-cooked soul food, far from the beans over a campfire the family had come to expect. Jim now has energy to pursue "the plan:" a stable home and school for James, 15, and Jacob, 8, college accounting classes for himself, and assurance he'll never again be homeless. After three weeks of living in a red 1980 Subaru GL-5 on Beacon Hill, Jim and his boys have found manna: the new Interfaith Hospitality Network of Spokane homeless shelter.

Spokane homeless shelters are using progressive technology to reduce demand for one of the most primitive needs: a warm, dry place to sleep. The city's dozen emergency housing centers plan to use the Internet and electronic mail to post vacancies and trade information about services, according to Bob Peeler, homeless coordinator for Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs.

Seven months of often bitter feuding in the Riverside School District have settled into an uncomfortable silence. One of the district's unions filed a lawsuit and formally accused administrators of unfair labor practices. Another packed school board meetings in silent protest. A parents group formed to oust Superintendent Jerry Wilson.

Deer Park resident Carole Livingston can chat up her friend in New Hampshire for less money than it takes to order a steak from the neighborhood butcher. "It's like calling New York to call my market," said Livingston. Since moving recently to North Spokane, Livingston has discovered the quirks of rural phone coverage that play havoc with her, and her neighbors', phone bills.