Jonathan Martin

(From For the Record, January 17, 1998): Day wrong: Friday's A-1 photograph of people lining up for shots at the Spokane Regional Health District offices was taken Wednesday not Thursday. (From For the Record, January 21, 1998): Vaccine prices: A vaccination against hepatitis A costs $84 - $42 each for two shots. A story in Friday's paper indicated otherwise. (From for the Record, January 26, 1999): Cost incorrect: The cost of hepatitis A vaccinations dropped to $26 for each of two doses during last year's epidemic. In most cases, the bill was paid by the person receiving the vaccinations. A story incorrectly reported the cost. The line for shots at the Spokane Regional Health District office spilled down the stairwell and into the parking garage Thursday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Children of migrant farm workers clean up around their tent camp near Wenatchee last summer. File/The Spokesman-Review

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Thursday, January 15, 1998): Correction Lisa Dressel is accused of robbing more than $5,000 from five Spokane banks between Dec. 15 and Jan. 8. A toy gun was used in only the first robbery. A story in Wednesday's paper stated otherwise. Lisa Dressel was arrested Thursday. File/The Spokesman-Review

Social workers here call it a case for "The X-Files." Hundreds of welfare families in rural, impoverished areas of northeast Washington have vanished.

Social workers here call it a case for "The X-Files." Hundreds of welfare families in rural, impoverished areas of northeast Washington have vanished. They stopped collecting welfare checks, pulled kids out of school, vacated low-cost apartments.

1. A home for their work, but not for them. Rebeckah Cockrell peeks from behind her "Untitled" door she painted while at a shelter for battered women. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 2. Diane Hanson stands beside her "Self Portrait." Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 3. Lora Burcham's "Loneliness," made from newspaper, foil and masking tape, stands at the center of the City Hall exhibit, "Putting a Face on Homelessness. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review 4. Masks made by homeless children hang on one of the exhibits. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

Washington kids are optimistic, and for good reason, according to a new study. Fewer kids are dying as infants, getting murdered, or becoming parents. Ninety-nine out of 100 live until they're 20. Most dream of a college degree. Three-quarters see a rosy future.

Washington violates the constitutional rights of newcomers by restricting their welfare benefits, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The class action, filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on behalf of the newly transplanted poor, is the first major challenge to recent reforms of state welfare programs. It's on good legal footing, experts say. The suit duplicates a Pennsylvania action, in which a judge found that pulling up the welcome mat to the poor is unconstitutional. The law was passed in April by legislators fearful that Washington's relatively generous welfare benefits- 11th-highest in the country - will make it a magnet for the poor.

John Thaemert took over the care of his children, including 4-year-old Avery at far left, Ciera, 2, and Jerome, 7, after his wife, Julie got a full-time job. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

1. Gaining control. A nationally acclaimed halfway house run by two nurses has helped Jim Ransier regain independence and dignity after four decades in mental hospitals. Photos by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review 2. Left: With relief, Patricia Diaz thanks her friend Patty Coil after Coil made her cancel a date she didn't want to go on. Both are residents of Raymond Court. 3. Left: Everybody dances during Raymond Court's 1996 Halloween Party. Staff, their families, residents and guests dress up and boogie. 4. Mary Wright had her hair done regularly in the beauty salon at Raymond Court. Of the posters in the salon, Wright said, "These are all models. It doesn't mean much. It's much more important to be a real person than to be a model." Wright recently improved emough to move to an adult family home. 5. Above: When Vicki Draine complains that she's cold and tired, Jan Wheatley tries to warm her hands and tells her to eat more. Wheatley and partner Sue Napier founded Raymond Court. 6. Left: Jim Ransier stubs out his cigarette on the front stoop of Raymond Court. Ransier recently moved to Rowan Place.

Ray Cordero is about to lose his driver's license and stands to lose other assets because he has fallen behind in his child-support payments. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Mariah, 9 months, reaches out to Julie Scammon, 23, who is holding Nathan, 2. Scammon works for her mother, Jackie Milroy. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jackie Milroy is seeing the security of owning an in-home day care threatened by a neighbor's lawsuit that cites an obscure neighborhood covenant banning business in the Linwood area. Milroy has been operating the day care for two years without any trouble until now. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Margaret Searight's car broke down last month and she lost most of her welfare check. That was just the start of her trouble.

1. Dr. Kim Thoburn, director of the Spokane Regional Health District. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. County has gamma globulin on hand.

1. Tough choices. Julie Thaemert works on her resume at the state Department of Social and Health Services. It worked: She landed a job with a geriatric care firm. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. The Thaemert family preys before dinner. Julie Thaemert has landed a job in an effort to get them off welfare while her disabled husband, John, stays at home.

The owners and managers of a Browne's Addition apartment complex waged a systematic campaign to rid the building of 14 Russian families, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. attorney general. The suit is the nation's first federal housing discrimination complaint based on allegedly unfair treatment of Russians, said Joan Magagna, the top lawyer in the department's Civil Rights Division. It names Western and Colleene Williams, the Seattle owners of the Park Arms Apartments, their property management business and managers Tracy Clark and Doug Johnson.

1. Mother's helpers. Teen mother Julie Noble meets with tutor Roberta Depner to discuss goals. The birth of her son has pushed Noble to make changes. She intends to get her GED and attend beauty school. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Julie Noble plays with 6-week-old Skylar after his morning bath. 3. With Skylar bundled close, Julie Noble tries to wring the most out of her $20 voucher from DSHS for school supplies. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Suzanne Coyne, left, is hoping to follow the lead of Roberta Ness, who got off welfare by starting a massage clinic. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Washington's welfare rolls are shrinking so fast that goals for 1999 have nearly been met. More than 9,000 families - enough to fill the city of Wenatchee - have left the dole since the get-to-work program became law last April.

Karen Robins, a technical assistant with Family Care Resources, visits with child-care provider Maricela Lindsey during the opening of the HOME Project day-care assistance center last week. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Stan Sweeting in his Santa workshop in 1985. File/The Spokesman-Review

Rising housing costs and low wages are pushing more of Spokane's working poor to emergency food banks. A sampling of the 13,000 people helped monthly by the Spokane Food Bank found more are relying on free food despite working full time. Twenty percent reported holding down full-time jobs, up from 8 percent in 1991. More than a third of those surveyed said low or stagnant income drove them to the food bank.

Eunice Eickhoff enjoyed a dozen happy years as the common-law wife of a New Jersey gas station attendant. Their relationship ended formally Thursday when Eickhoff was sentenced to 20 years in prison for torturing and raping the man with a broomstick. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt banned contact between the two for life, calling the crimes acts of "deliberate and senseless cruelty."

Low state subsidies put good-quality child care out of reach for working-poor families, University of Washington researchers said. As a result, hundreds of thousands of poor kids could be left a step behind their wealthier peers, said researchers Richard Brandon and Carol Naito of the UW Graduate School of Public Affairs. They predict sweeping changes to the state-supported child care system will create a two-tiered system - innovative, safe centers for children of paying parents, and stripped-down versions that scrimp on staff and training for children of poor parents.