Jonathan Martin

Riverside School District teachers and many other workers were without contracts when school started last week, and negotiations to end the stalemate with one of the two unions are going poorly. Working without a contract is familiar for the teachers' union. The three-year contracts are usually renewed after school starts.

Seeking classes with relevance: Romeo and Juliet taught as an office romance, computer classes showing the how-tos of resume building. Rogers High School is spending lots of time and money creating instruction that prepares students not for a multiple-choice test but for life's tests.

Attempts by Wal-Mart representatives to sell angry neighbors on their proposed store went from bad to worse Tuesday night with three words: twenty four hours. The 129,000 square-foot store will be open around the clock, creating a constant blue-light beacon for discount shoppers.

Wild Little Spokane River land proposed for a 103-home subdivision may remain undeveloped indefinitely. The Spokane County Building and Planning Department recommended denial of Don Haynes' plan to develop his 100 acres of riverfront land.

It was as if Craig Peterson had hit the pause button on the Deer Park School Board. The board, joking like neighbors a few minutes earlier, sat silent and still as Peterson talked about a Deer Park High School student who found "faggot" spray painted inside his locker last spring. Administrators investigated, but the culprits were not found, and no student was disciplined.

More than 300 angry north Spokane residents filled a high school auditorium Tuesday night to blast a planned Wal-Mart complex. The crowd was so large the development company representing Wal-Mart had to move the question-and-answer session from a library meeting room to the Mead High School auditorium. Colorado-based CLC Associates promised residents they would minimize impacts on neighborhoods surrounding the proposed 40-acre development north of the Division Street Y.

A huge Wal-Mart complex proposed north of the Division Street Y would draw as many shoppers as NorthTown Mall, locking parts of north Spokane in bumper-to-bumper traffic, traffic engineers predict. They expect more than 2,400 cars a day to use the shopping center, projected to be twice as big as the Spokane Arena. Those estimates are based on a preliminary review of the developer's traffic surveys.

Drive through the Emerson-Garfield neighborhood and you'll see handsome older homes ringing Corbin Park, rows of businesses squeezing Monroe Street with economic muscle, blocks of neat wood-framed ramblers. But behind the Norman Rockwell facade is a well of poverty that appears to be deepening each year, according to an Eastern Washington University study of the neighborhood.

State and county wetlands police say Don Haynes is potentially damaging the Little Spokane River by filling flood plains on his property.

Police arrested a transient last week for allegedly groping two 10-year-old girls near Witter Pool. Police said a 42-year-old transient was sitting with two other men in what police call "a temporary hobo encampment" along Freya Avenue near the Spokane River when the girls walked by.

A preservation group has helped derail plans for dense building in the lush Little Spokane River valley. The county hearing examiner denied developer Jim Markley's request to change zoning on a wooded hillside from 3.5 units per acre to the densest commercial category in the county code.

Gene and Theresa McKay show off some of their vintage cars lined up outside their North Side home. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Bill Jones, right, picks up his daughter, Rachel, 2, from a home daycare run by Shannon Selland, left, at 425 E. St. Thomas More. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. Shannon Selland and Conner Keller, top right, say goodby to a client at Selland's day care on St. Thomas More. Seated is Ryan Selland. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane fire investigators are searching for juveniles suspected of starting a series of brush fires last month near Rifle Club Road. Only the Centennial Trail stopped a fire from threatening homes, investigators say, recalling memories of the destructive Riverside State Park fire of two years ago.

Keith Proctor Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

They were promised a thorough review by "a team of independent and objective individuals." They got a couple of meetings over coffee. Spokane School District 81 has closed the book on a four-year feud at Madison Elementary without a promised outside investigation. "What they are saying is they have investigated themselves and cleared themselves," said Nancy McLaughlin, one of more than 35 parents who complained to the Spokane School Board about Madison Principal Shari Kirihara's conduct.

The Spokane School District endorsed Madison Elementary Principal Shari Kirihara Friday in a formal review of her performance. The three-week review by district administrators investigated complaints of misconduct filed by a large group of disgruntled Madison parents. The review found "no students were mistreated and no professional misconduct was involved," school administrators said in a written statement. The school district would not provide a copy of the review.

Young and adventurous, they just wanted to see the world. Unfortunately, they got only as far as north Spokane. For the second time in two weeks, a yearling moose wandered through the North Side, casually approaching a convenience store, causing confusion and excitement in civilization.

Thousands of tires are stored in trucks at 4230 E. Central

Wholesale changes in the administration of several North Side schools are putting new faces on several campuses next fall. Kathy Williams was transferred last month from her assistant principal post at Sacajawea Middle School to the top job at Ridgeview Elementary. A 1981 Washington State University graduate, Williams has a background in science. She has served on several school district committees and has been an administrator since 1990.

Elementary school kids in Mead next year will get extra instruction in how to blow a horn, bow a cello and kick a soccer ball. But the Mead School District is continuing a long-standing exclusion of art specialists, raising the hackles of parents who think their children are getting an incomplete education. The decision raises the thorny issue of budgeting priorities. Why, some parents ask, is the school district spending $747,000 for high-tech wiring and not spending a penny on specialized art instruction?

For some Spokane residents, fraud is as much a part of summer as honeydew melon and softball. "It must be the warmer weather, because summer brings this out," said police spokesman Dick Cottam. A pair of North Side women were conned last week by door-to-door salesmen. Both offered bogus services, took payment and disappeared.

Efforts to resolve a 4-year-old feud at Madison Elementary broke down Friday as disgruntled parents walked away from negotiations. A group of about 40 parents demanding the ouster of principal Shari Kirihara says the Spokane School District closed the door on resolution when it decided against transferring the 50-year-old education veteran.

The Spokane School Board praised a neighborhood committee's plan to remodel Lewis and Clark High, but stopped short Wednesday of endorsing a recommended $40.8 million overhaul of the stately landmark. In a 40-page report, the committee said the district should modernize the school, buy three adjacent city blocks for athletic fields and build an underground parking garage.