Jonathan Martin

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.

Just weeks after the Mead School District resolved attendance boundaries for Mount Spokane High School, administrators are turning their attention to crowding problems at the district's three northernmost elementary schools - Colbert, Midway and Meadow Ridge. In the past five years, an influx of students from new housing developments has jammed the schools. Some class sizes have increased and music lessons are being held on auditorium stages. Colbert and Midway, each with portables, are near their 700-student capacity. Opened just three years ago, Meadow Ridge is already at capacity.

1. Brown 2. Sheller

Tom Powers, right, helps John Emerson, left, and Tom DeLeo edit a portion of video at the school. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County sheriff's deputies say they will continue heightened patrols on Bigelow Gulch Road, one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in the area. During a three-month project starting in January, 10 officers prowled the windy commuter thoroughfare that connects the North Side with the Spokane Valley in hopes of slowing speeders. Sixty-seven cars were cited by deputies and Washington State Patrol officers, including one going 81 mph on the 45 mph road. Corporal Jim Speaks said officers would continue extra patrols through June because Bigelow Gulch remained one of the most treacherous drives in the county.

Ben Saling reads to his oldest son, Spencer, 4, before saying goodnight. Saling, a radiologist, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

The Spokane Lilac Festival has cracked down on a high school princess who was arrested for drunken driving, revoking her scholarship and ending her hopes of becoming Lilac Queen. Sharma Shields, 17, will continue to be the Ferris High School princess and can participate in Saturday's coronation. But the Lilac association, after meeting with Shields, her parents and Ferris Principal Jonathan Bentz, ruled Tuesday she could not become queen.

Spokane County sheriff's deputies say they will continue heightened patrols on Bigelow Gulch Road, one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in the area. During a three-month project starting in January, 10 officers prowled the windy commuter thoroughfare that connects the North Side with the Spokane Valley in hopes of slowing speeders. Sixty-seven cars were cited by deputies and Washington State Patrol officers, including one going 81 mph on the 45 mph road.

Gonzaga University student Amy Rice, right, pays close attention while Shadle Park student, Jessica Morbeck, works through a comprehension skills book. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

The neighborhood once known as "Felony Flats" is being honored as a model of community revitalization. A group from the West Central neighborhood will travel to Melbourne, Australia, this summer to tell an international audience how a community can fight crime and poverty while helping stabilize shaky families.

The Mead School Board is close to hiring new principals for both of the district's high schools. Three Washington educators have been named finalists for the top administrative jobs at Mead High and the new Mount Spokane High. The school board is expected to make its selections by the end of April. Mike Dunn, principal of Shadle Park High School, is the only currently local educator among the finalists. Nancy Bush-Lange of Vancouver's Evergreen High School and Donald "Mick" Miller of Kelso High School also were picked from 62 applicants.

Rachael Westergren is a star target shooter. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Things aren't looking too good this spring for Phil Barto. His antagonists - water and the weather - are worshipped like gods in some cultures, and his friends are complainers. Barto's business is potholes, and business is brisk. "We're getting between 30 and 50 calls a day" from people complaining about potholes, said Barto, county road engineer. The city is getting a similar number.

1. Kandie Cox shows off a newly found treasure she discovered at Out Place in the West Central Neighborhood. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. David Barr and Bud Ingham load up on a box of food for a family of five at "Our Place" in the West Central area. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Health officials cleared the air in the Shadle Park High School gym Monday, finding it unlikely the school's ventilation system had caused a teacher's illness. Mike LaScuola, a Spokane County Health District chemical hazards specialist, said the ventilation system had no "slime pits" or other areas that could be bacterial breeding grounds for Legionnaires' disease.

Arcadia elementary school principal Bonnie Bantas fulfills her promise of riding a cow while dressed in a chicken suit after the students read more than 2000 books. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review