Jonathan Martin

Spokane held the West's promise of opportunity when the happy New Jersey couple bought their cross-country Greyhound tickets. Their best friend, Theresa Spickler-Bowe, had an apartment in Spokane, and both were optimistic about finding jobs. But four months after moving here last fall, happiness had turned to misery.

Parents of college students have said it for years. Now it's official Washington state policy for welfare recipients: If you want to land a job, don't get a liberal arts degree. Those fascinating courses in anthropology and English literature - not to mention Peruvian folk dancing and haiku writing - don't count toward work training, according to new rules for welfare recipients.

Four months of torture sapped 60 pounds and the will to escape from a Spokane man, prosecutors say. The reason the 170-pound victim didn't run: battered man syndrome. "They are just the same as a battered woman but with different gender," said Spokane County domestic violence prosecutor Jonathan Love.

Theresa Spickler-Bowe is handcuffed after court adjourned on Thursday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Francis and Joyce Hunt stand in their shade-screened ginseng nursery in Green Bluff. The Hunts are the only known ginseng growers in Eastern Washington. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

The marriage of Shari Kirihara and Linwood Elementary is a cautious union. Parents at the Country Homes neighborhood school know much about their new principal. They read the headlines last year about civil war between parents, administrators and Kirihara at her previous school, Madison Elementary. At the eye of the Madison feud was a group of highly involved parents, who became angry when they felt Kirihara brushed off their concerns.

The new Nine Mile Falls middle school won't open for 16 months, but teachers and staff have finished a wish list for the building. Among the requested gizmos is a school-wide Internet wiring system, adjustable walls and big commons areas. Students will be segregated by grade in separate wings. "It's almost like Christmas, we are making these great lists," said Kevin Simpson, sixth-grade teacher at Lake Spokane Elementary.

Nurse-midwife Catherine Miller tells Erin Hazelwood, 18, with her daughter, Kira, how proud she is of her during an unannounced visit by the young mother to the women's clinic at the West Central Community Center. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

1. With an eye on the door and his first summer vacation, Brian McDonnell gives Rosemary Procunier a last goodbye hug. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 2. "You get to sit with me," says St. Patrick's kindergarten teacher Rosemary Procunier to Matthew Huynh and Nicholas Heitt. The two were nabbed for talking out of turn. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 3. Michael Mohr and Shantel McBride dance to "Swing Your Partner." Procunier uses music often and says "The children just don't get enough of it." Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 4. Procunier uses sight words to help kindergartners learn the building blocks of reading. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

1. Ted Hartenstein lives in former Fire Station 12. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. Blade sings a protest song as Ted Hartenstein takes a ladder from the bedroom to the roof of his home. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 3. Ted Hartenstein plans to replace the brass pole with a more economical steel pole. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 4. Fire Station 12 looks similar today to what it looks like in this 1930 photo. Photo courtesy of Cheney Cowles Museum.

Amanda Welch poses for a portrait. She remains in critical condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Family photo courtesy of Carl Maxey

1. Sarah Hoffman in her senior picture. Anastasia's Portrait Design 2. Sarah Hoffman took this tinted black-and-white photograph of her friends at Fairmount Memorial Park. Sarah Hoffman photo 3. Jake Porter, 4, poses for his big sister. Sarah Hoffman photo 4. Jennifer Bowman holds a sheet of ice in front of her face for a portrait Hoffman made during her freshman year. Sarah Hoffman photo

Angela Short arrived at her child's Cheney day care and was greeted by a startling sight: 8-year-old Amanda holding an ice pack to her cheek. The wounds beneath the ice pack - a bruised cheek, neck and back - were allegedly caused by the day care owner, Brenda Goodwin.

Jesse Ross works on the transmission of his pickup in his high school shop class. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Rogers High School staffers didn't have far to go to find a bathroom Friday. Or at least the smell of one. Toilets overflowed into the school's business office and counseling center, soaking the carpets with a musty stench that forced employees to open the windows and hold their noses. The deluge was the result of a spring squall Thursday afternoon. The school's antiquated drainage funneled the rain into sewer drains, which couldn't handle the load.

A 16-year-old boy was beaten and robbed by two men Sunday at a bus stop at the corner of Wellesley and Crestline. The boy, whose name was not released by police, was treated and release by paramedics. He had face and head wounds from the beating. He told police two men, in their late teens or early 20's, approached him as he waited for a bus. The men accused him of "mean mugging," and began beating him with their fists and a piece of metal, he reported.

Louise Harvey supervises while Woodridge sixth-graders, Tyler Hepper and Carl Washington Jr., move a chair so they can vacuum under it. The boys are part of the school's volunteer program. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

A Fairchild Air Force Base jury sentenced Master Sgt. Napolean Bailey to 30 years in prison Sunday for sexual assaults against three women. The 39-year-old security officer was stripped of pay and benefits, dropped to the lowest enlisted rank and given a dishonorable discharge by the eight-member military jury, which deliberated the sentencing for seven hours over two days. Bailey can appeal the verdict to a higher military court.

For 8,000 impoverished Spokane households, the clock starts ticking soon. Because of sweeping welfare reform in Washington, Spokane's poor must pull themselves out of poverty and into lifelong self-reliance within five years. State officials are busy designing programs to help welfare families find and keep jobs. But if work can't be found, public assistance ends anyway.

The fire response time to the Five Mile Prairie is so long that city fire officials have begun protesting new development on the bluff. It would take city fire engines or ambulances almost 10 minutes to reach the city limits, a response time that could leave a home engulfed or a heart attack victim beyond rescue. The Spokane City Fire Department knows its response is slow and has objected to a Five Mile Prairie development because it is outside the sphere of fire coverage required by the Growth Management Act.

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Friday, May 23, 1997): Correction Name misspelled: Sandra Fink's name was misspelled in the headline of a May 22 North Voice story about her retirement from North Central High School.

Five Mile Prairie kids used to play jacks in the hall of their neighborhood school and slide down the oak banister to the lunchroom. In its day, the 60-student, two-room school typified the country charm of the North Spokane bluff. Closed since 1969, the school now lies dormant. The Mead School board last winter began a lengthy process of selling the 1939 building. There are no takers yet, but the Five Mile Homemakers Club would like to lease it and turn it into a community police station and community center.

A North Side woman was zapped with a stun gun last week after she stopped to help a car whose driver appeared to be struggling. She stopped at the corner of Maple and Dalke when a man driving a battered green 1973 Lincoln Continental behind her flashed his headlights and honked his horn, according to police. A passenger in the Lincoln jumped out and jolted her left arm several times with a stun gun. Witnesses at the scene verified her story, police said.

Bill Bullough, on the tractor, and Lon Dunbar prepare the ground for the community gardens at the intersection of Crestline and Garland. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review