Karen Dorn Steele

Jonathan Lytle, accused in one of the most shocking incidents of child abuse in Spokane history, may not be mentally fit to stand trial. He and his wife, Adriana Lytle, are scheduled to be tried separately this fall on homicide by abuse charges in the death of Summer Phelps, the 4-year-old with flaming red hair and a brilliant smile who died at Deaconess Medical Center on March 10, 2007.

The widow of Spokane Gypsy leader Jimmy Marks is accusing a Spokane dentist of giving her husband a too-strong dose of anesthetic that led to his death. Jane Marks' lawsuit against dentist Mark C. Paxton, his business and his spouse was filed this week in Spokane County Superior Court. It seeks an unspecified sum, including a judgment to be proven at trial, costs and attorney fees.

After two years and four months of silence, a slumped and weeping Clifford Helm finally spoke Wednesday about the accident he caused, killing five Mennonite children on Highway 395 north of Spokane. Helm, 58, took the stand and described his 37-year marriage to his wife, Sandy, how he'd built successful businesses that he sold in middle age so he could slow down, and how he was enjoying having more time with his six grown children and seven grandchildren.

When 19-year-old Bryan Kim goes to prison for life for murdering his parents, he'll join 2,300 other seriously mentally ill inmates in the Washington state prison system – and about 300,000 nationwide. Most are there for three reasons: a national policy of "deinstitutionalization" since the 1960s that has shut down 90 percent of the psychiatric beds in the nation while failing to create quality community care; a get-tough crime policy that makes it harder for defendants to claim mental illness during their trials; and state budget cuts that have made prisons and jails de facto mental hospitals.