Kelly McBride

From inside their cages, three Abyssinian kittens try to attract a prospective owner at the Spokane Cat Club's 22nd annual show held Saturday and Sunday at the Spokane Convention Center. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Hanson

A way in the wilderness. After giving his last sermon at First Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Pastor David Peterson, center, listens to a final prayer from the congregation. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Unpublished correction: The name of Mukogawa is misspelled in this story. Mary Medved is congratulated during a celebration of her first vows at Holy Names Convent. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

No longer will the Spokane United Way campaign look like a Jerry Lewis telethon with volunteers biting their fingernails and monitoring the money meter. There is no goal this year. No magic number. No lofty target. The Spokane United Way kicked off its annual fall fund raising efforts Wednesday morning with the traditional fanfare. But no grandiose dollar amount was touted for the public to see.

The Spokane Police Department is on the Internet. The department is one of the few law enforcement agencies in the country to create a home page on the Internet's World Wide Web. Anyone with access to the worldwide network of computers can get Spokane crime statistics and department press releases.

Editor's note: The teenagers involved are not named in this story because of a Spokesman-Review policy of protecting the identities of juveniles in such cases. Seven teenagers overdosed on a prescription drug Wednesday night and three remained hospitalized Thursday, one in critical condition. The teens, all friends, had congregated at a north Spokane home where one boy produced a bottle of prescription muscle relaxants, according to a Spokane Police Department statement.

Before the centennial service Wednesday at Holy Trinity Church, a precession of dignitaries and visiting clergy enters the 100-year-old church on West Dean. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Perko

Michael Wolf of Tulalip, Wash., checks his face as he prepares for the Grand Entry at the sixth annual Northwest Indian Encampment and Pow Wow on Saturday at Riverfront Park. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Ray of hope. Madisen Stewart, 2, listens to music during a Sunday church service at Salem Lutheran Church. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

The U.S. Supreme Court is tearing down the wall of separation between church and state, one court watcher says. Jesse H. Choper will say whether he thinks that's a good idea tonight during a free symposium at The Met in downtown Spokane. Choper, a professor of public law at the University of California-Berkeley, will lead a public symposium titled "Religion and the Social Order."

Hanson is going to the U.N. Conference on Women. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

On the bottom of the Eastlex Machine Corp. letterhead is a Bible verse from Proverbs. Every day at the factory, where machines are made for the garment industry, begins with prayer and devotion. A pamphlet on living the Christian life is shipped with every piece of equipment.

Don Hutchings - the Spokane man being held hostage by Muslim rebels in Kashmir - trekked into the middle of a little-known political conflict that has become a full-fledged religious war. Whether he survives depends on his captors' goals, experts say.

1. Spokane County Coroner Dexter Amend photographs the scene of the killings Wednesday. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. A porch light at 2939 E. Columbia was shattered by a bullet. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

The Bulla Family crowded under umbrellas and concentrated on keeping their cowboy boots underneath them on the wet stage. More than 500 people, most of them also in cowboy boots, sat in the rain, listening to the Northport family praise God with bluegrass music.

A record-setting number of Washington customers are complaining about US West service this year, despite the telephone company's promise to improve. Complaints have been on the rise for several years, according to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, the agency that regulates telephone companies.

Christians and pacifists are gathering in Spokane this weekend to call for an end to nuclear weapons and repent for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "As a Christian, there would be no other approach," said Patrick Copeland-Malone, who works for the Peace and Justice Action League and First Presbyterian Church. "Life from our tradition has great value, and that means life on all sides." To observe the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings, several religious denominations, along with the Peace and Justice Action League, are bringing in Jim Douglass, a theologian, pacifist and anti-nuclear-weapons activist.

Tom Perko leaves for Sarajevo and his new job in a week. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane has agreed to settle a lawsuit against one of its former priests and his followers. The diocese will make a cash payment to the Rev. Robert Creech and his congregation of about 200 people. In exchange, Creech and his congregation will drop any claim to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and its assets.

As supervisor Buck Rogers watches, Charlie, 16, a resident of Morning Star Boys Ranch, saddles a horse for a ride during a camping trip to Farragut State Park in Idaho this week. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Low-income residents in Hillyard are dining on quiche from The Onion restaurant courtesy of the Spokane Food Bank. "They love it," said David Tucker, director of The Meeting Place, which serves two free dinners a week for North Side families. "They come back for seconds, thirds, fourths." The Spokane Food Share program, which has been in the pilot stages for two months, encourages restaurants to donate their leftovers to charity.

1. Pauline and Art Flett perform during the opening of the Wellpinit Gospel Songfest. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review 2. Art Flett carries a Bible to the stage Friday for the "Enthronement of the Bible" ceremony. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review