Kevin Blocker

Storyteller and singer V. Ted Hutchinson will perform at Glover Middle School on Tuesday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Hutchinson will speak from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. at the school at 2404 W. Longfellow. The program is free and open to the public. Using folk tales and songs, Hutchinson leads his audience on a journey through African-American history from slave ships through the Civil Rights Era.

A man who threatened to commit suicide at an Indian Trail neighborhood home brought out members of the S.W.A.T. team Friday afternoon for nearly three hours. The man called the police department and threatened to kill himself, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. "The fact that he was armed and threatening created a situation where the S.W.A.T. team had to seal off the area so that no one else would get hurt," Cottam said.

Nine Mile Falls School District voters will be asked to approve a two-year $2.3 million maintenance and operating levy on Feb. 3. If approved, the levy would cost district property owners $3.64 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, said district superintendent Don Baumberger. The current levy, which will expire this year, costs property owners $3.55 per $1,000 assessed valuation, he said.

Police department drug investigators confiscated $35,000 worth of crack cocaine, $6,000 in cash and arrested three suspects on Dec. 30. Officers from the Special Investigations Unit and federal Drug Enforcement Agents used a search warrant at 2215 W. Boone and arrested Jesse L. Barker, who gave his address as 4666 W. Broadway, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. In a separate incident later that day, officers observed suspects entering and leaving 902 W. Maxwell, another apartment involved with drugs, Cottam said.

1. Merry Glen Home & School resident Michael Gibby reaches out to hug director Alma Cory after a brief time away. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Sheila Carroll, far left, and Georgia Jeremas, third from left, help Merry Glen residents Judy Folsom and Patti Seccor make cookies. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Mark Merritt plays "Silent Night" on a flute under a mounted fish in the Merry Glen recreation room. Merritt had caught the fish on a trip with his father. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Riverside School District voters will be asked to approve a $2.6 million modernization and technology bond measure on Feb. 3, in addition to a $4 million levy over four years. The 10-year bond will cost district property owners $2.78 per $1,000 of assessed valuation if approved. That amounts to $278 for a $100,000 house. That figure is the district's current assessment rate for bond measures, said Assistant Superintendent Terry Weinmann.

A district planning committee has recommended that the Mead School Board ask district voters to approve a $25 million bond issue in March. The bond would accompany a measure for the district's regular two-year replacement operating levy.

A 20-year-old Spokane man was down and apparently didn't want to get up. Nick E. Crammer was arrested by police for punching two Spokane firefighters in the face after they tried helping him. The firefighters responded to an emergency call of a fallen man at 1014 E. Dalton at 9 p.m. Christmas Eve , police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

Leslie Speck doesn't think about what she lost. She's grateful to have what's left. Her worldly possessions went up in flames early on the morning of Dec. 21. But with the help of her roommate, all of her children are still alive. The friend, whom Speck would only identify as "Dale," grabbed 6-year-old Angelique and 14-month-old Kaer from the burning house before firefighters arrived.

Though it's the time for sharing, Spokane police are encouraging holiday shoppers to frustrate thieves and burglars by being stingy during the holiday season. Crime Prevention Specialist Sandy Richards said half of all home burglaries are achieved through unlocked windows and doors. "This season is as busy for burglars and thieves as it is for shoppers," Richards said. "They know people have credit cards and cash with them, and purse snatchings and wallet thefts are easy when a shopper is burdened with packages."

More than 100 Rogers High School students shared a little goodwill with senior citizens and other Hillyard neighbors last week when they baked and distributed cookies. About 130 students enrolled in home economics and community service classes delivered the cookies to various nursing homes on the North Side and residents near the high school. "It was a great project, there was a lot of hands-on by the kids," said Rogers teacher Nancy Carlson.

1. Julio Gayton, left, wraps gifts for Charles Perry, who bumped into his friend, Theresa Lamarr, during a shopping trip to Franklin Park Mall. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review 2. Don Warden makes a glass sculpture in his Frank Park Mall Kiosk while shoppers Valentina Zhukov, center, and Luba Filenko watch. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

More men shop at Franklin Park mall than women. It sounds about as believable as saying more women hang out in singles bars than men, but it's true. Angela Via, Franklin Park Mall's marketing director, said a mall survey showed that male shoppers outnumber women by 55 to 45 percent.

Mead firefighter Chris Hoagland helps Michelle Johnson, 4, center, and her sister, Christina, 5, down after their visit with the Station 92 Santa. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

Voters in the Mead School District may be asked to approve a $15.9 million maintenance and operation levy for regular school business on March 10. Under the levy's proposal, $7.77 million would be collected in 1999 and $8.16 million collected in 2000. It will replace the current levy that expires in 1998. The school board was scheduled to vote on a final figure and date for the levy at its scheduled meeting late Wednesday after press time.

The Spokane parks department has helped NorthTown Mall free up 300 parking spaces for holiday shoppers by allowing mall workers to park in lots at Franklin Park. The city approved the agreement to help ease the problem of mall employees parking their cars and creating more congestion in neighborhoods near NorthTown. But Howard DuHaime, who lives across the street from the Franklin Park, said what the city has done is transfer traffic from one neighborhood to another.

Tire prints in fresh snow led Spokane police to a small methamphetamine lab on the North Side on Monday morning. Police were called to a residence on East Queen just before 5 a.m. A couple told officers that one of them had started her van in the driveway before going back into the house, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. The woman said someone jumped in the van and drove away. Her husband followed the tire tracks to an alley behind the 4800 block of North Martin, he said.

The Washington State Auditor's office has observed what it called "weaknesses" in financial reporting within the Riverside School District. The auditor's office has cited "some weaknesses in the district's internal control structure." "None of these are findings of things that are illegal," said district superintendent Jerry Wilson said.

Voters in the Deer Park School District will be asked to consider a $1.042 million bond measure for school improvements on Feb. 3. The two-year maintenance and operations levy request was authorized last week by the school board. The measure would cost property owners in the district about $3.56 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 1999 and about $3.46 per $1,000 in 2000.

A Spokane man led officers from three counties on a wild chase late Friday that ended with his arrest north of Newport, Wash., authorities said. Thomas W. Brown, 33, is facing charges for eluding police, driving under the influence and possession of drugs with intent to deliver. The chase started at 11 p.m. in Rathdrum, Idaho, when an officer tried unsuccessfully to make a traffic stop.

All he wanted to do was calm her down. It was Thanksgiving Day. Paul and Gail McCarthy, and their two sons, had just made a hasty exit from her stepparents' home in Elk. Gail had been yelling and swearing at her sisters. "I was talking to her in a soft voice," Paul McCarthy said Saturday. "But she wouldn't listen ... or look at me. She's saying that she hates them all (her family)."

'There's some cooking going on back here'. Donna Glover, left, and Carolyn Duke break a turkey wishbone while Ella Dye works on the cranberry sauce during final preparations for a noon meal at the Full Gospel Mission. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane woman died Thursday after falling from a Chevy Blazer traveling about 60 miles per hour. Her husband was driving and their two sons were on board. Gail Marie McCarthy, 47, was pronounced dead at the scene at the 7800 block of East Elk/Chattaroy Road. She died of severe head injuries, Spokane Sheriff spokesman Dave Reagan said. "She leaped from the vehicle, which was going between 55 and 60 miles-per-hour, but at this point were not calling it a suicide," Reagan said.

Arlington Elementary students shop for Thanksgiving dinner at Excell Foods with the help of teacher Jane Schelly. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review