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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Kip Hill

Kip Hill

Current Position: reporter

Kip Hill joined The Spokesman-Review in 2013. He currently is a reporter for the City Desk, covering the marijuana industry, local politics and breaking news. He previously hosted the newspaper's podcast.

Email
kiph@spokesman.com
Phone
(509) 459-5429

All Stories

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Doctor based in Coeur d’Alene and Washington indicted for allegedly billing Medicare for bogus tests and equipment

UPDATED: Thu., June 8, 2023

David A. Becerril, 67, was indicted Wednesday on 16 federal criminal counts, including health care and wire fraud as well as making false statements related to health care matters. Becerril is also accused of conspiring with a Florida-based company, Real Time Physicians, to target older patients in the scheme, which involved ordering unnecessary genetic tests and orthotic braces that Becerril and other doctors never saw, then billing the federal government for the bogus medical work. 
News >  Spokane

Hoopfest in search of court monitor volunteers as team registrations surge in 2023

Hoopfest will need between 50 and 75 more volunteers to monitor the courts for the world's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which will take over the streets of downtown once again on June 24 and 25. That's because the tournament has seen an increase in team registration by about 800 this year, to a total of a little more than 4,200 total teams. It's still below levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the event in 2020 and 2021.
News >  Education

WSU proposes ‘tough decision’ to transfer $1.4M into athletics this year amid $11.5M deficit

UPDATED: Fri., June 2, 2023

Athletics Director Pat Chun, speaking to reporters Friday morning, called 2023's budget shortfall "an aberration" and said his office would be working to tighten controls on spending. He also said revenue from a new TV deal and the college football playoff expansion would lead to a better financial situation after the close of the fiscal year later this month.
News >  Crime/Public Safety

Spokane County drops appeal of jury verdict in case of fired deputy; will pay $20 million to Jeffrey Thurman

UPDATED: Thu., June 1, 2023

As part of an agreement filed in Spokane County Superior Court last month, Jeffrey Thurman and his wife received a full $20 million to cover the jury award and interest in the case. Spokane County has agreed to drop its appeal of the verdict, and the actual amount the county will have to pay will be around $2 million after insurance payments, said Steve Bartel, the county's risk manager. 
News >  Crime/Public Safety

Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office won’t retry Black man whose convictions prompted charge of racism by appellate judge

Deputy Prosecutor Preston McCollam filed paperwork with the Washington Court of Appeals on Friday requesting the existing resisting arrest charges be dropped against Darnai Vaile. The majority opinion issued May 11 by a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals found that the judge and prosecutors had denied Vaile's right to defend himself by not playing for the jury audio of his arrest outside a Spokane Valley bar in August 2019. 
News >  Pacific NW

Spokane Riverkeeper, Rockford grain elevator operator agree to plan to clean up Latah Creek

The plan was signed by U.S. District Court Judge Mary Dimke in March, and directs CHS Inc. to come up with a plan to reduce emissions of zinc and copper from the site, which runs up against a Union Pacific rail spur and Rock Creek in southern Spokane County. The improvements must also improve the turbidity, or measurement of solids clouding the water, of the runoff that feeds into the creek. The company will also have to pay $151,000 to the Coeur d'Alene Tribe to assist with their work in restoring fish habitat within the water shed.
News >  Crime/Public Safety

Black man’s resisting arrest conviction overturned by Court of Appeals; judge says case is indicative of racism in Spokane County

UPDATED: Thu., May 18, 2023

The unpublished, 80-page opinion handed down by a three-judge panel of the Division III Court of Appeals vacates the conviction of Darnai L. Vaile, now 26. In statements Thursday, both the current and former sheriffs of Spokane County called the charges of racial bigotry inappropriate, inaccurate and disrespectful to law enforcement and women who are victims of assault.
A&E >  Entertainment

Cyan looks to the future, and its past, with ‘Firmament,’ new puzzle video game releasing Thursday

UPDATED: Thu., May 18, 2023

"If anything, this is us harkening back to Cyan's roots," Cyan's Creative Direct Eric A. Anderson said, before showing off the first couple of hours of gameplay for the game that launches Thursday and is Cyan's first new intellectual property since 2016's "Obduction." "We don't look at it, really, as we're trying to be like 'Bioshock.' We're trying to be like Cyan."
News >  Washington

Spokane once again pitching a new dog park in Upriver area amid concerns about parking, safety

Spokane Parks & Recreation, along with Spokane Public Schools, is on a timeline to deliver a new place for pups to play after they signed an agreement last spring pledging to build one in time for the opening of a new middle school. The process hasn't been easy, as neighbors of planned parks south of Interstate 90 have lobbied against plans that would have built facilities in or near Underhill Park in the East Central neighborhood and Lincoln Park in Lincoln Heights. 
News >  Business

‘Where the real hockey fans hang out’: The Hub attracts Kraken faithful as Lord Stanley’s, Zeeks tap into enthusiasm for team

Ask anyone seated at the Hub's row of barstools where to watch hockey in Spokane, and they'll promptly tell you it's exactly where they're parked right now as the Kraken prepared for their Stanley Cup Playoff tilt with Dallas on Thursday night. It's because the people inside make it feel like a place you're welcomed, no matter which club is yours. The kind of place Norm Peterson would come to, if he was a Bruins season ticket holder. 
A&E >  Art

‘Worth the wait’: Public art piece ‘Stepwell,’ last of major Riverfront Park redevelopment bond projects, to open Saturday

The wait will come to an end Saturday, as Spokane Arts and Riverfront Park open "Stepwell" to the public at a gathering beginning at 11 a.m. The public art piece, selected from four original sketches the artist submitted in late 2017, was designed and built using roughly a half million dollars of the original $64 million in taxpayer bonds approved for the park's redevelopment. City law requires publicly funded construction projects to set aside 1% of the total cost for public art.