Kip Hill

A 24-year-old Spokane man was booked into Kootenai County Jail on impaired driving charges after a two-car crash late Friday that shut down Interstate 90 near Cataldo for several hours. 

The Broadway Diner, through its many iterations, has been serving up hot food and coffee, 24 hours a day, since the early days of Interstate 90 bisecting Spokane and creating a throughway for freight and hungry drivers. Don Alsaker, along with partner Charles Williams, bought the truck stop in 1963 and opened the restaurant that year. 

James T. Henrikson, 44, is serving two life sentences at a high-security federal prison in California after his 2016 conviction on 11 charges tied to the deaths of Doug Carlile and Kristopher "K.C." Clarke. In April, Henrikson filed his own petition asking that his sentencing be revisited because four of the charges were solicitation to commit murder for hire, and that another federal murder-for-hire case decided in December determined that in order to be guilty of that crime the target had to be killed. 

A line formed east along Indiana Avenue on Wednesday morning, families forming up as misters provided some relief from heat that was already settling in. Swoop, the mascot for Eastern Washington University, and mascots Shield Boy and Kettle Man from the Salvation Army offered high-fives and fistbumps to waiting youngsters. 

George Alex, whose mother, Mary Gianetsas, famously refused an offer from Sister Peter Claver to sell her home to the hospital in the late 1960s, confirmed on Tuesday interest from Diamond Parking in acquiring the land.

Paul Hamilton sold insurance out of his office on the main drag of Hillyard, but it wasn't the main commodity he offered.

Developer Larry Stone’s newest “film to help Spokane,” released earlier this week, opens to melancholic piano music and a junkyard filled with broken cars, followed by two sedans pressed by a hydraulic crusher .

Many won't hit it Tuesday night when Mega Millions draws another winning ticket for its potential record-breaking jackpot, estimated at $1.5 billion. The numbers on the light-up display above Sonnenberg's counter only show the potential winnings in millions, which means that "999" isn't entirely accurate. 

Evacuation orders were lifted Sunday morning for a fire that started Friday in Post Falls after overnight rain helped firefighters battling the blaze.

White, who's served as executive director on the nonprofit since 2014, is stepping out of a role that has made him among the clear voices for preserving the waterway for nearly a decade. Along the stretch of river from Redband Park, named for the native trout that White angled for and now swims with, to the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility, White sees both the past and present of the river and developments that also have him anxious about its future.

The congresswoman said she was concerned about "the appearance of, I would call it, the politicizing of the federal agencies," including the Justice Department and FBI that investigated and prepared the indictment for review by a grand jury, resulting in Tuesday's 45-page indictment that is the second set of federal charges the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination now faces. But after an hourlong town hall in which McMorris Rodgers took questions about energy policy, data privacy, immigration and health care, she stopped short of saying that appearance of politicization actually demonstrated bias by the Biden administration.

Spokane’s choice for mayor in November will be between two high-profile and well-funded women.

Voters will have the choice between a sitting City Council member and a former private business owner to lead Spokane's legislative body for the next four years. 

County commissioners agreed earlier this month to put a $50 million bond measure before voters Nov. 7. Proceeds from the tax, which would cost property owners an estimated $8 per $100,000 of assessed value or the median home owner in the county about $29 annually, would be set aside to fund the purchase of undeveloped land, with particular attention paid to the Rathdrum Prairie. That area of farmland separating the cities of Rathdrum, Post Falls, Hayden and Coeur d'Alene has been the site of rampant growth in recent years, including the approval in March of a 2,800-home development project that will link Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene. 

The city has been designating a half million dollars of its payments from the state's dedicated cannabis account for use by the Spokane Police Department. The measure from Spokane City Council members Karen Stratton and Betsy Wilkerson, who are sponsoring the law, would retain that $500,000 for police in future budgets, but additional money would be funneled into its own separate account for education and treatment programs.

The fire was reported in the 3900 block of North Nevada Street just after 1 p.m., according to a news release from the Spokane Fire Department. Firefighters found a blaze in a room inside the home, which was extinguished "within a few minutes," according to the department. 

A two-member crew from Bovard Studio in Iowa has been working the past several weeks to remove protective plastic sheets that have hung outside the windows for more than 30 years. Heath Nevins and Nick De Ruiter have then been cleaning and restoring the windows, designed by the famed Mayer family of Munich, Germany, and the first of which were placed in the church in 1911. They're using a process known as "releading," referring to the lead material that holds the stained glass pieces in place.  

The transit authority is following its protocol in dealing with the infestation, said Carly Cortright, chief communications and customer service officer for STA. The two buses were sealed and treated chemically, and will be subjected to high heat in STA's paint booth in the coming days to ensure the insects are killed. STA also closed the bathroom at the Hastings Park-and-Ride, north of the Division Y, and sealed it for treatment on Friday. 

The red-dye diesel tank that is believed to be the source of the spill can only hold 2,000 gallons of fuel, Calcaterra said, and the station's capacity for all types of fuel is 18,000 gallons, though they typically don't carry that much because of the fluctuating cost of gas, he said. The station is investigating whether a series of what Calcaterra called "mild overfills" of the diesel tank may have led to spillage into an underground after a report delivered Wednesday found no leaks in the tank.

Local firefighters initially reported the contamination on July 19, Keltner said. Contractors worked through the weekend to clean out a culvert and excavate contaminated soil across the highway, to the east of the Chevron station. That work will continue until the area is determined free of contamination. 

The fire is burning in heavy timber southeast of Beauty Bay, on Beauty Creek Road, according to a news release from the United States Forest Service. There is no containment on the fire, but crews have established a handline around 75% of the blaze, according to the news release.

Carol Dacaymat Casilla pleaded not guilty to the charges in a federal court appearance Thursday. A 19-page federal indictment handed down Wednesday alleges Casilla, who quickly rose through the financial ranks and served as finance director at the Spokane Dermatology Clinic near downtown, funneled money from the clinic, an affiliated research center and the corporate landlord that owned the building into her own personal accounts between May 2020 and March 2023. 

Residents and business owners are being asked to water their lawns and landscaping on alternating days, and to only water before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. Even-numbered addresses are being asked to water on even dates, while odd-numbered addresses are asked to water on odd-numbered dates. 

The division between city lawmakers means that a fix is unlikely to be quickly made, setting up several weeks where the city's trespassing law for parks would appear to be in conflict with the city charter. The council plans to take up a bill reversing its action on hours, but won't be able to vote until at least mid-August due to its summer schedule, several weeks after the current law signed by Mayor Nadine Woodward takes effect on July 30.