Kip Hill

The new rule will cost Avista Corp. thousands of new natural gas customers both in homes and commercial buildings, according to materials the utility filed with the court, and has the potential to increase home prices in the area, according to the Inland Northwest Association of General Contractors. But the state attorney general's office, supported by a coalition of environmental groups, successfully argued to Judge Stanley Bastian that the rules should not be tossed out in part because of the climate threat posed by the continued burning of fossil fuels, and because state regulators have delayed implementation of the rules following a federal court ruling out of California. 

The report, published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in June, used national hospital admissions data to determine that diagnoses of alcohol-related hepatitis increased nearly 13% between 2019 and 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths increased nearly 25%, with 11,455 people dying of the disease at hospitals in 2020, up from 8,725 in 2016. 

Jeffrey Nickelby was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash near Hayden Avenue and Greensferry Road. Nickelby was traveling east on Hayden Avenue just before 5 p.m. when a train crossing arm halted traffic, according to a news release from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.

Beau Pierre was traveling south on Pines when his motorcycle struck the SUV driven by 69-year-old Denise Peterson a little before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the Washington State Patrol. Peterson was headed east through the intersection when Pierre struck the SUV on the driver's side. 

The Honeysuckle beach and boat launch on Hayden Lake will close Friday night at 10 p.m. for a triathlon Saturday morning. 

The Spokane Park Board voted unanimously to abandon plans for a facility off Upriver Drive. The city will instead use money provided by Spokane Public Schools to improve an existing dog park in High Bridge Park, near the confluence of Latah Creek and the Spokane River. 

Randy James Holmes apologized to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms agent, who attended the sentencing with his wife and five children, before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice handed down his sentence of 249 months. 

Spokane Parks & Recreation will ask the panel Thursday to take back its May approval of the controversial site on the northeast edge of city limits. The request comes after the Minnehaha Neighborhood Council pulled its support of the project, planned to be between 7 and 9 acres in a treed area near Boulder Beach and the climbing rocks at John H. Shields Park, and further review of the site indicated its size would need to be reduced because of its proximity to the Spokane River. 

A Chevy sedan, driven by Shannon Taylor, was traveling south on the highway two miles south of Deer Park when Taylor veered across the center line to avoid slowing traffic in her lane, according to a news release from the Washington State Patrol. Taylor struck a semitruck headed north driven by Charles Kreis, 70, of Chewelah, just after 11 a.m. 

The future of the format seemed in jeopardy just a few short weeks ago, when broadcasters convened in Washington D.C. and pushed federal lawmakers to pressure carmakers who were pondering an end to AM receivers in new cars. Electric vehicles, growing in popularity and headed for a likely continued boom thanks to Washington outlawing the sale of new gas-powered cars beginning in 2035, create interference with a signal that can make AM transmissions difficult to hear, according to automakers. 

Jonah Pierce pleaded guilty in April to a single misdemeanor charge of receipt of stolen government property. He'd received a red dot optic sight for a firearm that he told U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice had been slated for destruction. Pierce, who was not in custody and appeared in a shirt and tie, asked the judge not to send him to jail for what he said was "part of the culture" at the base and in the military. He believed he could take the defective optic home and "fix it," he said. 

"There is a bomb on the plane. This is not a joke. Several pounds of homemade explosives are in my carry on bag," the note, reprinted in part in a complaint filed Thursday in support of Brandon L. Scott's arrest on a false information or hoax charge, read. 

Judge Raymond Clary, in a decision handed down June 5, found the testimony of Lancze Douglass, that his father wanted control over the estate property for his own planning, not credible because he stood to benefit by hundreds of millions of dollars by influencing his father. That gain in inheritance would be at the expense of his brother, Harley Douglass. 

Blue Mountain Fire District 1 Chief Chad Sanford said the fire was mapped Sunday morning and crews had it under control by the afternoon. Rain had also moved into the area. 

The car the woman was driving was still on the road at Spokane Falls Boulevard and Stevens Street on Sunday afternoon, less than a block from where games continued uninterrupted. 

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Spokane, alleges Whitworth was negligent in allowing a still-unidentified attacker to access health, financial and personal data of past and present students, staff and faculty. It was filed by Patrick Loyola, identified in court documents as a student at the time the attack occurred. The university initially reported the incident as a "sophisticated security issue" in August before informing the Washington attorney general's office in October that a ransomware attack had occurred. 

John A. Pring Jr., the son of an automobile and business giant in Spokane Valley who saved Playfair Race Track from demolition in the early 1980s and built his own dealership group in town, died Monday. He was 92. 

Mullet, who announced his candidacy earlier this month, faces two prominent Democrats who have won statewide elections in Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz in a bid to succeed Inslee, who announced he would not run for a fourth term next fall.

Krogman had moved to a home on Baltimore Road with her daughter, son-in-law, Landon Roper, and husband, Bruce Krogman, three years ago from the West Side, her daughter said. She quickly set to work outfitting the home with artwork and furniture, and helped landscape a garden on the property. Barn & Blossom, a garden center up the road from their home, was one of Catherine Krogman's favorite places, her family said. 

Spokane sports the moniker of "Hooptown USA" in large part due to its 3-on-3 basketball tournament, Hoopfest, which will tip for its 33rd year of existence on Saturday, and the nonprofit that has helped build and clean up blacktops around town. But if you cruise any of the streets of the Lilac City for several weeks in late spring and early summer, whether it's a lunch break or just as the streetlights are about to come on, you'll see that the people of the city have just as much to do with that name as the event itself. 

The Spokane County Auditor's Office is reminding boat owners to get their tabs renewed by the end of the month or face potential fines. Boat tabs in Washington expire every year on June 30. Owners that have expired tabs face up to $125 in fines. 

Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Eastern Washington federally indicted Felipe Tapia-Perez, who was in the country illegally and had been ordered to stay away from the mother of the child because of domestic violence concerns, in April 2021 on several criminal counts, including being an unlawful alien in possession of a firearm. 

Frederick D. Terrell, 43, was arrested after sending the videos to a woman in April 2022 from a Spokane gun range. His conviction is part of a new push to target crimes involving firearms and domestic violence in federal court in Eastern Washington. 

Smith, 25, has served on the board since his election in November 2021. He said he'll continue to advocate for students, as well as better compensation and shorter terms for board members.