Temperatures are expected to rise into the 90s today through Saturday with some locations in the Spokane urban area expected to see highs of around 98 by Saturday.
Shadle Park’s new swimming pool – with its multiple slides, diving board and beach-like entry – is attracting capacity crowds with long lines and sometimes long waits to get inside. “It’s so crowded you only get to stand there. You don’t get to swim,” said Hannah Hornbaker, 11, who lives in the Seven Mile area. “I got kicked in the face.”
Animal welfare agencies are reminding pet owners that dehydration, heat stroke and sunburn are very real threats to dogs and cats this time of year. Director Nancy Hill said the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service has received 22 complaints in the past week about owners leaving pets in hot cars.
Warm, dry weather – perfect for vacation - continues across the Inland Northwest through Saturday, and forecasters this morning said they see no major changes through the middle of next week.
Spokane sheriff’s deputies and Spokane Valley police will be monitoring traffic at seven locations through this month to increase enforcement and public awareness of child safety restraint laws.
The deaths of two teens on North Idaho lakes in the past month are prompting increased patrols by sheriff’s deputies to stop dangerous personal watercraft practices on Inland Northwest waterways. Sheriff’s marine deputies said many riders of the watercraft – such as Jet Skis and Sea-Doos – violate boating laws by running too fast or too close to other vessels, docks or shorelines.
A series of state highway projects worth more than $20 million is about to get started in northeast Washington as a result of the federal economic stimulus plan approved by Congress earlier this year. Regional Administrator Keith Metcalf of the state Department of Transportation said, “Most of the stimulus money we received in this region was for highway preservation and for safety.”
The Spokane Transit Authority board approved a transit fare increase proposal Thursday that’s undergone months of study and comment.
It is the first fare increase since 2002.
Two pedestrians were injured – one seriously – in a hit-and-run incident early today in Spokane Valley in which the vehicle driver later surrendered to officers.
A string of sunny days and clear nights should hold over the region through most of next week as the northern storm track settles into a calmer summer pattern.
A former director of the Mid-City Concerns’ Meals on Wheels program pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree theft for the misuse of as much as $80,000 in agency funds. Cheri Anne Mataya-Muncton agreed in a plea bargain to pay $10,000 in restitution in advance of the guilty plea, said Jared Cordts, deputy prosecuting attorney on the case.
Sunny but cooler weather is in store for the next two days, but the Hoopfest crowd can expect a warm up into the lower and middle 80s on Saturday and Sunday as the sun continues to shine.
Karl Thompson was at the top of his basic training academy class in 1997 when he was hired at 49 to join the Spokane Police Department’s uniformed division. Thompson brought a wealth of law enforcement experience in a career that saw ups and downs before his federal indictment, announced Monday, in the death of mentally ill janitor Otto Zehm in 2006.
Teenagers accused of stealing a gun and beer in Spokane landed in the Kootenai County Jail early today after police say one of the teens pulled a gun on WinCo store employees and customers Tuesday evening.
Warm air moving ahead of a Pacific low pressure system should push temperatures into the middle 80s across the region today, but a cold front tonight and another one on Thursday will bring some natural air conditioning to the Inland Northwest through Friday.
Higher air pressure is going to bring fair and warmer weather to the Inland Northwest today and Wednesday before a new low and associated cold front sweep across the region Wednesday night.
Law enforcement in Spokane County wrote 351 citations this spring for people not wearing seat belts during their annual “click it or ticket” emphasis patrols.
An apparent diversionary tactic by a drug store robber failed Sunday afternoon, and police arrested a Spokane man on the North Side after residents saw him running from the scene of a Walgreens robbery.
The Washington state Department of Transportation will open the first segment of a new north Spokane freeway this summer at the same time that one of the largest contracts in the multiyear project is about to start. A ribbon-cutting is planned for 1 p.m. on Aug. 22 at a segment of freeway extending from Freya Street just north of Francis Avenue to Farwell Road, a distance of more than three miles.
