Mike Prager

A sandstone monument to George Washington – badly vandalized in recent years – is going to be renovated and moved to a new location in Manito Park as the result of a fundraising effort by the organization that originally placed the work in the park. The Esther Reed Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution raised $1,500 and the Friends of Manito organization has agreed to donate up to $4,000 for the project to be completed by next spring.

The National Weather Service on Monday extended an air stagnation advisory for much of the Inland Northwest through noon today. Meanwhile, air quality agencies were keeping an eye on elevated pollution levels, caused mostly by wood smoke.

Picking up and dropping off rental cars at Spokane International Airport has gotten a little more convenient for customers and a lot more efficient for the eight rental car companies operating there. A $14.1 million facility opened earlier this month with covered breezeways and waiting areas, customer service kiosks and added parking for 231 vehicles coming and going from the airport. Rental employees are there to speed passengers to boarding gates.

Ridership on Spokane Transit Authority buses and vans in October surpassed the 1 million-per-month mark for the first time. The milestone came after nearly three years of steady growth in the number of STA passengers.

You know it’s an early snowfall when it catches the employees at a ski area by surprise. As much as a foot of fresh snow – the first heavy accumulation of the season – fell Tuesday and Wednesday at Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park.

While the world awaits the outcome of today’s presidential election, several hundred Spokane-area workers will be busy compiling those results from 31 states. Spokane will be a major player in telling the world who wins.

The golden days and frosty nights of October are as gone as the 10th page on the calendar. A persistent ridge of high pressure that kept the Inland Northwest sunny and dry for weeks is giving way to rain and maybe even snow in coming days.

During World War II and the years immediately after the war, minority soldiers in Spokane had few choices for entertainment. But they could count on Spokane’s black USO club as a place to go for a break from military life.

Eight-year-old Makayla Siegert-Fowler, of Davenport, Wash., wore a white-over-black witch’s costume and added a pink tiara that she won in a carnival game Saturday. Makayla suffers from a kidney disorder and was one of about 30 children with serious health conditions who were treated to Halloween carnival by the LeMaster Daniels accounting firm on national Make A Difference Day.

The cascading fountain and escalators might have to go, and the spacious mezzanine could be converted to leased office space. But the Plaza – the heart of Spokane Transit Authority operations downtown – would remain a bus facility for years to come under a new study and recommendation to the STA governing board.

Bud Morrison’s family has worked the former lake bed known as Saltese Flats since 1892. The farm produces hay and livestock. Its earth is so rich that some of the dirt has been scooped and sold as topsoil over the years.

The catwalk atop Spokane’s two new egg-shaped sewer digesters next to the Spokane River offers a panoramic view of a honeycomb of pipes, pumps and valves – the guts of a $45 million investment in the area’s wastewater treatment system. The steel-walled digesters, which use bacteria to process sludge into fertilizer, replace treatment capacity lost in the 2004 collapse that killed sewer maintenance worker Mike Cmos.

The GreenHouse Community Center in Deer Park is getting dumped on – literally. Like other charities that run thrift stores, the center receives too many items not worth re-selling. Donations are often left in the parking lot when the center is closed, exposing the items to rain or theft.

Bicycle traveler-adventurer Willie Weir said he’s learned by pedaling across the globe that his preferred form of transportation is more than a choice of lifestyle. It’s also about class differences, the environment, land use, safe routes and staying healthy. The Seattle author will speak in Spokane Wednesday in an appearance sponsored by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, which is trying to raise money so it can open an office here – part of the organization’s effort to promote what it calls “balanced transportation” across the state.

Bus ridership in Spokane is taking off. Riders are reporting full buses, some with standing room only on many of the busiest routes, including the increasingly popular expresses serving the North Side and Spokane Valley.