Nicholas Deshais

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Key documents are being kept out of reach of the investigator looking into the circumstances surrounding the firing of police Chief Frank Straub, and another lawyer may be hired by the city to get those documents into her hands. In a briefing paper delivered to Spokane City Council members Monday, Councilman Breean Beggs recommended hiring Mike Harrington, a Seattle-based labor and employment lawyer who earned multiple degrees at Gonzaga University, to oversee the investigation and advise city officials on how to release the final investigative report.

Richard Rush, a former Spokane City Council member, was fired from his position as aide to Councilwoman Candace Mumm after two women complained that he made them feel uncomfortable.

When Donald Trump arrives in Spokane on Saturday, presumably by landing at the airport aboard the Boeing-built 757 jet he calls Trump Force One, the city will be ready for him.

Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Speer was fired Thursday for having a sexual relationship with a teenage girl.

When the downtown Spokane Macy’s closed in March, a big question mark hung above a big empty building and almost an entire city block where the department store stood for decades. One question, however, has been answered as the Downtown Spokane Partnership announced Wednesday that it had acquired the iconic Mother and Christ child holiday light display that has hung on the corner of the building nearly every Christmas season since 1957.

Mikael Kjellman, a Swedish design engineer, built a little car/bike/electric vehicle. It's called the PodRide.

A stalled and once controversial condominium building project is back on track, due to an improved economy and a perceived desire for “luxury high rise” living units in downtown Spokane. Developer Mick McDowell and his wife, Shelley, are planning to build a 14-story, 50-unit tower on West Riverside Avenue overlooking the Peaceful Valley neighborhood.

A major renovation of Pettet Drive, otherwise known as Doomsday Hill, won't change the Bloomsday course this weekend, but it will prevent cyclists from pedaling up the dreaded hill this September.

Mile five. Doomsday Hill. The vulture. All things that are part of everyone’s least favorite section of the Bloomsday Run. For those hoping the course will be diverted around Doomsday due to the construction on Pettet Drive, keep hoping. A complete rebuild of Pettet Drive, otherwise known as Doomsday Hill, won't change the Bloomsday run this weekend, and the new road will be ready for next year’s race.

Ildikó Kalapács grew up in Hungary, when the eastern European country was under Soviet control. Her grandparents lived and survived through both world wars, the Russian occupation of their country and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. So it’s fitting that Kalapács’ latest project focuses on the trauma of war.

If you’re in Japan over the weekend and hanker for a bit of Spokane, tune in to Nippon TV, one of the country’s leading networks. It’ll be broadcasting the inaugural 2016 KOSÉ Team Challenge Cup, the first of its kind event, and it’s being held at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena beginning Friday.

After Spokane City Administrator Theresa Sanders and City Attorney Nancy Isserlis told former Spokane Police Chief Frank Straub the reasons why he was being forced from City Hall, he came to believe his ouster was a “premeditated and engineered plan” by Mayor David Condon to help in his re-election, according to new court documents filed by Straub and his attorney, Mary Schultz.

Spokane grew by 37 acres last week, to the chagrin of a local and well-known pie purveyor. The Spokane City Council approved the annexation on the city’s southeast border, giving the new land a pedestrian-oriented zoning designation – a turn of events that surprised neighborhood officials and displeased the developer of a proposed shopping center on the land.

Potholes, we all know, suck.

Two witness lists for the ongoing Spokane City Hall investigation into the firing of former police Chief Frank Straub have shed some light into the inquiry, but the inner workings remain largely concealed from public view. The lists, which were part of a public records release sought by The Spokesman-Review, contain a total of 42 names of city employees. Straub and Monique Cotton, the police spokeswoman who made the accusation of sexual harassment against Straub that led to the continuing controversy, are absent from the list.

What a year.