Peter Barnes

Spokane Valley's deputy mayor filed for re-election Monday and said he wants to continue his council duties, which he described as challenging but enjoyable. "I don't think I've ever had this much fun in my life," Richard Munson said.

She'd call when a special package came in. She'd call when a new stamp arrived for the collection. She'd even call if you didn't put enough postage on your letter. But now she's calling it quits. Milly Cropp, Otis Orchards' postmaster and public servant of 30 years, retired at closing time Friday.

Bill Gothmann, a planning commissioner and retired professor, announced Tuesday that he will run for a seat on the Spokane Valley City Council. "To me, it's tremendously exciting to be part of a new city," he said.

Roland Ashworth, the man who hand-seeded the greens at MeadowWood and Hangman Valley golf courses and spent nearly three decades managing the links for Spokane County, died June 9 of a heart attack. He was 70. "He got to do everything that he wanted to do," said Scott Ashworth, his son.

Spokane Valley City Councilman Mike Flanigan has said he will not seek re-election, making position 6 the sole open seat on the council with the official filing period beginning next week. "I never had any intention of being a professional politician," Flanigan said, motivated instead by being a part of the city's first council and getting the new municipality on its feet.

Late on a weeknight it's dark and loud in Percy's Café Americana. A skinny, young white man mimics the smooth cries of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" like he just got off the bus from Motown, and every woman in the bar, young and old, is cheering him on. "With karaoke, everybody's a rock star," said Mark Ward, 22. After traipsing around the room with a wireless microphone and serenading a few strangers, he returns to a large table of his friends amid vigorous applause. "The thing with karaoke is everyone can do karaoke," he said. A singer in a local band, Ward's no stranger to the stage. But for most weeknight wailers, the sound system at the bar is probably the closest they will ever come to their own concert. It's music for the masses.

Spokane Valley Councilman Dick Denenny announced Tuesday he will run for re-election, making him the sixth of the seven-member council who will try for a second term. "There's so much left to be done, there really is," he said. He compared the new city to a house whose foundation and walls have been built, now affording the council the opportunity to "make it a place you want to live."

Floating on an inner tube just got more exciting in Spokane Valley. The Cannon Bowl, a red and white contraption visible from Interstate 90 at Splash-Down Water Park, opened Monday to the approving yelps of a steady stream of children waiting to be launched clockwise into its gushing fiberglass basin.

Amid the fanfare of the holiday weekend, three fireworks experts were hospitalized after accidents interrupted pyrotechnic displays in Liberty Lake and Priest River. Other explosives mishaps caused several brush fires and significant damage to a Spokane Valley apartment complex.

More than 24,000 basketball players – from smaller ballers just out of second grade to elite teams from around the country – will turn downtown into the biggest 3-on-3 arena in the world today at the 16th annual Hoopfest. The event is expected to bring 150,000 people downtown, said Brady Crook, the event's new executive director. Those people will put an estimated $15 million into the local economy. Roughly half of the teams are from outside Spokane County. Participation is up from last year, 80 teams shy of the 2003 tournament record of 6,245.