Pia Hallenberg

STA route changes start Sunday

Cliff Kelsey is 23. His dad lives in southern Oregon and he was 16 the first time they met. When he was 21, his mom died. And now he has a new daughter of his own, Merceydes Marie Kelsey. He’s a proud and happy dad; anyone can see that as he starts talking about Merceydes.

Rabbit reports

Hillyard calling all hippies

Recognize this bike?

Cliff Kelsey is 23. His dad lives in southern Oregon and he was 16 the first time they met. When he was 21, his mom died. And now he has a new daughter of his own, Merceydes Marie Kelsey. He’s a proud and happy dad; anyone can see that as he starts talking about Merceydes.

On the surface it looks like a normal taekwondo class. Two dozen students are warming up on the concrete floor at Northeast Youth Center and more are coming through the doors – with a ceremonial bow – all the time. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the gym fills up with martial arts students, the youngest are 8 and the oldest could be their grandparents.

There is a new corner grocery store and a new café in West Central. Parkside Grocery and the Monkey Business Café have just opened across the street from the Cannon Park Pool, and Friday they celebrate a grand opening. Chuck Redmon, manager of Parkside Grocery, said he’s dabbled in the grocery business before but his background is in the oil business.

COPS Mission Avenue is located on Spokane Community College’s campus. SCC has its own security staff so COPS Mission Avenue is not that involved with campus life, except when a student volunteer signs up. “We serve the neighborhood around us, off campus,” said Lloyd Apitz, who’s been a COPS volunteer for about seven years. “We just started a neighborhood patrol.”

Sustainable September kicks off with a lunch today at the Spokane Convention Center. This year the monthlong celebration and ecology awareness-raising campaign is focused on four tracks: Active stewardship, eco-generation, local food and eco-buildings. “Each has a main event and a personal challenge to go with them,” said Shallan Dawson, Sustainable September coordinator. “The personal challenge is about how to make your own life more sustainable.”

Bees, not yellow jackets, but hardworking humble honeybees, used to be taken for granted. Until a couple of decades ago, farmers and gardeners simply planted their crop and assumed bees would show up and pollinate everything. Bees were just around, buzzing here and there, and unless you were in the honey-making business you probably never thought much about them.

Title Nine soft opening

To get to 2BU Youth Ranch follow East Foothills Road and when you think you’ve passed it, just keep going. And suddenly, there on the right up a little driveway you’ll see the ranch – not quite at the end of the road, but close. Same can be said about some of the youth 2BU Youth Ranch founder Nancy Wolf is trying to reach with her therapeutic horse program.

If neighbors don’t come to COPS, then COPS will come to them, and no, it’s nothing like the TV show. It’s not well-known that Spokane Community Oriented Policing Services has a mobile unit. The little white van is full of fliers and information; it’s actually very much like a COPS shop except it is on wheels.

The mood was better than anticipated when more than two dozenkayakers, canoeists and rafters set out from Plantes Ferry Park to protest 30 private docks proposed for the Coyote Rock development along the Spokane River. On Friday, the environmental groups behind Sunday’s protest float were notified that the developer of Coyote Rock – Coeur d’Alene-based Neighborhood Inc. – is ready to negotiate, and a hearing before the state Pollution Control Hearings Board that was supposed to start today has been postponed.

Today's highlights

A brand new South Perry

Located in a small house on the outskirts of Gonzaga University’s campus, COPS Logan has been at different addresses in the north Hamilton neighborhood since 1995. The shop is renting its location from Gonzaga, paying a dollar a year in rent. “We used to have students put in volunteer hours here, but not so much anymore,” said volunteer Charlene LaPlante. “I guess we could try to get that going again.”

The Extreme Team is at it again, this time in the South Perry District. Organized by KXLY-TV, the Extreme Team does remodeling work for people who can’t physically or financially do the work themselves, with the help of local businesses. This time the beneficiary is Shane Reilly, 26, who is a quadriplegic as a result of a gunshot in the head at close range in March. Reilly was shot by Robert D. Startin who’s now serving more than 15 years in jail for the crime. Startin shot Reilly in the aftermath of a drinking party where someone had jokingly called Reilly a sex offender.