The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
37°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Pia Hallenberg

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

All Stories

News >  Washington Voices

COPS Northwest has longest hours

Profiling the Community Oriented Policing Services shops for The Voice this summer, and traveling from one to the next, it quickly becomes obvious that all COPS shops are not created equal. Some are small with limited opening hours because they don’t have enough volunteers to staff the front desk. Others are big and vibrant, with long hours and a constant coming and going of neighbors, police officers and volunteers.
News >  Washington Voices

Local woman’s photo chosen for Jones Soda Co. label

When Deneise Bucko, a local photographer, set out to illustrate an invitation for a fundraiser this summer, soda was the last thing on her mind. She donated her time, skills and a photo to a smaller, local nonprofit called Beats and Rhythms, which puts on summer camp for children with congenital heart disease.
News >  Washington Voices

Hillyard pulls out stops for its 100th festival

The Hillyard neighborhood has a very strong sense of place, identity and history, and at no other time is that more apparent than during the annual Hillyard Festival. This year, the all-volunteer festival association has pulled out all stops for the 100th Hillyard Festival, which opens Friday in Sharpley-Harmon Park.
News >  Washington Voices

Students earn money selling educational books

To morning commuters on busy Division Street, it could look like a tribal dance complete with jumps, hoots and hollers and rhythmic clapping. Three handsome young men dance in a circle in the Perkins parking lot to loud music blasting from a car – they do the “crazy chicken” arms flapping and feet scratching, and the “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” flexing their biceps and yelling, “Hasta la vista, Baby!” They do the “ballerina” leaping high in the air, toes pointed, arms extended, while they laugh and clap. Just before breaking into dance they stood intently listening to a chapter being read out loud from Og Mandino’s book, “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”
News >  Washington Voices

COPS Northeast wears many neighborly hats

COPS Northeast was the second COPS shop to open, after COPS West, and volunteer Lynn Weiler has been involved there since the beginning. Back in 1992, the shop was established in what was a burned-out building in the middle of Hillyard. “And I’m still here,” Weiler said, laughing. “Yes, the building needed a lot of help back then, but it’s been a good home for us since.”
News >  Washington Voices

Spokane Spin brings goalball to town

They literally hear the ball coming across the court before they fearlessly stretch out to catch it just like a soccer goalkeeper would do. The rubber ball comes rolling and bouncing at full speed at players wearing blacked-out ski goggles. Yes, that’s right: goalball players can’t see a thing. Some are blind, some are visually impaired in various ways and some are sighted – the ski goggles just level the playing field. And just how do they hear the ball? There’s a little bell inside of it.
News >  Washington Voices

McGruff looking for volunteers

Are you ready to take a bite out of crime? McGruff the Crime Dog is COPS’ furry mascot and he needs a little help making it to all his engagements – McGruff is looking for volunteers. McGruff has been around since 1980 and he’s on a mission to get citizens engaged in crime prevention as volunteers for Spokane’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and to educate watchful, caring neighbors.
News >  Washington Voices

Neva-Wood COPS volunteers encounter diverse problems

COPS shops are located in many different settings and buildings. There is one at Spokane Community College, there is another one at Lewis and Clark High School, and then there’s Nevada Lidgerwood COPS. Located in what used to be two single-family homes just east of NorthTown Mall, Neva-Wood COPS, as it is called, shares a home with the Nevada Lidgerwood Neighborhood Council in a building owned by the city of Spokane. “Well, the neighborhood council got here first,” said Barb Hedlund, chair of the board of Neva-Wood COPS. “There used to be two smaller houses and they got them put together, and then we moved in.”
News >  Washington Voices

Property disputes hot issue in southeast

No two COPS shops are the same. Each shop reflects the unique issues, people and challenges of the neighborhood it’s located in, and the calls and contacts coming in every week vary wildly. Where one shop gets drug house calls, another may get more calls about barking dogs. At COPS Southeast, which is smack at the center of Lincoln Heights, they get a lot of calls about property disputes.
News >  Washington Voices

Refugees distribute fruit harvested from backyard trees

Mature fruit trees are a common sight in the East Central neighborhood. Some of the trees were originally planted on the small farms that were there in Spokane’s earliest days. Amid the changes in the neighborhood, they continue to do what fruit trees do: produce a crop every summer. Sometimes residents just don’t know what to do with the bushels of apples, pears, plums and cherries, so birds and raccoons get most of the harvest. Now fruit tree owners have an alternative to letting the fruit go to waste, and they don’t even have to lift a finger.