Pia Hallenberg

Growing up on the other side of the tracks in Hillyard, Christine Lynch was the 10th of 11 children. Like everyone else she went to Shaw Middle School and then on to Rogers High School. As the first in her family to continue on to college, first at Spokane Community College then Eastern Washington University, her life has come full circle, as she’s been the principal at Shaw for the last six years.

The last protest Alan Blum was part of was when President Richard Nixon visited Spokane for the opening of Expo ’74. Saturday, he was sufficiently riled up to join more than 100 people protesting Avista’s latest rate increase in front of the utility’s headquarters on Upriver Drive. “My last bill was $165 and then the one I just got was $551,” said Blum, who lives in Otis Orchards. “I called them and they said the first bill was an estimate and the second one was an actual reading. They’d let me make payments, but that was it.”

The last protest Alan Blum was part of was when President Nixon visited Spokane for the opening of Expo ’74. Yesterday, he was sufficiently riled up to join more than 100 people protesting Avista’s latest rate increase in front of the utility’s headquarters on Upriver Drive.

Take Disney’s “Bambi on Ice.” Put Bambi in a snowsuit, give Thumper longer legs and more grace, and you get a good idea of what it’s like watching instructors tutor the little kids in Spokane Parks and Recreation’s “learn how to skate” program at Riverfront Park. The youngest participants have only walked for a year or two, and here they are with skates strapped on their feet, slipping and sliding, pivoting and gliding, legs going this way and that.

The Spokane Parks and Recreation Department took another big step toward finishing the renovation and construction of the city’s six pools, when 375 cubic yards of concrete were poured at the Shadle Park pool on Friday. Workers “poured the bottom of the pool, which is like a big slab of concrete,” said Nancy Goodspeed, department spokeswoman. “That’s a big deal because once that’s in, then they can tent the whole site and get working faster.”

When Dan Coslic was 8 he discovered the encyclopedia. What most captivated him among alphabetized foreign cities, inventions from near and far, and countries he’d never heard of, were maps. “I was obsessed with maps as a kid, especially out west where there were mountains on them,” said Coslic, who grew up in Pennsylvania. “I discovered this little symbol that meant ‘highest point in the state’ and I wondered what it would be like to climb the mountains with snow on, what kind of training it would take.”

There have been numerous sightings of orange feet and an increase in waddling downtown this winter. No, we’re not talking about Spokanites trying to walk off the extra holiday pounds. We’re talking about ducks. The quackers have been spotted all over downtown – from Howard Street near the Steelhead Bar and Grill to Starbucks on Main Avenue and the middle of Riverside Avenue – nontraditional duck habitat.

The tuba is a little tired. The cello is past its prime, and the French horns are just exhausted. Many of the band instruments at Lewis and Clark High School need replacement, but school district coffers are empty, and it’ll take more than a well-organized bake sale to raise the estimated $100,000 needed.

With January being National Mentoring Month, there is no better time than now to follow through on that New Year’s resolution about getting more involved. Project MOVE, a mentoring program for Spokane County youth with disabilities, is searching for adult mentors who can commit to a yearlong mentoring program.

Spokane went from winter wonderland to wet dog smell in just a few days. The big snowstorms left behind miles and miles of crusty berms and piles of ashen snow. Sidewalks and parking lots turned to skating rinks, covered in standing water, and errands that used to take a half hour, took all morning.

The phones are ringing off the hook at the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts of America. Since Dec. 22 nearly 150 people have called asking for help with snow shoveling and the calls keep coming in. “We get more frequent calls from people when they get a really big dump,” said Steve Yackel, director of field services for the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts of America, and the keeper of the long list. “We’ve always gotten these requests, but this is the first year we’ve put it on the Web site and gone directly to the troop leaders for help.”

A man living in a truck on the Spokane Indian Reservation agreed late New Year’s Day to give up 33 malnourished horses, some with open sores and overgrown hoofs. Horse advocates hoped to have some of the horses moved off the property near Wellpinit on Thursday night.

They were light blue going in, and they came back out in various shades of pink. New Year’s Day about 200 people gathered on Sanders Beach for the traditional Polar Bear Plunge into the icy waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

They were light blue going in, and they came back out in various shades of pink. New Years Day about 200 people gathered on Sanders Beach for the traditional Polar Bear Plunge into the icy waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene.

As the snow piles up in backyards across the region, outdoor pets need a little extra TLC. Food and water that’s not frozen over is a given, and now is a good time to check on your dog’s shelter. “Even the big heavy-coated dogs get cold when it snows like this,” said Leigha Wawra, who owns Alpha Dogs Daycare together with her mother, Lee Smith. “I’d definitely tell people to take their dogs inside when they can. It’s hard on them to be outdoors all the time; they don’t live as long.”

The door to the little house on West Broadway Avenue opens just a crack, to reveal pitch darkness in stark contrast to the blinding white snow outside. A young woman in stocking feet smiles shyly at John Jones as he hands her a box of groceries. It’s Christmas Eve and Jones is delivering food on behalf of Off-Broadway Family Outreach and Lighthouse of Hope to neighbors who are snowbound in West Central. The nonprofit usually hands out food donations every Monday on the corner of Nettleton and West Broadway. Finding the usual recipients snowbound, Jones and Marcel Smith, the house mother at Lighthouse of Hope, decided to take the food directly to the needy.

She dressed as a fairy princess for Halloween. She liked to curl up on the floor and watch a movie with her family. Her best friend was the palomino mare, Lady, but she had many other friends and admirers throughout North Idaho. Maggie Mae – the Mental Health Zebra, as she was known – touched everyone she met. On Dec. 15, Maggie Mae died from colic. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday.