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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Pia Hallenberg

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News >  Voices

Seniors strike a pose to help with fundraising

The Corbin Senior Activity Center is trying a new fundraising technique: the senior 2009 calendar. Members of the senior center posed for photos themed after popular songs like “The Monster Mash” and “It’s Been a Long Time.”
News >  Voices

Pools making progress

The major overhaul and rebuild of the city’s six outdoor swimming pools is benefiting from nice fall weather. In some places, construction is a little bit ahead of schedule. “We are doing very well,” said Barry Russell, director of the city of Spokane’s Parks and Recreation Department. “We are definitely on schedule, and for some of the bathhouses we are a little bit ahead.”
News >  Voices

Seniors strike a pose to help with fundraising

The Corbin Senior Activity Center is trying a new fundraising technique: the senior 2009 calendar. Members of the senior center posed for photos themed after popular songs like “The Monster Mash” and “It’s Been a Long Time.”
News >  Voices

Unconventional income

When the economy is going down the drain, jobs are being cut and credit is running out just before the holidays, shoppers get creative. Local pawnbrokers are seeing more business, and it’s going both ways: more people pawn items, and more people shop secondhand to stretch their budgets.
News >  Spokane

Stairway to controversy

Developer Mick McDowell wants to buy the Cedar Street staircase that links the Peaceful Valley neighborhood to Riverside Avenue above – along with the 25-by-95-foot strip of land it sits on – and replace it with a new stairway alongside the condos he plans to build there. He would pay the city $7,500 for the property.
News >  Spokane

Biodiesel industry revs up

A biodiesel plant under construction for the past couple of years in Odessa, west of Spokane, is up and running. Inland Empire Oilseeds produced its first 15,000-gallon batch of biodiesel last weekend.
News >  Spokane

Golf cart use on city streets is an unclear course for many

Remy Osso, the owner of Northwest Golf Cars, usually gets excited when the phone rings off the hook. Lately he’s getting frustrated, too. “We’ve been getting numerous phone calls from people who want to drive their golf cars on the street, and I can’t find out what to tell them,” Osso said, sitting in the office of his Spokane Valley Yamaha dealership on Trent. “So far, I go by what Yamaha tells me – that’s the best I can do.”
News >  Spokane

City contracting for warming centers

As the temperature drops and the leaves fall, the city of Spokane is contracting with four social service agencies as of today to provide extra shelter for those who are homeless. Crosswalk and Hope House, both operated by Volunteers of America, are open for teens and single women, respectively. Catholic Charities’ House of Charity is open for single men, and the Salvation Army is serving homeless families.
News >  Spokane

Justice visits husband of three

When Heather Sullivan married Nicholas Garcia in 1998, she found him friendly, charming and caring. What Sullivan didn’t know was that Garcia was already married to Ana Garcia, and she couldn’t imagine that within 10 years he’d also marry Jesse Samantha Summer Moore – without divorcing Sullivan or Garcia. “I think there are five of us wives all together, and there’s a new girlfriend, too,” said Sullivan, who grew up in Spokane and graduated from Shadle Park High School.
News >  Spokane

shoppers not spooked

Sarah Palin has been flying out the door, with nurses and police officers in hot pursuit. Tombstones and bats are popular, too. When it comes to spending on Halloween costumes, candy and decorations, Inland Northwest shoppers aren’t pinching pennies, retailers say.
News >  Idaho

Overseas forensics

When Chet and Diane Park flew out of London’s Heathrow Airport five years ago, they had a lot on their minds. He was contemplating taking a temporary job in England; she was wondering what that would be like, and what to do with her successful pond-scaping business in the meantime. And what were they to do with the family farm they live on, just north of Rathdrum? As the plane gained altitude, Diane Park looked out the window and saw the long narrow boats that floated on the canals below.
News >  Spokane

CdA business offers slice of a chopper

Scaling back in a skittish economy means different things to different people. To some, it means skipping a meal so the kids can eat; to others it means letting go of the private jet. It’s the latter group of people Rob Newell is trying to reach. Newell recently launched a helicopter-sharing business called BlackHawkCOE, based at the Coeur d’Alene Airport. Clients join for $35,000 apiece and schedule air time with the company’s pilot.
News >  Spokane

Chopper-sharing business takes off

Scaling back in a skittish economy means different things to different people. To some, it means skipping a meal so the kids can eat; to others it means letting go of the private jet. It’s the latter group of people Rob Newell is trying to reach. Newell recently launched a helicopter-sharing business called BlackHawkCOE, based at the Coeur d’Alene Airport. Clients join for $35,000 apiece and schedule air time with the company’s pilot.
News >  Spokane

BNSF gives site for new fire station

BNSF Railway Co. donated about 4.5 acres to Northern Lakes Fire District for a new station in Rathdrum on Friday. The existing station was built almost 30 years ago, when the fire district was staffed by volunteers and no one spent the night at the station.
News >  Spokane

Far too many felines

More than 100 people are on a waiting list to drop off cats at Kootenai Humane Society. But the no-kill shelter in Hayden can probably expect to see more homeless felines than that. “From (the time) people call until we can take them in, sometimes the cat has had a litter,” said Ingrid Thomson, the shelter’s main caretaker of cats. “We never, ever have room for all the cats, and sometimes, when we turn people down, they leave the cats outside by the gate.”
News >  Spokane

Railroad bridge passes check

A weight restriction has been lifted at the Larson Beach Road railroad bridge south of Loon Lake. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway placed the three-ton weight limit on the bridge last month, following an inspection and repair work.
News >  Spokane

Snake’s foster parents charged with theft

The Coeur d’Alene couple who took in a homeless red tail boa found in a Post Falls yard last month have been charged with grand theft. Not because they stole the snake, but because they sold it on Craigslist, authorities say.
News >  Spokane

Another opportunity for Oscar Ocana

Oscar Ocana, a Mexico-born business student, only recently learned English, but he uses a certain word a lot: “opportunity.” “I have been here for one and a half years,” said Ocana recently, sitting at a picnic table at Spokane Falls Community College. “It’s such an opportunity. I came without any single English. The first year here, that’s all I did, study English.”
News >  Spokane

Buying wood? Don’t get burned

Temperatures are dropping, and the scent of wood smoke lingers in the air. As heating oil and natural gas become more expensive, thermostats are being turned down and those who have woodstoves or fireplaces are on the prowl for firewood. Buyers often get their leads from classified ads and bulletin boards, but not everyone is getting what they pay for.
News >  Features

‘All in a day’s work’

When Art Anderson landed on the tropical island of Peleliu in the spring of 1944, it was quite a contrast to the harsh landscape around Minot, N.D., where he grew up. Amid coconut trees, white beaches and blinding blue oceans, the 18-year-old Marine finally was getting to fight for his country. “I joined the Marine Corps in the fall of ’42. Me and my friend Joe, we were going to go in together,” Anderson said. “I was born in Canada so that kind of held me back. I didn’t get to boot camp in San Diego until August of ’43.”
News >  Spokane

Dog roundup from rural residence reaches 34

Animal control officers from SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. have seized 34 dogs so far from a Stevens County home. Neighbors complained that a woman kept the dogs without proper confinement. “It sounds like some farm animals were injured by the dogs, from what we are hearing,” said Hope Merkison, animal control officer with SpokAnimal. “We picked up seven on Thursday, and 27 Friday morning.”
News >  Features

YWCA celebrates its honor roll

It started as the “buck a month program” – a church program trying to raise enough money to feed homeless teens at Crosswalk a roast beef dinner instead of the usual spaghetti. And then it grew and its focus changed just a tad, too. Today, Harriet Jacobson is running the “Sole to Soul” program which provides shoes, socks and coats to low-income and underserved youth. Last year, Sole to Soul collected $8,000 and on Wednesday Jacobson is receiving one of the YWCA’s Women of Achievement Awards for her commitment to community service.
News >  Spokane

One young tank commander, two wars

When Art Anderson landed on the tropical island of Peleliu, part of the Palau Islands, in the spring of 1944, it was quite a contrast to the harsh landscape around Minot, N.D., where he grew up. Amid coconut trees, white beaches and blinding blue oceans, the 18-year-old Marine finally was getting to fight for his country. “I joined the Marine Corps in the fall of ’42, me and my friend Joe, we were going to go in together,” said Anderson. “I was born in Canada so that kind of held me back – I didn’t get to boot camp in San Diego until August of ’43.”