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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Rob McDonald

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News >  Spokane

Schools add to weapons rules

Spokane schools have expanded their definition of weapon to include just about everything. Specifically: "Items that are used as weapons, or in a threatening manner, that are not legally defined as dangerous weapons."
News >  Spokane

City residents urged to take stand against racial hatred

Fifteen-year-old Jim Fry thought he could handle anything until Sunday afternoon when two men he described as skinheads jumped him on a Spokane River beach and attacked his friends huddling in a van.Two men are in jail on suspicion of yelling racial slurs at the group of American Indians, hitting Fry, breaking a van window, slashing a car seat with a knife and then trying to run over Fry with a car as he ran. What sticks with Fry the most, a Spokane native and Sioux Indian, is that a dozen people also on the beach didn't offer any help.
News >  Spokane

Family says race motivated assault

Two men with swastikas on their chests are in jail for allegedly attacking and threatening to kill an American Indian teenager who had been swimming with family and friends Sunday in the Spokane River near Pettet Drive. A police spokesman said the suspected hate crime started when the tattooed men told the Indian family to "get out of our river." A family member said they were also called a barrage of racial slurs.
News >  Spokane

Guard unit gets a big thank-you

Washington National Guard soldiers sat in the shade Sunday with their spouses and children as the U.S. Army began a campaign to say, "Thank you for your service." About 200 members of the 81st Brigade and their families came to Clear Lake, 15 miles west of Spokane, to receive a medal, a pin for their spouses or significant others, and a box of comics and games for their children.
News >  Idaho

Man, 25, slain in Sandpoint

Sandpoint Police are investigating a homicide that occurred late Saturday or early Sunday near Great Northern Road, Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood said Sunday. At 7:57 a.m. Sunday, a man reported finding a body behind the Evergreen Towing garage at 2208 Great Northern Road, Lockwood said. The man who found the body lives in a mobile home at the business on the northwest outskirts of the city.
News >  Spokane

Two high schools deny transfers

Spokane Public Schools student enrollment continues to drop a few hundred each year, but two high schools are turning away pupils. Lewis and Clark High School and Shadle Park are no longer accepting transfers from students who live outside the assigned-school zone.
News >  Idaho

Gas prices drain school budgets

Yellow buses will roll as planned this year, but fuel costs will burn a bigger hole in education budgets for big and small districts from Cheney to Coeur d'Alene. For wide-open rural districts like Cheney Public Schools, which covers an area the size of Dallas at 378 square miles for 3,500 students, the prices add up fast – potentially a $200,000 fuel bill. The district purchases up to 75,000 gallons of diesel a year to run 47 buses that rack up 550,000 miles annually.
News >  Spokane

Schools chief says challenge of today outstrips Sputnik

When the Soviet Union launched a satellite called Sputnik into space, it scared America into education overdrive in 1957. Now the United States is facing another more-powerful foreign threat that should motivate teachers again, Washington state's top education official said Tuesday. Foreign countries invest more in high school education and their students could start leaving Americans in the dust in the global competition for jobs, Terry Bergeson, superintendent of public instruction, told 1,000 educators in Spokane.
News >  Spokane

Patriotic bookkeeper found the excitement that Spokane lacked

In 1944, Pauline Kask wanted more than the small town of Spokane could offer. The 1939 North Central High School graduate, then known as Pauline Christian, had secured a good job as a bookkeeper for a metal supplier while World War II played out overseas. Against her parents' wishes, she enlisted and became one of the 22,000 officers and enlisted women in the U.S. Marine Corps Women's Reserve.
News >  Spokane

Shot down over Yugoslavia, Creston man became POW

James Houston's B-24 bomber was shot down over Yugoslavia during a low-altitude mission. Houston, a farm-born man from Creston, was the radio operator and waist gunner. Nine men parachuted down from the shot-up plane on July 26, 1944.
News >  Spokane

Washington teachers’ union urges Wal-Mart boycott

SEATTLE – When Michelle Wolfe is out stocking up on erasers, pencil sharpeners and 20-cent bottles of Elmer's glue, she hopes she's not spotted by anyone she knows. Why? Because the Spokane schoolteacher buys her classroom supplies at Wal-Mart.
News >  Spokane

Grant ensures after-class activities for middle schools

This coming school year, Spokane middle school students will have more after-school options because of a new Department of Education grant. Referred to as the After School Activity Program or ASAP, it's for all students but seeks to attract low-income students, diverse groups, gay and lesbian students, kids with disabilities and those with mental health issues, said Wendy Bleecker, director of student support services in Spokane Public Schools.
News >  Spokane

School budget steps on fewer toes

Sarah Laudenbach is one of those parents who watch Spokane Public Schools like a hawk. She wants to ensure that Spokane County's largest school district continues to fund multiple programs for gifted students, something not required by state law.
News >  Spokane

All set for back-to-school

Thirteen-year-old Meghan Zaro finished her last day at Shaw Hubfest with a shopping spree in the school store, a classroom loaded with school supplies. Excitedly, Meghan held up a new backpack imprinted with an NBA logo. Inside was a pack of wide-rule paper, pens and two highlighter markers.
News >  Spokane

Apple fights county health orders

Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple's refusal to put toilet paper in the restrooms of his Hillyard bar and restaurant have landed him in a dispute with county health officials. In Spokane Regional Health District documents made public Friday, Apple took exception to orders to put toilet paper in the Comet, which is at Market and Queen. Instead, signs directed patrons to ask the bartender for a roll of toilet paper that they could use and then return when finished.
News >  Spokane

Powwow to ask for donations

Admission to the Spokane Falls Northwest Indian Encampment and Powwow later this month will still be free. The downtown event's just looking for a few more friends with funds. In years past, local and Indian governments, businesses and large companies were the main contributors. This year for the first time, powwow organizers are reaching out to the community at large.
News >  Idaho

Gondola claims make some nervous

KELLOGG – A Spokane woman experienced a few jitters as she walked toward the Silverwood Mountain gondolas Saturday afternoon to head up for the music and suds of BrewFest. Margie Green had read the story Thursday in The Spokesman-Review about a former maintenance worker who alleged that the three-mile aerial tramway is not safe because of neglect, a claim the operating company denies.
News >  Spokane

Word-of-mouth ad

Leslie Willmann's daughters want to remain anonymous. You see, their mother often does wacky things. Not felonious acts, but the kind of things some folks only talk about doing.
News >  Spokane

Apple challenges health complaints

Two health complaints made against Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple's Hillyard restaurant have put the county health board in a bind. Apple also serves on the Spokane Regional District Board of Health. That means he is essentially a boss of the health district's top official, Dr. Kim Thorburn.
News >  Spokane

District’s new online classes allow flexibility

Ferris High School math teacher Jeff Crawford typically does carpentry work during his summer break. This summer he's one of six Spokane teachers who are building computer-based lessons for their new online courses.
News >  Spokane

Female welder ‘just being Brittani’

Eighteen-year-old Brittani Marcoe has boilermaker blood. This month, Marcoe was accepted into the Seattle Boilermakers apprentice program. She placed 10th of the 40 who were accepted.
News >  Spokane

New help for homeless families

For the first time in a long time, a new funding source designated to help homeless families has emerged in the state. The Washington Families Fund, a private-public partnership that has raised more than $4 million, announced the first round of grants Tuesday in Spokane at St. Margaret's Shelter.
News >  Spokane

In stock shocker, North Central teacher closes trading

North Central High School teacher Dempsey Ortega experienced the honor of his life Friday afternoon when he closed the $20 trillion New York Stock Exchange. The Opening Bell and Closing Bell signal the start and finish of a trading day on the stock exchange. Typically, ringing the bell is an honor offered to congressmen, heads of state, CEOs of companies listed on the exchange and other prominent figures.