Rob McDonald

Some communities can still raise a barn. Harvesting local talent, like framers, electricians and home-improvement hobbyists, the Liberty School District pulled together enough volunteers to erect a 6,000-square-foot framed covered playground for bad-weather recesses.

For her upstart magazine, Nina Neff has cross-examined white supremacists, edited an essay on a student suicide at Lakeside High School, tackled the anatomy of faith and interviewed a group of Sudanese refugees. In her fourth and most recent issue, the 15-year-old home-schooled student announced, "We won't be content with bubble-gum journalism."

Spokane police will be asked to take a greater role in evaluating student threats in Spokane Public Schools, district officials said Wednesday. And the risk assessment for troubled students trying to re-enter schools will be re-evaluated.

Sayeed X, the Ferris High School teacher who resigned Feb. 7 under accusations of having sexual contact with a student, was charged Friday and booked into Spokane County Jail on three felony charges, including first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor. The other charges are second-degree sexual misconduct with a minor and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

Kitara McClure, a former U.S. Army sergeant who's now a college student in Spokane, has sparked a federal investigation into her claims of race discrimination and retaliation by the Davenport School District against her 10-year-old son. It's the second race discrimination complaint to be investigated in the region this year by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

Ward Churchill, who compared 9/11 victims to "little Eichmanns," spoke at Eastern Washington University's Cheney campus Tuesday, bringing mostly applause but some boos from a crowd of 500. Several other colleges canceled Churchill's talk after he received death threats for his controversial essay, and EWU president Stephen Jordan also tried to block Churchill's talk for fear students would be endangered.

Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor whose visit was deemed by Eastern Washington University's president as too dangerous, is fighting back in federal court – but he won't wait for a decision before showing up at a noon rally today on campus. Churchill, two college students, and a Cheney citizen filed a federal injunction against EWU Monday to obtain use of a campus building to deliver a talk today at noon. The case claims that EWU President Stephen Jordan and the EWU Board of Trustees committed an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech and assembly when they canceled Churchill's scheduled speech. The case also claims Jordan and the board violated Churchill's and students' civil rights.

Despite an apparent murder attempt by a suicidal student, Spokane school officials say they have no idea how many other potentially violent students expelled for making threats have been allowed to simply transfer to another school. "The information is not readily available," said Spokane Public Schools spokesman David Beil. "Of course, it's possible to pull the information together, but we're not willing because it takes too much time."

Nine-year-old Will Kennedy's third and final Easter egg hunt Saturday turned out to be his most successful. Kennedy was one of the 14 children who won a bike at the Coeur d'Alene First Assembly of God Candy Hunt at Borah Elementary school.