Sara Leaming

On most days, it's considered lucky if you can find a place to park at the Spokane Valley Library. During business hours, there isn't a nook or cranny in the 22,000-square-foot building at 12004 E. Main Ave. that isn't used. Citizens of Spokane Valley and beyond rely on one of the largest libraries in the Spokane County Library District for free access to more than 115,000 books, periodicals, tapes, videos, books on tape or DVDs.

Persuading people to make the voyage to Colonial America is a competitive business at Opportunity Elementary School in Spokane Valley. Booking a seat on a ship sailing for Connecticut this Thanksgiving, for example, might yield a coupon good for one year of skipping church services.

There are two things that Tami Smith knows will bring women together: fashion and a worthy cause. Smith, the owner of A.S.K. Clothing, an appointment-only fashion boutique she runs out of her home in Liberty Lake, was one of 30 vendors selling her unique items at a high-tea and fashion show Saturday to benefit the Spokane Valley Community Center.

Eighth-grade student Courtney Ramsey hasn't received less than a 4.0 grade-point average since beginning her career at Horizon Middle School three years ago. Matt Haskins, also an eighth-grader, always gets straight-As. Another classmate, Wyatt Beaulieu, 13, doesn't consider himself a "smarty-pants," but still tallies up the As and Bs.

In the Nov. 8 race for East Valley School Board Director District 5, the signs made all the difference. Five-year board member and incumbent Wayne Stewart said his grass-roots campaign was not enough to beat newcomer Roger Trainor's numerous campaign signs. Trainor was ahead of Stewart by 203 votes as of Thursday.

Soy bars are not selling as well as Laffy Taffy candy. Baked chips and diet sodas haven't flown off the shelves like Mountain Dew and Doritos. With new nutrition plans this year preventing the sale of some soda and sugary, fatty snacks during the school day, Spokane Valley student clubs such as DECA are bracing for a sales pinch.

Shoppers hoping to buy some "Cheap Women" as holiday gifts should plan on attending the Christmas Memories craft fair in Spokane Valley this weekend. The figurines made from copper and molded into the shape of "floozy" ladies won't be available for long. They come only once a year, handmade by Sandy Balch and brought in from Oregon.

If math and science involves hip-hop music, dancing, hovercrafts and sumo wrestling teachers, then Horizon Middle School has it covered. On Thursday, the Central Valley school was the only Spokane-area campus selected for a performance of FMA Live!, an interactive science education program created by NASA and Honeywell currently touring the country.

During a visit to the Greenacres home of Eula Davaz, there were three things a person could count on: A hug upon arrival, a belly full of food and a hug before leaving. Davaz, the mother and stepmother of seven children, was the epitome of super-mom.

Something was missing from the biggest football game of the season for both Central Valley high schools this year. It wasn't tackles or touchdowns. It was the tubas and the trumpets.

From the road, the Chester Community Cemetery in Spokane Valley looked like an undeveloped wooded area, overgrown with weeds and riddled with rotten slash piles. Thanks to a 17-year-old Boy Scout named Sam Turner, by Saturday most of the mess was cleared from the rustic burial grounds to reveal gravestones dating to the early 1900s.

SPOKANE AREA JOURNALISTS beware. Students at the West Valley City School are looking for a good scoop. The City School Noise, the school's new student newspaper, will be published every two weeks this year.

Thirteen-year-old Bryanna Merrill is making plans to open her own coffee shop this year. The freshman student at the Rivercity Leadership Academy, West Valley's new project-based high school, will use math skills to get the venture off the ground, and will learn about business and marketing along the way. She may even use scientific formulas to determine how to make the perfect cup of joe, and geography to determine where the best coffee beans come from. Merrill will get high school credit for her entrepreneurial effort, the first of many projects she plans to put into action during her high school career.