Sara Leaming

As little girls growing up in Medical Lake, Nina Cruger and Jessica Johnson played make-believe about their far-off wedding day.

Nathan Gonzalez considers himself a football aficionado. Baseball is also his thing. So Gonzalez, a 20-year-old Whitworth University student studying to be an athletic trainer, was a little out of his element Thursday as he learned how to tend to an injured figure skater.

A former Post Falls church youth leader was arrested last week on suspicion he had sexual and inappropriate contact with several minor girls from the congregation. Another man was also arrested for allegedly trying to intimidate a witness in the case, said Post Falls police detective Sgt. Dave Beck.

A former Post Falls church youth leader was arrested last week on suspicion he had sexual and inappropriate contact with several minor girls from the congregation.

The green paint is peeling from the eaves of the Adaptive Snow Sports Chalet, worn by the weather on Mount Spokane. Situated at the base of Chair 5 at the ski and snowboard park, the 12-by-20-foot Swiss-style hut has for the past nine years served as the center of a program for disabled snow riders.

The green paint is peeling from the eaves of the Adaptive Snow Sports Chalet, worn by the weather on Mount Spokane. Situated at the base of Chair 5 at the ski and snowboard park, the 12-by-20-foot Swiss-style hut has for the past nine years served as the center of a program for disabled snow riders. It didn’t matter that nearly a decade has passed since the much-loved and much-needed ski chalet was just an idea on paper. As the snow fell at the base of the mountain Saturday, dozens of people gathered around the chalet for its official dedication.

Linnea Cubley wants to get better at multiplication in 2010. “Most everybody in my class is doing nine times, and I’m only on three times,” said Cubley, 9.

Holiday travel is on the rise after two years of consecutive declines, according to automobile group AAA. The agency expects a 3.8 percent increase in all modes of transportation between Dec. 23 and Jan.3, with more than 87 million Americans expected to travel away from home. Travel originating in Washington state will increase 12 percent this year, significantly higher than the national average. We talked with Cassie Devaney, a spokeswoman for AAA of Eastern Washington based in Spokane, on Friday to get the scoop on who is going where and how they are getting there, as well as what travelers can do to stay safe. Q.Are people going by plane, train or automobile this year?

Tammy Fuller didn’t have any Christmas shopping left to do Saturday. Instead, she wandered leisurely through River Park Square enjoying the hustle and bustle of the season, without the added stress of last-minute gifts to purchase.

Tammy Fuller didn’t have any Christmas shopping left to do Saturday.

A Spokane man was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to his stomach Friday after what appears to be an attempted carjacking in north central Spokane. Police converged on the Emerson/Garfield neighborhood near Division Street and Buckeye Avenue about 3 p.m., closing off most side streets and locking down a nearby elementary school as they searched for the alleged shooter.

A musician who grew up in North Idaho and played with a well-known Spokane-area band was found shot to death in his New York apartment last week. Troy Young, 29, was found last Friday, shot in the shoulder at close range in his apartment in an area of Brooklyn known as Carroll Gardens. The bullet traveled to his heart, his father said Thursday.

The congregation at Temple Beth Shalom has been perfecting the latke recipe for 15 years or longer, depending on whom you ask. The recipe for the fried potato pancake, cooked each year in observance of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, is handwritten on a piece of notebook paper that’s been laminated and taped to the temple’s kitchen wall.

For the first time in years, Michelle Christie posed Saturday morning for a portrait with her two children. The trio, including Emma, 14, and Albert, 11, laughed, smiled and shared a special moment in front of a camera in a photo studio set up inside the Saranac Art Projects building at 25 W. Main Ave.

For the first time in years, Michelle Christie posed Saturday morning for a portrait with her two children.

At first glance, the competition under way inside Eastern Washington University’s computer science building Saturday looked and sounded like a fierce athletic contest. Fans cheered. Music blared. Referees in black and white striped jerseys called the shots.