Sara Leaming

A Spokane native and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq was named dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University on Friday. Ryan Crocker, who lives in Spokane Valley, will head up the school named after former President George H.W. Bush and located in College Station, Texas, about 100 miles northwest of Houston.

Even in tough economic times, there is no shortage of people willing to volunteer to build dams or educate children in impoverished countries. In fact, the number of applicants for volunteer assignments with the U.S. Peace Corps has risen 18 percent nationwide this year, according to officials.

Cruising down a northeast Spokane side street Thursday, police Officer Glenn Bartlett spotted a green truck he thought might have been stolen. Before Bartlett could stop his patrol car to investigate, a digital image of the Toyota Tundra popped up on his dashboard computer screen. The camera-equipped computer read the license plate number and checked it against a nationwide database of stolen vehicles. It also scanned databases of cars wanted in connection with violent crimes or child abductions.

The homecoming game Friday against Sprague-Harrington was more than just football for the students of Valley Christian School. It was a celebration, of both the spirit of the small, private school and the ability of the school community to unite during adversity.

Firefighters battled a blaze at a South Hill home for two hours Friday afternoon, and planned to stay through the night to make sure it was out. The Spokane Fire Department was called to the home at 614 E. Seventh Ave. about 2:10 p.m. When crews arrived, smoke was so heavy they were unable to see the house, said Battalion Chief Craig Cornelius.

It’s been more than 35 years since Dave Larson played alongside fellow musicians with the Percussion Naut Patriots fife and drum corps. On Saturday it all came back to him as he and four other original members of the drum line warmed up for a reunion performance at the Mirabeau Park Hotel in Spokane Valley.

Nobody was more excited about Friday’s ice hockey match between Canada and the United States than the students from Redfish Elementary School in Nelson, B.C. The school purchased tickets to the women’s exhibition game a year ago, and before the 50-plus fifth-graders could cross the border for the game Friday each had to create a biography of a player from the Canadian women’s team.

Most people have memories of high school they would just as soon forget. Not Regina Crosby.

Thousands of people swamped the phone lines at the Spokane Regional Health District on Monday to schedule appointments for vaccinations against the H1N1 virus. The health district expected to fill 2,000 appointments by phone starting Monday and was booked nearly solid by midmorning, although a few appointments remained. The massive volume of calls prompted some people to express frustration, as they waited to get through.

The FBI released a video Thursday showing the robbery that took place at a northeast Spokane bank Tuesday.

It has been 68 years since Jack Erlandson, Jack Latta, Wayne “Moose” MacGregor and Dale Johnson suited up and played football for Spokane’s North Central High School. It was fall 1941, when NC played rival Lewis and Clark. And for many members of the “greatest generation,” it was the last time they remember being young and carefree.

More than 1,400 artifacts stolen from ancient Native American graves and sacred sites in five Western states were returned Thursday to several local tribes. Members of tribes in Idaho and Washington gathered at the federal courthouse in downtown Spokane, where officials returned the artifacts recovered during a federal investigation spanning at least five years.