Shawn Vestal

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News >  Higher education

Shawn Vestal: As EWU reviews programs, calls to revisit athletics spending rise again

Sun., Dec. 10, 2023

More than three years after a faculty report urged Eastern Washington University to rethink its spending on athletics – and particularly football – at a time of widespread budget cuts in academics, a new universitywide program review is making a similar recommendation.

News >  Family

Shawn Vestal: A Peaceful Valley man is transforming himself into Black Santa after suffering a devastating loss this year – ‘We’ve got a little extra love to give’

UPDATED: Sat., Dec. 2, 2023

Jerry Lancaster has been preparing diligently for his starring role.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Seeking out wonder – and the ‘small self’ – helps us see the world anew

Thu., Nov. 23, 2023

It was Thanksgiving break. Moscow, Idaho. Sometime in the dimly remembered – at least by me – middle of the 1980s.

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Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Winning candidate sees a turning tide in CdA elecions

Sun., Nov. 12, 2023

In the wake of Spokane’s elections, there was an important development across the border you may have overlooked.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The big money fell short, up and down the ballot

Wed., Nov. 8, 2023

So we’ve got a good idea how the candidates and issues fared.

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Spokane City Council quietly repealed requirement to wear bicycle helmets

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 6, 2023

When the Spokane City Council adopted a law in 2004 requiring people to wear helmets while riding a bike on city streets, it came after a robust public debate.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Immigrant’s journey at heart of film to be featured at Latinos en Spokane’s first official fundraiser

UPDATED: Thu., Oct. 19, 2023

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Nonprofit criticizes City of Spokane for lack of progress on moving downtown shelter

Sun., Oct. 15, 2023

In April of 2022, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward announced during her state-of-the-city address that the House of Charity homeless shelter would be moving out of downtown – and that Catholic Charities would reopen a larger, better facility elsewhere in the city.

News >  Health

Shawn Vestal: Reclaim Project helps steer men away from the ‘lion’s den’ of addiction

Sun., Oct. 8, 2023

It’s a sunny autumn afternoon, and Lucas Torresdal is using a small chainsaw to trim away limbs and trunks from invasive elms clustered around a power pole in a vacant lot in the Spokane Valley.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The story of sheriff and the pilfered books needs a new ending

Wed., Oct. 4, 2023

It’s called stealing, sheriff.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Arguments around anti-camping initiative sail into sea of legal uncertainty

UPDATED: Wed., Oct. 18, 2023

The anti-camping initiative on the November ballot for Spokane voters has been pitched as narrowly focused on protecting children – outlawing camping anywhere within a 1,000-foot radius of a school, day care center, park or playground.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: A former U.S. attorney’s journey of 1,000 miles, one step at a time

Sun., Sept. 17, 2023

Joseph Harrington retired from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Spokane and has undertaken the famed Via Francigena pilgrimage, hiking from England to Rome. He's learning a little something along the way, too.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The consensus on warming and human activity is ‘unequivocal’

Wed., Sept. 13, 2023

If you’re a regular reader of this page, then you’ll understand that a review of the actual, undistorted climate science, and the role of human beings in warming the planet, is in order.

A&E >  Music

Shawn Vestal: Exuberant Yo-Yo Ma spreads joy to symphony, students in Spokane

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 6, 2023

Fifteen-year-old cellist Owen Peterman put on a white shirt and black tie and showed up looking sharp at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox on Wednesday afternoon eager to “see just how amazing a musician can be.”

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: In the year before girl’s death, a series of calls from neighbors and school officials

Sun., Sept. 3, 2023

The last time Daniel Herrera saw Meela Miller – the girl he had helped to raise like a daughter – was July 2022.

Opinion

Shawn Vestal: Shea’s blessing a political curse for the mayor who joined him onstage

Tue., Aug. 22, 2023

Just how politically radioactive is Matt Shea these days?

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: ‘Shock and disbelief’ after wildfire razes homes in Medical Lake

UPDATED: Sun., Aug. 20, 2023

When Mike and Stephanie Zappone left their home early Friday afternoon, they noticed a little smoke in the rearview mirror. It wasn’t a particularly unusual sight this time of year.

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Judges push back on claims that they’re releasing people because the jail is crowded

Fri., Aug. 18, 2023

When public officials lined up Monday to make a pitch for the $1.7 billion sales-tax increase to build a new Spokane jail and fund public-safety programs, one of their arguments was that judges are releasing defendants – including those facing “dozens” of new felony charges – because the jail is full.

News

Shawn Vestal: Spokane couple helps those suffering after Maui wildfires

Tue., Aug. 15, 2023

What they noticed first was the wind.

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: A stray comment, a controversial figure, and the push for a homeless plan draws fire

Sun., Aug. 13, 2023

Four years ago, developer Larry Stone offered his cure for Spokane’s homelessness – and drove a wedge into the political debate about the issue.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: The corrupt underside of the age of the selfie thrives online

Sun., July 30, 2023

When the former editor of this newspaper, Steven A. Smith, was arrested and accused of purchasing pornographic images and videos of children, a disturbing fact stood out: The young victims appear to have taken and sold the material themselves, using Instagram as a marketplace.

A&E >  Dining

Shawn Vestal: One family, one restaurant, four generations

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 11, 2023

Eddie K. Eng was born more than nine decades ago in the Taishan region of China, an area that historically produced so much emigration to America that it bills itself as the “First Home of the Overseas Chinese.”

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The tables have turned on Spokane in the tale of the bused-in homeless

Sun., July 16, 2023

There is a long-running fable about homelessness in Spokane that goes something like this: We are suffering from a crisis that has been exported from the urban hellholes on the coast.

News >  Higher education

WSU students had an early role on Titan project, years before implosion

Sun., July 9, 2023

A pair of students who were in the process of graduating in engineering from the school's Everett campus were involved in early planning for the company, but left in 2019, a school spokeswoman said last week. 

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Part of SPD’s resource challenge is the need to deploy more officers to calls

UPDATED: Sun., July 2, 2023

Last year, a whole lot of police cars filled my street one afternoon – six or seven units, including a K-9 rig.