Shawn Vestal

When Eastern Washington University started its computer science program, the boxy little Macintosh was making waves and personal computers were still exotic. A quarter-century later, things have changed a bit. Most of us carry hundreds of times more computing power on devices in our pockets than the original Mac had. And the EWU program has trained hundreds of computer scientists, programmers, game designers and animators, and others working on the computer systems entwined in every area of modern life.

Dan and Teresa McCann’s 100-year-old home in the South Perry neighborhood was like a lot of old houses. The furnace was a couple of decades old. They had a “little cheapy” water heater, Dan McCann said. Air flowed around windows and doors and through cracks in the foundation.

A controversial 10-story development in the West Central neighborhood is moving forward again, after a city hearing examiner signed off on revised plans for the project. The developer of the proposed office complex and parking garage has been seeking a zoning change since 2007 to allow the project to reach 150 feet tall, well over the 35-foot limit. The proposal has divided neighbors and followed a tangled path through the public approval process, suffering an initial rejection from the city hearings officer, a reversal from the City Council, and a lawsuit, which is under appeal.

The recession is finding its way to the dinner table for more and more people. A new federal survey shows the number of people without a steady, reliable supply of food was at 15 percent in 2008, the highest since statistics on “food insecurity” began. And while the figures for Washington and Idaho were somewhat better, local experts say the stats just haven’t caught up with this year’s reality.

Michele Squires hadn’t seen her old Volkswagen van for more than three decades, when a familiar sight cropped up Friday on the TV news.

Customs agents in Los Angeles found a surprise last month when they opened a shipping container headed for the Netherlands: a restored 1965 Volkswagen van reported stolen in Spokane more than 35 years ago. Investigators are still trying to figure out how the van made it from Spokane in the midst of Expo ’74 to the Los Angeles seaport last month, though they assume it changed hands several times. The van was reported stolen from an auto upholstery shop on July 12, 1974; authorities have not been able to find the original owner, whom they would not identify.

Customs agents got a little surprise last month when they opened a shipping container headed for The Netherlands: A 1965 Volkswagen van, in immaculate condition, that was reported stolen in Spokane more than 35 years ago.

The latest plan to limit algae-producing phosphorus in the Spokane River is drawing critics from all directions as Washington officials consider whether to move ahead with it. One company that discharges phosphorus in its wastewater, Inland Empire Paper Co., says new pollution limits might put it out of business. Avista Utilities says it would be on the hook for pollution it doesn’t cause. City officials in Idaho say Washington regulators are overstepping their authority by setting limits for wastewater plants across the border.

It’s a tough time to be selling lattes. Long the target of frugal-living gurus, espresso drinks have risen lately to the top of seemingly every list of money-saving tips out there. Put Google to work on the subject and you’ll quickly find that cutting out lattes is the way to “Scrimp and Save During An Economic Recession,” “Survive a Recession” – even “How to Pay for Private or Catholic School Tuition in a Recession Economy.”

Green Bluff apple growers are holding their breath, hoping that record cold nights over the weekend didn’t do too much damage to the fruit still on the trees. Some apple varieties can make it through a freeze all right, depending on a range of factors, farmers say. But this weekend’s temperatures were at historic lows in the Spokane area, at or below 20 degrees for three straight nights, and growers said they’re not sure how well the apples will recover.

Gary Livingston, a longtime fixture in local education, will step down as the chancellor of the Community Colleges of Spokane after this academic year. Livingston, 62, said he intends to spend time with family, travel and remain involved in several local organizations. He has been chancellor at CCS since 2002, and he was superintendent of Spokane Public Schools from 1993 to 2001.

When Lori Pfingst considers the statistics that will tell the tale of this recession, she isn’t thinking about GDP or unemployment. She’s thinking about teen pregnancy. Low birthweight babies. WASL scores and college enrollments.

John Grant is trying to stay positive. He visits the WorkSource office in Spokane three times a week to apply for jobs. He’s taken a part-time, minimum-wage position as a janitor. And throughout his household – which includes him, his longtime “sweetie,” her adult daughter and two grandchildren – frugality is a necessity, not a choice.

With a “criminally insane” man who brutally murdered a 78-year-old woman 22 years ago on the loose after escaping from a group outing at the Spokane County Fair, local officials still have some vexing questions. Why did Eastern State Hospital bring a group of 31 patients – including at least one with a violent criminal past – to the fair without notifying anyone of their presence? And why did it take Eastern staff two hours or more after Phillip A. Paul went missing to notify fair officials or police?

The number of people turning out for community bicycling events is growing in Spokane. It all adds up to a strong – if non-scientific – impression among bicycling enthusiasts: Spokane is inching its way toward becoming more of a “bike city.”

Even in a recession, times are good for some people. Stacia Douglas is happy to be swimming against the current. Several months into a new job at Spokane’s VA Medical Center, Douglas is happy that she’s been able to buy a home and move out of the trailer where she had been living with her daughter. She’s feeling better about herself after getting counseling for issues that have dogged her for years, and has been able to expand the range of conveniences in her life – getting DirecTV instead of picking up broadcast channels, upgrading to high-speed Internet.

If this were a marriage, it would be the pearl anniversary. But when it comes to the 30-year love affair between Spokane and Pig Out in the Park, the appropriate symbol is more swine than pearl – from the pig on the poster to the pork in the sausages. The annual festival of heaping plates and free music opens its six-day run today in Riverfront Park. It’s become such a staple of late summer in Spokane that organizer Bill Burke has a little trouble remembering its origins.

Jody Harville was getting fed up with small credit-card purchases consuming her profit margin. Like a lot of small-business owners, Harville pays transaction fees to banks and credit-card processors, which make small transactions a money-losing proposition. So she set a dollar fee for credit card purchases of up to $10 at her downtown Spokane restaurant, the Brooklyn Deli.