Shawn Vestal

If Sandpoint native Sarah Heath Palin becomes Alaska's next governor, she'll have earned several distinctions. She'd be the first woman to serve in that office. And she would have gotten there after blowing the whistle on her own party's top officials for ethics violations – an act that left her on the outs with party operatives but gave her a strong image as a populist reformer.

For years, Jan Richards has needed help to vote. A 51-year-old Spokane woman who has multiple sclerosis, Richards has typically had her husband or poll workers help her read and fill out ballots. Unlike most voters, her ballot was never fully secret.

PULLMAN – The tiny, pixilated red smudges on John Blakeslee's computer screen may not look like much. But they're the clearest pictures yet of the early universe, almost 13 billion years ago. The smudges are some of the oldest galaxies scientists have ever spotted, which are alight with the first stars in the universe.

MOSCOW – The newest college on the Palouse is trying to return to some old ideas. Students at New Saint Andrews College learn ancient languages and read heavily from the Western canon, in a curriculum based on Calvinist theology. There's no such thing as a major. Most exams are oral. School officials say it's an effort to return to a classical model of higher education. A modern university education, said college President Roy Atwood, with its emphasis on elective majors and job preparation, is "only going to train people to be widgets, and plug into low-paying jobs. It's not going to train people to be leaders and visionaries."

PULLMAN – Researchers are asking a lot of questions at Washington State University. Does environmental pollution cause disease for generations? What do the earliest galaxies in the universe look like?

MOSCOW, Idaho – The war on terrorism can't be won using traditional military operations, two former senators agreed Thursday. That was just one subject on which Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat, and Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican, managed to find agreement during their 90-minute dialogue about national security and the Constitution at the University of Idaho. The former senators addressed a crowd at the UI's annual Bellwood Lecture, and spoke to students and the press earlier in the day.

Spokane author Jess Walter was named a finalist Wednesday for the National Book Award for his new novel, "The Zero," putting him in the running for one of the country's most prestigious literary honors. Walter was in San Francisco on a book tour in support of the new novel, and he attended Wednesday's announcement at the famous City Lights Bookstore. He had been notified Tuesday but sworn to secrecy.

J.D. Potter, covered head to toe in camouflage, sprinted to a sandbag barrier and dived to the ground. After a couple of seconds, he stood and hurled a grenade into the woods, where a percussive boom signaled he'd hit his target.

The number of people enrolling in Washington's booming prepaid tuition plan keeps rising – new accounts are up 12 percent so far this year, and it's the nation's fastest-growing plan. For Spokane families like the Harrises and the Dickmans, the reasons are obvious. By opening an account with the state, families can freeze the cost of tuition, paying today's rates for tomorrow's classes.

When L. Denice Randle was looking to go from Pierce Community College to a four-year school, she was sure of one thing. "I knew I wanted to be immersed in black culture," she said. So the story of how she wound up attending mostly white Whitworth College in mostly white Spokane involves a few twists and turns. But Randle is one of 41 top inner-city students who have come to Whitworth from Tacoma in the past four years as part of a program that is becoming a model in helping low-income urban students succeed. The program, Act Six, is expected to graduate its first 12 students this spring. Forty-one students have entered the program since it began, and just one has dropped out. The group carries an average GPA of 3.42, and it includes several student leaders – including the student body president, Fa'ana Fanene.

It's probably never been easy to live next door to a bunch of college students. Drinking and loud parties. Overcrowded apartments and parking lots. Litter and vandalism.

For the first time in several years, overall enrollments at the Palouse campuses of the University of Idaho and Washington State University have dropped. But rising enrollments on branch campuses have offset that trend at least a bit, with increases in students attending Spokane's WSU programs, Coeur d'Alene's UI campus and others.

Of all the people riding horses Sunday at the Spokane Polo Club, Dylan Corbin was the one least prepared for it. Corbin, an 11-year-old from Valleyford who has leukemia, showed up at the fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House and Make-A-Wish Foundation unaware that he was going to have his own wish granted – the gift of a quarterhorse named Sly.

In the five years since two jetliners struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center, tens of millions of dollars in Homeland Security funding have poured into the Inland Northwest. Rural counties purchased radio towers and protective gear. Spokane and Kootenai counties invested in big emergency trucks filled with high-tech communications and safety gear. Hospitals and public health agencies received decontamination equipment, and police officers were trained in rescuing people from collapsed buildings. Training exercises costing tens of thousands of dollars are held each year so "first responders" such as police officers and firefighters can practice for disaster.

College students came streaming back into Spokane on Friday, moving into dorms at Gonzaga University and getting ready for the big show the school puts on for newcomers. A student version of "The Dating Game" called Snag-A-Zag. A boat cruise. Improv comedy. Barbecues and rafting. The school even asked incoming students to read "Into Thin Air," an account of climbing Mount Everest, to prepare them for the theme of orientation – Base Camp 2006.