The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
50°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report
Subscribe now

Tom Bowers

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

All Stories

News >  Features

Artist uncovers Whitworth trove

Two decades ago, artist Tom O’Day effectively threw away 30 works of art by burying them six feet deep on the Whitworth University campus. Today, he’s going back for them.
News >  Spokane

Trouble brewing: Price of hops hits home

Don't be surprised if a pint of beer costs a bit more at the local brewpub. Brewers are declaring a state of emergency because of a scarcity of hops, one of the three key ingredients in beer.
News >  Features

Local man produces world-class guitars in Spokane home

Imagine purchasing a guitar straight from the person who crafted it, and having him be able to tell you what the weather was like the day he sanded the fret board. Or where the tree grew and how old it was when it fell. In a world where we all strive to customize – whether it be cars, bikes, blogs or burgers – guitarists seek out people like Joel Stehr.
A&E >  Food

Love me tender

In the butcher's lexicon, the word "aging" is a fancy term for "controlled rotting." Most people ignore that truth, but the fact remains: Fanatical foodies pay big to slide their teeth through buttery hunks of old beef. So why do people pay a prime penny to steakhouses and specialty butchers for beef that's been aged past normal standards for consumption?
News >  Spokane

SUV strikes, drags man

Brian Parr looked up just in time to throw his daughter's stroller out of the way before being run over by an SUV while crossing Third Avenue at Monroe Street in Spokane on Monday afternoon, witnesses said. "I went to reach for him to stop him," said Parr's fiancee, Kalynn Cook. The couple was crossing the street with their nearly 2-year-old daughter, Lillyann Parr.
News >  Business

Ridpath restaurants getting new look

The restaurant management group responsible for the downtown Spokane sushi lounge Bluefish recently stepped up to fill a pair of landmark gaps in the local nightlife scene. Spokane-based Cuisine Northwest was selected by the Artisan Hotel group, the Las Vegas-based hotel chain which purchased the Ridpath Hotel in 2006, to renovate and re-imagine the former homes of the street-level Silver Grill and Ankeny's rooftop restaurant in the Ridpath complex.
News >  Spokane

For these fans, exploring city is key part of trip

A globe-trotting gaggle of die-hard skating fans sampled Syrah and learned the basics of wine fermentation on Wednesday from Greg Lipsker, owner of Barrister Winery. The visit capped an afternoon tour of four Spokane-area wineries that the group started planning weeks ago through Spokane Winery Tours.
News >  Spokane

Arena helping area restaurants

Eating three meals a day at Spokane Arena might get old by the end of skating week. That is, unless a skating fan can live on little more than German sausage, stuffed pretzels and minidoughnuts.
News >  Business

Losing your good name

Melissa Massie first discovered that she didn't own the rights to her restaurant's name when Sonic Drive-In accused her of violating federal trademark law. Suddenly, the 26-year-old Spokane business owner found herself scrambling to find a new name for Sonic Burritos, the popular Gonzaga University-neighborhood hangout she purchased in 2003, or face a lengthy, expensive legal battle over the rights to keep the name.
News >  Spokane

Jello Biafra speaks his mind

A middle-aged punk rocker rallied on Thursday to ignite a progressive revolution in a room packed with community college students from conservative-minded Spokane. "What can we do," Jello Biafra asked the estimated 300-plus crowd at Spokane Falls Community College, "to keep ourselves (from) being dragged any further down the road to ruin and off a cliff and down the toilet by a Bush, a Dick and, until recently, a Colin?"
A&E >  Entertainment

Sushi on the South Hill

If Eastern Washington flooded, the South Hill could end up an island. Maybe that's what Noel Macapagal has in mind with his recently opened island cuisine and sushi fusion joint.
News >  Features

‘P is for Potato’ author speaking at CdA Borders

Youthful Washingtonians looking to check up on their french-fried neighbors will want to head to the Coeur d'Alene Borders Books, 450 W. Wilbur Ave., on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Stan Steiner, author of "P is for Potato: An Idaho Alphabet," will speak to children about Idaho and other states as part of Discover America State by State, a nationwide program to encourage state awareness.
A&E >  Entertainment

Schooled in single malt science

George Thorogood and "Swingers" taught me all I used to know about Scotch. I'd pour single malts over rocks, drink shots of Scotch alongside Bourbon and beer, and when I had the money, "any Glen" would do.
News >  Spokane

Maturing Pearl Jam keeps their energy

As teenagers, my friends and I looked on the rebellious music and social attitude of the 1990s as our version of the 1960s: the same, only angrier. The theme carried into our twenties, and now we hear political pundits refer to Iraq as the next Vietnam.
News >  Spokane

Garage rock giants deserve larger crowd

Gates at the Gorge Amphitheatre opened to a ghost town of no lines and boarded-up concession stands for the White Stripes concert on Saturday afternoon. A question came to mind: This is a platinum-selling band; where are all the fans?
A&E >  Entertainment

It’s time for us to meet the Styx machine

Editor's note: With the Styx concert at Silver Mountain Amphitheater on Sunday, 7 revisited the band's 1983 sci-fi concept album "Kilroy was Here." The following is a fictional interpretation – inspired by the album's liner notes – of the events portrayed in the climactic song "Mr. Roboto," in which the rock-star hero escapes from prison disguised as a robot guard. All quotes are lines from the song. Walls. Nothing but gray walls.
A&E >  Entertainment

Sleater-Kinney to open for Stripes

A sentence you probably will hear at The Gorge on Saturday: "Dude, that's nothing – I saw The White Stripes open for Sleater-Kinney back before they were big." The one-upper may not be telling the truth, but one thing's for sure: Back in the day, Sleater-Kinney gave The White Stripes a leg up.
A&E >  Entertainment

Deconstructing McLean’s masterpiece

Most everyone knows the approximate chorus to "American Pie." Whether those "good ol' boys" are drinking whiskey and rye, drinking whiskey and wine or if they drink their whiskey and cry, you don't change the radio station on "Pie."
A&E >  Entertainment

Graphic novels mix literature, art

Everything's a graphic novel nowadays. Batman, Superman, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, you name it – if its monthly issues are collected into book form, someone somewhere is calling it a graphic novel.