Stories by Thomas Clouse for the Spokesman-Review

News > Crime/Public Safety

‘He’s going to get judgment’: Man linked to two Spokane killings dies on parole in Boise

UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 30, 2025

Some unnamed recipients will soon receive the transplanted liver and kidneys from a double killing suspect from Spokane.

News > Weather

Brief snow blast allows Mt. Spokane to open amid historically ‘mellow winter’

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 29, 2025

A brief blast of cold and some scrappy new snow-moving techniques allowed Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park to open this past weekend.

News > Pacific NW

Spokane honors killed state trooper with lowered flags

Fri., Dec. 26, 2025

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown announced Wednesday that employees will lower flags to half-staff at all city facilities to honor a Washington State Patrol trooper who was killed on December 19 as she worked a collision in Tacoma.

News

Idaho State Police awards dispatchers for helping solve case that turned out to be false

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 22, 2025

The Idaho State Police announced Monday that it has awarded two dispatchers with its Distinguished Achievement Award after they helped piece together information that led to the arrest of a kidnapping suspect last June.

News > Business

VIsit Spokane announces new board members

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 19, 2025

Visit Spokane on Friday announced the appointment of its board of directors for the coming year.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Medical Examiner identifies two men who died in Spokane County Jail

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 19, 2025

The Spokane County Medical Examiner's Office on Friday identified two men who died while in custody Monday inside the Spokane County Jail.

News > Business

Alaska Airlines adds nonstop flight to Anchorage

UPDATED: Thu., Dec. 18, 2025

Spokane commuters will soon have a new option for flying to Alaska.

News > Higher education

Wind storm takes down historic presidential trees on University of Idaho campus

UPDATED: Wed., Dec. 17, 2025

The windstorm that raced across the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday apparently held little regard for history.

News > Weather

Damaging windstorm predicted to hit Spokane Region early Wednesday; utilities and city offer tips to prepare and stay safe

UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 16, 2025

Strong winds will hit the Spokane region early Wednesday morning with predicted speeds that could match the devastating wind storm of 2015, according to the National Weather Service.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Spokane man sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to rape of child

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 12, 2025

A Spokane man was sentenced Friday to serve 16 years-to-life in prison after previously pleading guilty to three counts of rape of a child in the first degree.

News > Business

CdA urban renewal organization names new CEO

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 12, 2025

The urban-renewal organization ignite cda, which until 2015 was the Lake City Development Corporation, announced Friday the appointment of a new CEO to replace longtime leader Tony Berns.

News > Spokane

Charity founder Rick Clark cleared of fraud allegations

UPDATED: Fri., Dec. 12, 2025

A local charity founder recently was cleared of criminal wrongdoing after allegations of misuse of donated funds were found to be without merit.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Fire destroys north Spokane business, damages another

UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 9, 2025

A fire that appeared to have originated in a parked vehicle destroyed one business and damaged another Tuesday in a six-unit structure in north Spokane.

News > Business

Locust Cider announces closure of Spokane taproom

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 8, 2025

The owners of Locust Cider and Brewing Co. recently announced that they closed their taproom in Spokane.

News > Business

Ashley Store opening in Spokane and Moscow

UPDATED: Thu., Dec. 4, 2025

Broad River Retail announced on Thursday that it plans to open a new Ashley Store in Moscow next year. That event follows the expected opening later this month of the company's largest store in the former Macy's building in NorthTown Mall.

News > Business

Owners of longtime Spokane restaurant Thai Bamboo seeks buyer for three locations

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 8, 2025

Thai Bamboo is not closing, but the owners of the 25-year-old franchise of three restaurants are looking to sell to a buyer who, ideally, would keep the name, employees and menu.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Don Brockett, who served as Spokane County prosecutor for quarter century, dies

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 1, 2025

Donald C. Brockett, a lawyer who served as Spokane County Prosecutor for a quarter century and who once had a mother of a suspect pay a hitman to render him a "vegetable, has died. He was 89.

News > Local business

Downriver Grill owners placing restaurant up for sale

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 27, 2025

The owners of longtime Spokane restaurant Downriver Grill have announced that their eatery is for sale.

News > Business

Verizon announces layoffs, including a dozen Spokane-area employees

UPDATED: Tue., Nov. 25, 2025

Verizon this week informed state officials that it intends to layoff 165 employees throughout the state including 10 who work in Spokane and two in Spokane Valley.

News > Business

Three Spokane-area businesses received trade-association awards

UPDATED: Fri., Nov. 21, 2025

Three Spokane-area businesses won top awards Thursday as part of the Association of Washington Business' annual event highlighting businesses that displayed excellence in their fields.

News > Health

Thousands to treat a runny nose? New Post Falls hospital’s billing practices under scrutiny

UPDATED: Mon., Nov. 24, 2025

The largest insurance provider in Idaho announced this week that it is seeking a state investigation into how a new hospital in Post Falls is billing its patients by using an arbitration process that it claims has inflated patients' medical costs.

News > Health

Sacred Heart halts heart transplants amid staffing shortage: ‘We don’t have the people’

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 20, 2025

Officials at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center announced Thursday that those seeking heart transplants must go elsewhere.

News > Local business

Karen Worthy, the more cautious partner in the effort to save the Davenport Hotel, dies at 81

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 20, 2025

The couple who started with office buildings before taking a flier on a historic hotel property in downtown Spokane, recently lost the former first-grade teacher who displayed a knack for keeping her impulsive husband in check. Karen L. Worthy, wife of hotelier and developer Walt Worthy, died earlier this month. She was 81.

News > Weather

Knockout blow: 2015’s Windstorm devastated Spokane and changed how we look at big pines

UPDATED: Fri., Nov. 14, 2025

Inland Northwest weather disasters, like the Ice Storm of 1996 and 'Snowmageddon' of 2008, hit the Spokane region as sort of surprises. But 10 years ago, forecasters began, days in advance, warning folks that a sledgehammer of a wind storm was headed this way.

News

Motive for Post Falls house destruction remains mystery

UPDATED: Thu., Nov. 13, 2025

Whoever jumped into a Komatsu excavator Tuesday morning and proceeded to systematically destroy a Post Falls home displayed mad skills.

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