Stories by Thomas Clouse for the Spokesman-Review

News > Spokane

Women of the Year: Gold Star mother turns son’s death into mission to help veterans

Sat., Sept. 21, 2019

Theresa Hart’s grief still shuts her down some eight years since her son was killed in Iraq. Her outlet for all that pain is to make sure other veterans get anything they need, for free, to ease their transition back to what most people know as normal.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Judge moves accused Freeman shooter Caleb Sharpe’s murder trial to 2020

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 20, 2019

Just a week after Freeman High School observed a moment of silence to remember Sam Strahan, a Spokane County judge rescheduled the first-degree murder trial of Caleb Sharpe to Oct. 5, 2020, just more than three years after the school shooting that killed Sam and injured three girls.

News > Spokane

Judge tosses confession of former LC student accused of harassing students, threatening to ‘shoot up’ school

UPDATED: Thu., Sept. 19, 2019

A judge on Thursday threw out the confession of former Lewis and Clark High School student Ryan B. Lee, who had been charged with harassing other students and threatening to shoot up the school.

News > Nation

9th Circuit sends ‘torture’ case involving Mitchell and Jessen back to Spokane judge

UPDATED: Thu., Sept. 19, 2019

In a split decision, federal appellate judges have ruled that a federal judge in Spokane must reconsider his dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to interview former Spokane psychologists James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen about the “torture” of a detainee who was being held in a CIA “black site” in Poland.

News > Spokane

Federal judge gives former Meals on Wheels bookkeeper 3 years in federal prison

UPDATED: Thu., Sept. 12, 2019

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels bookkeeper to three years in federal prison, which was more prison time than prosecutors had sought.

News > Spokane

Foreigner rocks Spokane County Fair even without co-founder Mick Jones

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 11, 2019

Classic rock filled the night Wednesday. But the only remaining original member of Foreigner sat out the Spokane County Interstate Fair.

News > Spokane

Company demonstrates ‘salmon cannon’ technology’s potential to restore species to the Upper Columbia

Wed., Sept. 11, 2019

Standing above the point where Chief Joseph Dam prevents thousands of chinook salmon each year from migrating upstream in the Columbia River, Darnell Sam praised new technology that could restore salmon runs all the way to Canada and beyond.

News > Washington

Broken lock shuts down barge traffic on Columbia River system

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 9, 2019

One of two ways that Pacific Northwest farmers get their wheat to export in Portland has been shut down after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped barge traffic on the Columbia River around the Bonneville Dam after a crack was found on a critical part of one of its massive locks.

News > Spokane

Associated Industries settles ‘self-dealing’ complaint by paying feds $1 million

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 9, 2019

The U.S. Department of Labor has settled a claim against a Spokane-based business organization over allegations that its leaders secretly transferred $3 million from a trust fund set up to lower health insurance costs for 800 local businesses to instead enrich their own for-profit company.

News > Spokane

Facing turnover, huge caseloads and complaints, Spokane County considers turning Public Defender’s Office into nonprofit

Sun., Sept. 8, 2019

Spokane County appears poised to overturn decades of precedent and hand the responsibility of representing indigent suspects to lawyers who work for a nonprofit rather than the county. The move comes as turnover in the Public Defender's Office has meant more time in jail for some clients as they await progress on their cases.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Caleb Sharpe will get public defender in Freeman school shooting case

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 4, 2019

Accused Freeman shooter Caleb Sharpe will be represented by the Spokane County Public Defender’s Office.

News > Spokane

Nurse wins $260,000 judgment against former Deaconess owners over domestic violence leave

Tue., Sept. 3, 2019

A Spokane nurse has won a $260,000 judgment against the former owners of Deaconess Hospital after she lost her job in 2015 following her request for paid leave because she had become the victim of domestic violence.

News > Spokane

Spokane judge dismisses domestic violence charge against football legend Mark Rypien

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 30, 2019

A judge on Friday dismissed the misdemeanor domestic violence charges against former NFL and Washington State quarterback Mark Rypien, his attorney said

News > Spokane

Judge dismisses felony cruelty charges in squirrel deaths

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 29, 2019

A Greenacres woman is no longer facing nine felony charges for her efforts to prevent squirrels from raiding her beloved walnut tree. But for the nine squirrels, the death penalty could not be reversed on appeal.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Spokane jury convicts man in killing of Montana Sen. Tester’s nephew

UPDATED: Wed., Aug. 28, 2019

The 8-year-old daughter of Robert Tester awoke in 2016 to see a masked man plunge a sword into her father. The killer then turned toward the girl with a message: “Stay here, I’m going to kill your daddy,” according to court testimony.

News > Spokane

Weed control boards tested by outbreak of noxious skeletonweed

UPDATED: Mon., Aug. 26, 2019

It takes a weed whacking and comes back faster than any plant around it. The sprawling green stems spread both by seeds and by the root you just left in the ground. It’s a non-native noxious weed called rush skeletonweed and it probably has already infested a road ditch or a field near you.

News > Agriculture

New wheat variety ‘Ryan’ could boost markets for Washington farmers

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 22, 2019

The variety of soft-white wheat, which has been under development for a decade, was called “Ryan” in honor of the late Ryan A. Davis, a WSU alum and former manager of the university’s Spillman and Cook research farms. Davis died of cancer in 2016 at age 38.

News > Spokane

Spokane man gets 13 years after pleading guilty in drug case

Mon., Aug. 19, 2019

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Spokane man to more than 13 years in federal prison after he earlier pleaded guilty to possessing meth

News > Crime/Public Safety

Suspect dead after deputies responded to shots fired in Spokane Valley

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 16, 2019

An apparent jilted ex-boyfriend is suspected of firing multiple rounds Friday morning at a Spokane Valley business park before two officers arrived and shot the suspect, who then crashed into a tree before he was pronounced dead.

News > Spokane

Spokane judge sets trial date for charged Freeman High School shooter Caleb Sharpe

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 16, 2019

A judge on Friday set an Oct. 7 trial date for accused Freeman High School shooter Caleb Sharpe, but the defense attorney indicated that the trial is likely not to occur in two months.

News > Spokane

Farmers harvesting Washington wheat at a loss

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 15, 2019

Massive combines have begun transforming much of the Palouse from waving fields of wheat into vast expanses of stubble. But the farmers cutting that crop are currently selling the grain at or below what it costs them to produce it.

News > Spokane

Spokane judge sentences convicted baby killer Mobley to 28 years in prison

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 9, 2019

Convicted baby killer Joshua J. Mobley was ordered Friday to serve 28 years in prison after a Spokane County jury convicted him in June of killing a 10-month-old boy that he was babysitting in 2017.

News > Agriculture

Washington farmers react to China’s announcement to boycott U.S. ag products

Fri., Aug. 9, 2019

Had China’s announcement this week to stop purchasing U.S. agricultural products been the first volley of a trade war, local trade officials would have taken it like a punch to the face. But two years into an off-again- on-again trade war, Washington agriculture officials just kind of shrugged this one off.

News > Spokane

Fire near Cataldo threatens structures, forces closures

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 8, 2019

Fire crews in Idaho have begun fighting a new forest fire located two miles north of Cataldo. It has grown to about 200 acres, is threatening structures and could impact travelers on Interstate 90 due to smoke.

News > Spokane

Adult film actress from Post Falls pleads guilty to paying ‘hitman’ to kill her child’s father

UPDATED: Mon., Aug. 5, 2019

An adult film actress from Post Falls has pleaded guilty to a federal charge that she agreed to pay $5,000 to a “hitman” to kill the father of one of her children. The “hitman” turned out to be an undercover police officer in Montana.

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