Thomas Clouse

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Sports >  WSU football

WSU quarterback Tyler Hilinski suffered from CTE when he killed himself

UPDATED: Tue., June 26, 2018

Tyler Hilinski cemented his place in Washington State lore in September with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Morrow in double overtime to claim a 47-44 win over Boise State.

News >  Spokane

Red Pill Expo kicks off with a tribute to LaVoy Finicum

Fri., June 22, 2018

The Red Pill Expo kicked off Thursday night with a multipart documentary on the life, thoughts and actions of LaVoy Finicum that culminated with his shooting after he fled in 2016 from the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

News >  Spokane

Red Pill Expo brings leading contrarians to Spokane

UPDATED: Thu., June 21, 2018

An event that falls somewhere between the 2016 Oregon standoff and the movie “Matrix” kicks off Thursday at the Spokane Convention Center with the premier of a movie honoring slain rancher LaVoy Finicum.

News >  Spokane

Jury acquits Chattaroy woman of killing 5-year-old nephew

UPDATED: Tue., June 19, 2018

After being freed from three years of living as the accused killer of a boy she rescued from a life of foster homes, Cynthia L. Khaleel sat at the court table Tuesday and sobbed.

News >  Spokane

Jury deciding whether Chattaroy woman was a supermom who killed child under pressure

UPDATED: Mon., June 18, 2018

Cynthia L. Khaleel was either a “supermom” who lost her temper and did something to fracture the skull of her adoptive nephew; or she was wrongfully charged with murder for a tragic accident that killed a 5-year-old boy.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Accused mother testifies she didn’t cause fractured skull that killed boy

UPDATED: Fri., June 15, 2018

So many things about the two-week long murder trial of a Chattaroy woman didn’t fit the stereotypical image of a suspect with a long criminal history fighting for freedom after some terrible event.

News >  Washington

Tiny town of Mesa ordered to pay $175,000 to former mayor over records dispute

Fri., June 15, 2018

In a war of words, or a legal battle over a lack of them, the tiny town of Mesa, Washington, was ordered Thursday to fork over $175,000 to its former mayor following a 16-year legal battle that started with a revoked building permit.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Medical expert for the defense testifies in Khaleel trial, says short fall could have fractured 5-year-old boy’s skull

UPDATED: Wed., June 13, 2018

A day after the jury viewed gruesome photos of a 5-year-old’s fractured skull, the defense attorney for accused killer Cynthia L. Khaleel brought his own medical expert to suggest that the blow that ended the troubled boy’s life could have come from a short fall.

News >  Spokane

Medical examiner describes 5-year-old’s fractured skull as one of the worst he’s seen

UPDATED: Tue., June 12, 2018

The cellphone video shows all the children in Cynthia Khaleel’s home sitting in front of plates of food, laughing and dancing on demand. Only hours later, 5-year-old Gary Blanton III would be rushed to a hospital on April 17, 2015, with a skull so broken that doctors knew right away they couldn’t save him.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Hanford whistleblower case settles for $5.5 million in total fines

UPDATED: Sat., June 9, 2018

Eight years ago, Salina Savage took on government contractors who had used a shell company to prevent legitimate businesses from receiving lucrative jobs at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The Richland-based whistleblower’s case finally settled this week, generating more than $5.5 million in fines against the company and a total of $690,000 paid to Savage for alerting the government to the swindle.

News >  Business

Federal judge in Spokane dismisses suit seeking to reinstate country-of-origin labels on imported meat

Thu., June 7, 2018

Where’s the beef from? It will remain a mystery. A federal judge in Spokane this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by domestic livestock producers who were attempting to erase a 2016 decision by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop labeling the country-of-origin on beef and pork imports.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Trial opens against aunt charged with killing 5-year-old Chattaroy boy

UPDATED: Wed., June 6, 2018

Five-year-old Gary Blanton III either accidentally fell from his brother’s crib and fractured his skull, or the boy became the assault victim of a frustrated aunt whose nerves snapped as she tried her best to play the role of a “super mom.”

News >  Spokane

Benefits “flip-flopping” by the VA may earn former deputy new fraud trial

Mon., June 4, 2018

A former Spokane County sheriff’s deputy may get a new trial after one of the federal agencies he was convicted of defrauding somehow didn’t keep up on current events and restored his full benefits some four months after he was found guilty at a public trial.

News >  Education

Investigation of Eastern Washington volleyball uncovers series of concerns

Sat., June 2, 2018

The Eastern Washington University volleyball program is in tatters following a school investigation into an alleged improper payment to a player, fired coaches, missing cash from a program account and student athletes abandoning the team.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Spokane attorney charged with forging judge’s signatures

Thu., May 24, 2018

A Spokane attorney pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six felony charges relating signatures on court orders from Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno, who later told police investigators were forged.

News >  Agriculture

Chinese middle class could be boon for Washington ranchers

UPDATED: Wed., May 23, 2018

The prices that small-operation ranchers in Washington get for their cattle is tied to the global economy, making it about as hard to predict as the prairie rain.

News >  Agriculture

Ranchers wrangle a living history out of Eastern Washington scablands

UPDATED: Wed., May 23, 2018

Tucked within miles of barbed-wire fences and basalt columns southwest of Spokane reside what’s left of the American West: Ranchers who scratch out a living from hard work and prairie grass.

News >  Spokane

Judge rules prosecutors can use Caleb Sharpe’s statements following Freeman High School shooting

UPDATED: Mon., May 21, 2018

A judge ruled Monday that all the statements that Caleb Sharpe gave Spokane County sheriff’s detectives just minutes after the Freeman High School shooting can be used in the hearing to determine whether he faces a murder charge as an adult.

News >  Spokane

Declination hearing delayed again for suspected Freeman shooter Caleb Sharpe

UPDATED: Thu., May 17, 2018

The hearing required by law to be held within 14 days to determine whether suspected Freeman shooter Caleb Sharpe is tried as a juvenile or as an adult has been delayed again to this summer, some 11 months after the shooting that killed Sam Strahan.

News >  ID Government

State Rep. Heather Scott wins re-election

UPDATED: Wed., May 16, 2018

Controversial Idaho State Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, was trailing in early Bonner County results from Tuesday’s Primary election, but she began to pull ahead as the votes began to be counted and voters gave her the victory.

News >  ID Government

Bonner County voters advise against Scotchman Peaks Wilderness

UPDATED: Wed., May 16, 2018

With only absentee votes counted, an advisory vote for the supporting Scotchman Peaks Wilderness designation held an early lead.

News >  Spokane

VA officials hold grand opening Monday in Spokane that helps homeless vets

Tue., May 15, 2018

A twenty-something woman in sunglasses had her phone pressed to her face Monday as she complained that her friend with the fix didn’t show. Then she marched down the sun-drenched downtown Spokane sidewalk in a pair of worn leopard-print shoes..

News >  ID Government

Three North Idaho Republicans race to replace retiring State Sen. Shawn Keough

Sun., May 13, 2018

A retired sheriff’s deputy and two construction company owners are trying to convince Bonner and Boundary county voters that they have the credentials to replace the longest serving Idaho State Senator in state history.

News >  ID Government

Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott facing challenger in Republican primary

Fri., May 11, 2018

Voters in North Idaho’s most northern district get a chance next week to either endorse the ultraconservative, headline-grabbing political maneuvers of Rep. Heather Scott, or select longtime Sandpoint resident Mike Boeck in the Republican primary election.

News >  Agriculture

Not your grandparents’ dairy: Washington operation shows scale of modern milk production

Sun., May 6, 2018

Case VanderMeulen’s oldest brother inherited his family’s 100-cow dairy in The Netherlands. So the younger brother came to America and built a fortress of milk that never sleeps.