Tom Sowa

Each morning at Fairchild Air Force Base, an operations squadron prepares the day's flight schedule. It runs 30 pages and lists where the base's aircraft are headed or which are undergoing repairs. About 200 copies are delivered around the base.

Spokane city library directors knew problems would follow the installation of Internet computers. They didn't expect some users to outfox the system so quickly and easily download soft-porn pictures. Within a week after launching the free service in August, library staffers found that people were copying adults-only pictures off the Internet onto computers and telling others how to do the same.

People running mail fraud schemes are getting smarter, using sophisticated technology and old-fashioned cunning to dupe Washington residents out of millions of dollars a year, according to a Seattle postal inspector. James Bordenet, who gave a series of Spokane workshops this week to help mail users avoid fraud, said Washington state victims are being targeted by hundreds of scheme-planners across the globe.

FOR THE RECORD (October 28, 1995): Correction: Zack Hathaway attends North Central High School. His name and school were wrong in a story Monday.

Two City Council positions are up for grabs in Airway Heights, a fast-growing West Plains town not sure how fast it should be growing. Three of the four candidates who survived September's primary are making their first stabs at elected office in the Nov. 7 general election. All three say they're good fits for the fiscally cautious council and not inclined to change its focus. Newcomers Mark Schumacher, Leonard Bernsdorf and Gail Combs and council incumbent Brian Grady all support the city's $1.7 million general obligation bond measure also on the November ballot.

The University of Washington will pay $20,000 for the deaths of five baboons in 1994 and a series of "severe" animal care problems at its Medical Lake primate field station. The university announced the payment Monday, saying it doesn't constitute an admission of wrongdoing. Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a complaint against the school, saying the Medical Lake staff lacked adequate veterinary standards and failed to properly care for many of the 1,400 animals there.

A mountaintop telescope with a great view but few users may become a classroom tool for students in the Pacific Northwest. With the help of federal money, a group of scientists and teachers in central Washington want to use the Rattlesnake Mountain telescope as a key part of a statewide science network. "A number of us who take groups up there a few times a month realized this was too good a piece of equipment not to use it for education," said Roy Gephart, an amateur astronomer and geologist for Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratory, which owns the telescope.

The program that keeps homes warm for needy Spokane residents has fallen 22 percent behind in contributions from a year ago, its administrator said this week. With winter heating bills around the corner, the people running Project Share, which provides subsidies for residents, said donations are off for the second straight year.

If TV and radio commentary on the O.J. Simpson verdict is too lame, there's always O.J. on the Internet, which covers topics from legalistic fine points to tasteless limericks about Judge Lance Ito. The Internet is the ungoverned swarm of millions of computer users who send and receive messages across the globe. On Tuesday, it seemed that half of them had an opinion about the Simpson verdict. For those prepared to spend an hour or two poring through pro- and anti-O.J. diatribes, try the Usenet group: alt.fan.oj-simpson (unmoderated).

Downtown Spokane visitors now can plunk coins into the latest breed of computer-driven parking meters. The city is testing 16 of the new machines downtown. If all of the old mechanical meters eventually are replaced with the new-fangled devices, using coins may be a thing of the past.

1. Otherwordly landscape. Howard Eisen, left, and Tom Rivellini try to repair a rover similar to the one that will be sent to explore Mars in 1997. Photo by Molly O'Hara/The Spokesman-Review 2. Scientists invade Monster Rock near the Ephrata Fan.

Mike Toutant of Coeur d'Alene hovers over circusgoers at the enterance of the Spokane Arena on Saturday morning. Toutant and Ben White of Friday Harbor, Wash., members of Friends of Animals, rapelled down the side of the building to protest the treatment of circus elephants. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Mike Belarde, facility technician for the National Weather Service in Spokane, feeds a signal cable to a building which will house a weather-tracking device. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Spokane County Library District directors expect to take a failed $7.6 million bond proposal back to voters next spring. Explaining the measure better and getting higher voter turnout will be the key in the district's second try, said County Library Director Mike Wirt. Voters on Tuesday rejected the bond measure.

M.C. Hammer canceled a Pullman concert in 1990 due to bad travel weather. File/Associated Press

Three North Idaho men have been charged with conspiracy and possession of stolen explosives in connection with the theft of about 500 pounds of "stick powder" from the Lucky Friday mine in July. A Boise grand jury Wednesday indicted Kent A. Johnson, Corey L. Miller and Joseph E. Tepner-Galland, saying they arranged the break-in and planned to sell the explosives to others. All three remain in the Spokane County Jail without bail.

City Library Director Daniel Walters will leave Spokane next month for a similar job in Buffalo, N.Y. Walters, who came to Spokane from King County six years ago, said Monday he accepted the job because it puts him in charge of one of the top public libraries in the country. The new job will mean a $7,500 pay increase for Walters, who now earns $82,500 per year.

Airway Heights has nine candidates battling over two City Council positions in the Sept. 19 primary. Every one of them says the city's future depends on rediscovering small-town values while paying the piper of progress. Each candidate agrees the small city on the west edge of Spokane is at a critical stage: It will grow, but can it preserve its quality of life without major tax increases?

Cheney residents usually don't see heated three-way contests for City Council seats. This fall's Sept. 16 primary is the exception.

B.J. Adams with his water purifier. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Roy Forsberg, right, and his brother Harry were POWs shen Japan signed its surrender. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Virginia King checks to see if Alfonse Hill is ready to lead in singing "America the Beautiful" during a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Medicare on Wednesday at the Spokane Public Library. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Kent Allen Johnson admits he was involved in the theft of 500 pounds of explosives from a North Idaho mine. But breaking into the Lucky Friday Mine and taking the explosives was not his idea, Johnson said in an interview Friday from the Spokane County Jail.

A federal judge Wednesday ordered a third suspect in the theft of explosives from a North Idaho mine held in jail until his trial. U.S. District Court Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno said Joseph Earle Tepner-Galland, 26, can't be trusted to stay in the area if released on bail.