Trinity Hartman

One recent weekday, Spokane Valley Police Department officers dealt with a traffic-snarling crash near Interstate 90 just before noon. In the next three hours, Valley officers also chased a man suspected of stealing a snow blower, responded to a crash at the Opportunity post office, and tried to locate an armed robber.

Paulette Johnsrud was sitting on her bed, writing a birthday card to her 4-year-old daughter early Thursday, when a bullet burst through the glass of her bedroom window. It pierced a white curtain less than a foot from Johnsrud's head.

A 72-year-old woman crashed her Oldsmobile through the front of a Tidyman's grocery store Wednesday. The woman apparently hit the gas pedal instead of the brake when pulling into the Tidyman's across from the Home Depot in Spokane Valley about 3:15 p.m.

Officer Travis Hansen was driving in Greenacres last week when he noticed a white pickup truck parked by the side of the road. Hansen used his in-car computer to check the license plate number. The truck had been reported stolen the previous morning. Hansen, a Spokane Valley Police officer, wasn't surprised a thief had chosen the 1984 Toyota pickup with a line of rust running down its body. The thief possibly has friends or lives near LaBerry Drive just east of Barker Road, where the truck was left, Hansen guessed. He sees the same type of thing all the time.

Twenty-one firefighting recruits spent a hot afternoon scrambling through dark tunnels, running up stairs and dragging fire hoses, the entire time breathing bottled oxygen through masks. One by one, they ran out of air.

When Martha Brookshire starts down a row of raspberries, the plants enclose her petite, slightly stooped frame. The 84-year-old plucks berries from her patch starting at dawn. By the time most people begin their workday commute, Brookshire has filled several flats with berries.

Millwood's leaders have given up on the town's fire department. Less than two years after building a brick fire station next to Town Hall, Millwood is poised to sell the building to the Spokane Valley Fire Department. If the plan goes ahead, Valley Fire will move out of its 44-year-old station on Trent Avenue and into Millwood next month. Valley Fire will respond to the town's fire and medical emergencies, buy Millwood's fire equipment, and hire its three full-time firefighters and its chief Bill Clifford.

An amphibious airplane crash-landed Tuesday into Newman Lake. The pilot, Vern Ziegler, escaped from the cockpit and was not seriously injured. The wheels and belly of the 1947 airplane were the only things showing Tuesday, but Ziegler said he thinks it will be salvageable.

Spokesman-Review photographer Steve Thompson spent the last part of his career taking intimate pictures of Spokane Valley life; the type of photos that get posted on refrigerators and mailed to out-of-town grandparents. Cameras slung over his shoulder, Thompson became a familiar sight at high school basketball games, kindergarten classes, incorporation rallies, fires and drug busts during the 16 years he spent as the Spokane Valley bureau's chief photographer.

At age 26, Lena Foutz had already explored the far reaches of the United States from a semitruck. Foutz, an adventurous young woman who loved the time she spent as a long-haul trucker and planned to make it her career, died under mysterious circumstances over the Memorial Day weekend.

All but one of Millwood's volunteer firefighters quit en masse Tuesday after Fire Chief Bill Clifford was put on paid administrative leave. Millwood Mayor Jeanne Batson has temporarily brought in firefighters from another town to fill the gap in fire protection.