In Brief
Cantwell, mayor tour portion of North Spokane Corridor
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell toured a portion of the North Spokane Corridor project Friday with Mayor David Condon and others.
The tour was intended to help drum up support for federal funding that would pay for the next phase of the freeway project, organizers said. Cantwell, a Democrat from the Seattle suburb of Edmonds, and U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Spokane, have urged the Transportation Department to choose the Spokane project for an $18.9 million grant that’s expected to be allocated next month.
The grant money would pay for relocating 7.5 miles of railroad tracks and a switch spur near the Freya Street interchange, building two new structures to carry freeway traffic over the tracks and extend a bicycle and pedestrian trail into Hillyard, according to the senator’s office.
It also would bring the corridor project another step closer to its eventual goal of connecting to Interstate 90.
Workshop offers students look at careers in high-demand fields
A two-day workshop, “Explore your Future,” on Tuesday and Wednesday offers Spokane middle and high school students a glimpse at possible careers.
Students can explore construction, manufacturing, health care, aerospace, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields and other high-demand sectors. Students will also have the chance to drive heavy machinery and learn how to take a person’s blood pressure. Postsecondary educators will also be on hand to answer questions.
The event hosted by Greater Spokane Incorporated, Association of General Contractors, Community Colleges of Spokane and Spokane Public Schools runs 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. each day at Spokane County Fairgrounds, 404 N. Havana St.
For information call (509) 624-1393 or go to www.greaterspokane.org.
Researchers studying how grebes able to walk on water
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – A Harvard graduate student has brought a team of researchers to Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon to try to figure out how grebes manage to walk on water.
The mating ritual may have something to do with the phenomenon called rushing, in which the birds race upright across the water by taking five to 20 steps a second.
But little is known about how the bird is able to generate the force to propel itself, researcher Glenna Clifton told the Klamath Falls Herald and News.
“Part of this work is being able to understand what aerodynamic forces go into this movement,” she said. “This could be used to design robotics that could walk on water.”
The grebe doesn’t use its wings for propulsion, instead lifting and tucking them behind its back. That leaves the entire responsibility of locomotion on the grebe’s feet.
The researchers have been working along the shore near a marina on the lake at Klamath Falls for the past two weeks.
Drowning due to district’s negligence, lawsuit claims
WENATCHEE – A lawsuit has been filed claiming the Wenatchee School District was negligent in its handling of swimming pool practices and holds ultimate responsibility for the drowning of student Antonio Reyes.
Lack of a lifeguard, allowing non-swimmers like Reyes in the pool’s deep end during P.E. class and “failure to have a standardized swimming assessment performed on all students” figure high in the complaint, filed by the Reyes family Friday in Chelan County Superior Court.
Reyes, 14, drowned Nov. 17 “as a direct and proximate result” of the district’s negligence, the lawsuit says. His body was found at the bottom of the Wenatchee High School pool 40 minutes after his P.E. class ended. There were 26 students in the class supervised by one teacher, who’s since been fired over the incident.
The complaint does not specify a dollar amount of damages sought, but it was filed after the school district declined to pay a $15 million civil claim brought last December by Reyes’ parents, Juan Jose and Filomena Reyes, of Wenatchee.
No hearing date in the lawsuit has yet been scheduled.