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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Federal cuts doom Skyfest air show revival

The US Air Force Thunderbirds F16 demonstration squadron performs in Mihail Kogalniceanu, eastern Romania, Wednesday June 8, 2011. The southern Romanian air base of Deveselu will be one of the stations for AEGIS ballistic missile defense technology, part of the US missile shield in Europe. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)
By David Wasson davidw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5148
The US Air Force Thunderbirds F16 demonstration squadron performs in Mihail Kogalniceanu, eastern Romania, Wednesday June 8, 2011. The southern Romanian air base of Deveselu will be one of the stations for AEGIS ballistic missile defense technology, part of the US missile shield in Europe. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)
The return of Skyfest will have to wait. Fairchild Air Force Base confirmed today that the popular air show is being canceled because of federal spending cuts. The announcement came just days after the Air Force’s precision flying team, the Thunderbirds, canceled its planned Spokane visit along with the rest of its 2013 tour, citing lack of funding. “We certainly hope to be able to host an air show for our patriotic community in the future — down the road when fiscal times improve,” Col. Brian Newberry, commander of the Fairchild-based 92nd Air Refueling Wing, said in a prepared statement. The free air show had been scheduled for May 18-19 and was intended to coincide with Spokane’s annual Lilac Festival. The federal spending reductions, referred to in Washington, D.C. as a “sequester,” took effect March 1 when Congress was unable to agree on a way to avoid $1.2 trillion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts through 2021. The amount that must be cut from the current year’s budget is about $85 billion.