This day in history: Unemployment benefits spiked in Spokane

From 1975: Jobless workers in Spokane filed 10,000 unemployment claims in one week – more claims than in any week for decades.

“Not since right before the Korean War have we had more claims in one week,” said the regional director for the state Employment Security Department.

Every morning, 200 people were lined up at the Spokane office before the doors even opened.

Some of this glut was because of a new federal program that just went into effect. But the director said that accounted for only a small number of applicants.

Most were simply laid-off workers, including a number of people who had been working Expo ’74 jobs.

Unemployment was running at 8.9% in Spokane, compared to 7.1 % nationally.

From 1925: A jury acquitted Mike Krpan of being a “jointist” (running a bootleg joint), a verdict that made the prosecutor irate.

“The courtroom is full of foreigners seeking how to evade the law,” shouted the prosecutor. “It has been packed with this element since the first case of the series of jointist cases started.”

He said Krpan was “of foreign birth” and had turned his Utah Bar in downtown Spokane into a bootleg joint.

The jury, however, seemed uneasy about how the evidence against Krpan had been obtained. Two undercover “special investigators” had been hired to go into the bar and order liquor.

The prosecutor said it was the only way to get the necessary evidence. If uniformed police showed up and raided the place, the bartender would quickly pour the booze down the sink.