Republic Police Chief Loren Culp, the GOP candidate for governor, was named in a federal lawsuit that claims a Montana woman's rights were violated when she was detained and charged after a traffic check in 2018.

Dennis M. Hogan, 60, was arrested in April 2018 and charged by a grand jury with multiple criminal counts tied to sexual solicitation of girls in the Philippines. According to court records, Hogan paid one 16-year-old girl $19 in American money in exchange for pornographic photos he requested via Facebook Messenger. He also traveled to the Philippines and met the girls, whom he knew were underage, for sex, according to court records. 

Since the start of the pandemic more people facing criminal charges are missing court hearings, but local criminal justice leaders hope to reduce those numbers by letting defendants appear in front of judges virtually from local homeless shelters and behavioral health offices.

After making a brief comeback on school lunch menus, white bread and other refined grains may be vanishing again when schools reopen after a federal court vacated the Trump administration’s rollback of school nutrition standards.

The order from U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas O. Rice affects grand jury proceedings, civil and criminal cases, as well as naturalization ceremonies. At least one federal public defender in the region said the move could jeopardize the health of some criminal defendants imprisoned and awaiting trial or sentencing.

Spokane County officials are barring friends and relatives from visiting inmates in the downtown jail and at the Geiger Corrections Center to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Officials also are suspending all educational and therapeutic programs for inmates at Geiger, as well as the inmate work crew.

A federal judge in Washington state is considering whether to block President Donald Trump from diverting billions of dollars from military construction projects to build sections of border wall along the Southern border.

A federal judge on Thursday told Shane J. Pariseau that he is running out of chances after he successfully escaped a high-speed police chase in 2018 only to be discovered days later in a Spokane hotel room with what one prosecutor described as a “mountain” of drugs.

Two defendants tied to an insurance-fraud scheme that included Spokane developer Ron Wells were sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday.

The day before a former assistant football coach at Ferris High School was arrested in 2018 for convincing a 15-year-old Moses Lake girl to meet him at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, federal documents allege he enticed a 14-year-old Spokane girl to engage in a “commercial sex act.”

A Nespelem man was sentenced to two years in federal prison Wednesday after he previously pleaded guilty to assault resulting in serious bodily harm.

The federal criminal trial of Idaho state Rep. John O. Green, R-Post Falls, appears to be nearing an end in Texas, as the defense has begun presenting witnesses in the case in which Green is charged with helping a wealthy Texas couple hide assets to avoid paying income taxes.

Two defendants, who were tied to an insurance-fraud scheme that included Spokane developer Ron Wells, were sentenced to federal prison Wednesday and ordered to pay restitution to help cover the cost of the insurance payouts.

A business pitchman who claimed to have deals with the father of Michael Jackson and came to Spokane in 2007 with promises of turning the Lilac City into a DVD-making giant has died in federal prison. Erick H. Hansen was 62.

Scott M. White shot and killed Michael “Topher” Clark on Feb. 24 in the parking lot of The Tipsy Pine, a bar in Hayden. Clark, 45, gained notoriety in the early 2000s for his role in a Canadian marijuana smuggling ring that inspired the movie “Kid Cannabis.”

In a unanimous opinion issued last week, the high court’s nine justices sided with Stevens County Superior Court judges who sought to preside over preliminary hearings in cases that were originally filed in District Court. Such hearings often determine whether a defendant will be let out of jail while awaiting trial.

A Spokane felon, who earlier was charged in connection to a human trafficking-for-sex investigation, pleaded guilty Thursday to related charges that could result in a sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

A former Spokane business executive was sentenced to a year in federal prison Wednesday for federal income tax evasion and was ordered to pay a substantial sum to reimburse his former company for improper billing.