Spokane Public Schools’ plan for early release on Fridays has been controversial since the idea was floated in the wake of the budget crisis that emerged last spring. Now that it’s happening, the district is offering a way for students to stay at school, if not in class, until 3 p.m.

Two men from Prosser reported that they had seen Judge Bert Linn, of Prosser, in Pendleton, Oregon. Friends and family assumed he had died four months earlier.

Residents of Lincoln Heights ask the city to pave 29th Avenue because winter months left them isolated.

For 43 days Cookie was in flight mode. After running away from her owner in January, Cookie braved Spokane’s freezing temperatures, snowstorms, coyotes and a property owner wanting to shoot her.

Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest is renovating and expanding its South Hill location in Spokane following its purchase of the building this summer.

Mention Lincoln Heights to a Spokane resident and the first thought will be about the shopping center, but the surrounding neighborhood is as diverse as any in the city.

If voters approve an expected bond measure on the ballots next year, a 1.4-acre plot at Ray Street and 27th Avenue would be an ideal location to construct a new, 30,000-square-foot facility library planners say they need moving forward to serve the public.

Rockwood and Lincoln Heights neighborhoods cover much of the South Hill east of Grand.

A new Lincoln Heights master plan is headed to the Spokane Plan Commission next week.

Experts in community planning from the Seattle-based Urban Land Institute Northwest said the Lincoln Heights district in southeast Spokane is at a crossroads. Good land-use planning, focusing on people and pedestrians instead of automobiles, could help revitalize the commercial area and create a vibrant urban space for more residents, panel members from the organization said recently.

When Tai Shan, a 3-year-old German shepherd, left the examination room wearing his brand new bandanna, everyone in the waiting room at Lincoln Heights Veterinary Clinic applauded him. His owner, Karen Sanborn, just had him screened to see if he was a good candidate to donate canine blood to the Pet Emergency Clinic of Spokane.