A report from a libertarian think tank placed Washington's highway system at 45th in the country for cost-effectiveness and condition. All the more reason to invest now in road projects, said Sen. Andy Billig, which can also help stimulate the economy during the pandemic. 

One story above the streets of Hillyard, Bob Whittaker found a time capsule he hopes to preserve and celebrate. 

As I write this Running Tab column on deadline on the late Friday afternoon before the Labor Day weekend, my mind keeps wandering to my only plans for the next three days: salmon fishing on the Columbia River about two hours outside town on Saturday morning.

Transportation planners will be asking residents to weigh in on the future of the Division Street design, following planned completion of the North Spokane Corridor and implementation of high-speed bus service. That may include some planning from the city that will give the bustling arterial a more neighborhood feel with through traffic taking other routes around Spokane.

Details + don’t miss: The Spokane Valley Mall and Northside locations have the same menus. Bountiful food options are $6.25-$9.50 each during Happy Hour, and there are well drinks ($5.75), domestic beers ($5.25), craft beers ($5.75) and more. Up north, the feast included boneless wings, cheese curds, fish tacos, flatbreads, taquitos and cocktails. Plus reverse Happy Hour!

House and Senate leaders have plans to fill a $450 million hole in the state’s transportation budget created by the passage of Initiative 976, but warn it’s a stop-gap measure that won’t last past mid-2021.

New plans for an on-ramp to the North Spokane Corridor off Hamilton Street have freed up some of the real estate in the East Central neighborhood that was going to be used for traffic lanes. WSDOT is asking residents of the neighborhood what they’d like to see on the leftover land, but there may not be enough for major housing projects, officials say.

Details + don’t miss: Happy Hour at the downtown and north Spokane locations are identical, plus 35% off rose on Sundays, all-day Happy Hour on Mondays, $3 pints starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, 20% off sake bottles on Wednesdays and 50% off bottles of wine on Thursdays. The larger north locale, however, also serves sushi, and the Happy Hour crunchy and Washington rolls are standouts.

A man was shot and killed Friday morning by a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy following a pursuit that ended in the backyard of a North Spokane home.

A national championship for a certain athletic team? Completion of major transit projects? Shopping for groceries in augmented reality? We asked local experts what to expect in the coming decade.

More than $90 million in Spokane-area transportation funding has been delayed due to last month’s passage of Initiative 976 by Washington state voters.

Residents along the road passionately lobbied City Hall to resist widening Wellesley Avenue in the early 1960s, among them Grace McDonald, who persuaded 1,000 people to sign a petition against the project. McDonald and her peers were unsuccessful, and the new four-lane arterial opened to rave reviews in 1964.

Studless winter tires provide the same amount of grip and don’t contribute to the mounting deterioration of our nation’s roadways that traffic engineers and experts are warning against.

The judgment for Frank and Gloria Bingaman, who have run cattle operations on their property for 31 years, is compensation for land taken by the county as it widens Bigelow Gulch east of the city from two lanes to a four-lane road with wide shoulders and a center turn lane.

A north Spokane couple has turned their entire back yard into a garden oasis that attracts birds, bees and squirrels in addition to providing a bounty of produce and berries for their plates.

Northeast Spokane has seen several major transportation construction projects in the past few years, including changes to Crestline and Sprague. An even larger one looms with completion of the North Spokane Corridor. City Council candidates Tim Benn and Michael Cathcart offer their views on those projects, as well as whether car tab fees should be reduced.

The Friends of the North Spokane County Library will hold its semi-annual used book sale Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at the library at 44 E Hawthorne Road.

The North Spokane Corridor is on track to be complete in 2029, and “five big projects” building the freeway will begin in 2020, said Mike Gribner, eastern region administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “We can see the finish line from here. Finally,” Gribner told about 100 people who gathered on the northbound lane of the highway below the Francis Avenue overpass Friday morning.