An armed man forced three employees of the Union Park Bank on East Sprague into the vault while he made his escape, but left $1,000 in the cash drawer, according to police. 

In the early 1970s, park officials and neighborhood advocates rejoiced in the addition of a new public park where an outfall pipe from the Kaiser smelting plant met Deadman Creek. Fifty years later, environmental regulators and the former owners of the property are trying to stop that flow, based on new knowledge about the harm of asbestos and other chemicals. 

The Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour, now in its 13th year, will be a virtual event next month due to COVID-19, co-founder Gina Freuen announced Wednesday. The show opens Sept. 26 at 8 a.m. at littlespokanestudios.com, with more than three dozen regional artists participating. 

The Downriver bridge opened in 1928, replacing at least two former bridges on the site that were inadequate for traffic to the nearby Army base. The current span, the T.J. Meenach Bridge, was completed in 1994. 

As the thermometer approached record-breaking levels Sunday afternoon, Spokane residents and visitors alike took to the river for some relief.

OLYMPIA – A state rule for the minimum amount of water that must flow in the Spokane River was properly set, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

A 21-year-old man drowned Tuesday afternoon near a popular Spokane River beach along Upriver Drive, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

Latah Creek's pollution is due largely to agricultural runoff and soil erosion along its 60 miles stretching from west of Spokane down into north central Idaho. The Washington Ecology Department has issued a new round of funding intending to incentivize farmers to adopt methods that don't churn up the soil and stabilize creek beds.

Bayer AG, which acquired the company Monsanto in 2018, announced it was resolving several lawsuits filed nationwide, including Spokane's lawsuit alleging ongoing contamination of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. 

Washington state regulators say they can’t move forward with plans to set final limits for a carcinogenic pollutant because of a federal dispute with the Trump administration over what is healthy.

Spokane police on Friday morning were at the scene of a body found in the 1600-block of East South Riverton Avenue, which runs along the south bank of the Spokane River. 

Business partners Greg Johnson and Kevin Kunz believe they've found the "special sauce" for creating a building material that can filter pollutants out of rainfall before it reaches the storm drains. They're seeking $1 million in seed money to get their technology in the hands of large-scale producers. 

A combination of rebates and economic incentives could reduce water use in the city by up to 5% through 2030. But the plan doesn’t include greater regulatory steps, like increased base pricing for heavy users and irrigation restrictions that would help during drought conditions conservation representatives say.

The antibacterial soaps and bleach that people are using to sanitize themselves and their homes may be killing the bugs that are needed to treat sewage at the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District, officials say. There’s no imminent threat to river health, but it’s a strange wrinkle to public health as residents do their part to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.