Washington Voices

About 40 people joined Mayor Mary Verner, Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, neighborhood resource officers, COPS representatives and crime specialists, at a COPS-sponsored community crime prevention forum at Northeast Community Center Tuesday night. Kristy Hamilton, COPS director, opened the forum by thanking the more than 300 Community Oriented Policing volunteers who staff the 12 COPS shops across town.

  Fiona is a staff and volunteer favorite and is a loving and mellow female kitty. If you are you looking for a soft love bug to cuddle with after a long day of work, then look no further. Please refer to the pet’s ID number when contacting SCRAPS with questions about one of the adoptable pets. If you are interested in this cat or any animal at SCRAPS, call (509) 477-2532 or come by the shelter 2421 N. Flora Road, Spokane Valley. Dog adoptions are $87.04 and include spay or neuter, first set of vaccinations, health check, microchip and first year’s license.

Kadra Evans, 30, has only recently lifted the shovel to begin construction on her path to creative expression. Her sly smile speaks volumes; this is just the tip of the iceberg. “I plan on getting much more elaborate and detailed with my designs.” In the past, Evans has worked in restaurants and as a paraeducator. About five years ago, she started painting a bit on canvas. “My boyfriend at the time had taken me to my first concert and the music and the scene inspired me, so I started painting album covers on canvas of the bands we had seen. Then my friends started buying them from me and referring their friends. The fashion part, well honestly, Ronnie forced me into it.”

At East Valley High School Friday morning, you could hear the tapping of hammers and the whine of power saws and smell sawdust in the air. Two student teams competed to build a picnic table and bench. Each had to design their own tables and benches and build them from a pile of lumber provided by the school. The teams were judged on design creativity and construction execution.

The roses were gorgeous. I buried my nose in the pale pink blooms displayed in the floral department at the grocery store. Each blossom and bud burst with sweet aroma. I pictured them overflowing in my favorite crystal vase.

The corn is high in Harold Rooks’ garden in south Spokane. A rooster crowed from the chicken coop as Rooks checked the status of his ripening tomatoes. A shiny red tractor sits just outside his back door. “My wife would never let me buy one,” Rooks said, and chuckled. “When I get there she’s gonna kill me!”

Pam Danner is tired of not getting her mail. She has lived on North Altamont Street, just west of Arlington Elementary School, since the mid-’90s and for about as long she’s been battling parents who park in front of her mailbox and block delivery. “I am just so frustrated, I don’t know what to do,” said Danner, standing on her front porch last Wednesday, as parents were waiting in cars for their children to be let out of school. “I’ve been out here chasing people away since school started. It’s the same every year.”

Since the Spokane School Board decided to relocate Jefferson Elementary as part of a school bond-funded remodeling project, opponents of that decision have campaigned tirelessly to stop the move. Recently, the Hart Field Preservation Organization filed a lawsuit against Spokane Public Schools saying that moving Jefferson onto part of Hart Field violates that property’s deed, and that the proceeds from the school bond may be used to modernize, replace or renovate the existing Jefferson Elementary, but not to move it to a new location.

The music floated across the football field at Mt. Spokane High School, echoed over the baseball diamond and soared across the tennis courts. Under a sunny September sky, the award-winning Mt. Spokane High School marching band worked hard to perfect their performance. As the haunting sound of taps lingered in the air, it quickly became apparent that football fans weren’t going to be hearing “Louie Louie” from this group when the band plays the halftime shows at Joe Albi Stadium.

Living with a chronic auto-immune disease like lupus can feel like free falling through a medical minefield. Pain, frustration and fear are natural reactions while holding onto hope for more effective treatment and an eventual cure. Hope is one reason Spokane’s Cindy Stroup leaped from an airplane over Shelton, Wash., on Aug. 20 to join hands and feet with 25 other female sky divers in a record-setting formation. The event, called Leap for Lupus, aimed to raise awareness about lupus and money for research while setting a Northwest Women’s record in sport sky diving.