In brief: Zombie show filmed in Spokane gets second season on Syfy

“Z Nation” will live again.

The zombie TV series filmed and produced in Spokane will be picked up for a second season, Syfy and North by Northwest Productions announced on Monday.

Rich Cowan, co-founder of North by Northwest, called the decision great news.

“We’re showing the TV and film industry that we can deliver network episodic television directly out of Spokane,” he said. “We’re thrilled and so happy for the crew.”

The 13-episode series, which just aired episode six Friday night, created the equivalent of about 200 full-time jobs in the first season and employed hundreds of Spokane-area residents cast as extras, mostly zombies. In addition to filming, all production work is being done in Spokane.

Cowan said it was notable that the second season was announced so quickly.

“We just aired episode six,” he said. “They pulled the trigger because the ratings have been higher than anticipated.”

So far this season, “Z Nation” has been Syfy’s third-highest-rated scripted show, behind “Dominion” and “Defiance,” with an average of 1.4 million viewers.

Cowan could not say yet if season two will be filmed in Eastern Washington, pending contract negotiations.

Carolyn Lamberson

CdA asks wedding chapel to abandon lawsuit

The city of Coeur d’Alene has asked the Hitching Post to withdraw its religious freedom lawsuit in the wake of gay marriage becoming legal in Idaho.

City attorney Michael Gridley wrote to the wedding chapel and pointed out that two weeks ago the business took steps to become a nonprofit religious corporation. Thus, the Hitching Post is exempt from the city’s ordinance that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Gridley said the city will not prosecute legitimate nonprofit religious corporations, associations and other organizations exercising First Amendment rights.

The Hitching Post sued the city in anticipation that the city would use its anti-discrimination policy to force the chapel to perform same-sex weddings over its religious objections.

Staff reports

Police search for more victims of child luring

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives are trying to find more people who may have been victims of a man arrested Friday on suspicion of child luring and kidnapping.

Konstantin A. Sergienko, 38, is suspected of luring two Spokane Valley teenage girls and a developmentally disabled young woman in the past two months, and of kidnapping a teenager with sexual motivation on Sept. 12, 2013.

One teen selected his photo from a lineup of six images, according to police. The suspect was described as being about 5 feet 8 inches tall and chubby, with patchy gray hair, glasses and a heavy Russian accent.

Rachel Alexander