Gruesome fatality in 2005 linked to Enumclaw horse ranch exposed loophole in state's animal cruelty laws that Washington Legislature quickly remedied, establishing the criminal charges that suspected Spokane animal sex abuser Travis Austin Joy now faces.
Kyle Murakami holds Spokane Mayor David Condon responsible for failing to discipline city employees who he says threatened him and shoved him to the ground as he tried to have a subpoena served in April 2013 in connection with his upcoming camera-issued red-light ticket.
Spokane city leaders got an increasingly testy earful tonight from critics of last week's decision to ban "Bridge to Hookerville" from use during council meetings.
The decision came during the weekly open forum portion of Monday's council meeting after civic gadfly George McGrath used the term -- again -- to describe the planned pedestrian bridge spanning a wide rail corridor to link the north and south ends of the growing University District. The southern side of the district includes a stretch of East Sprag
New website pitches UW's proposed Spokane expansion as more cost-effective option than a separate WSU medical school.
Angry, foul-mouthed caller leaves completely over-the-top NSFW voice mail for council president and staffer posts it to YouTube.
Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar apparently don't exist. And not just in the pseudonym sense, either. No one in the United States appears to use the names that the Senate Intelligence Committee chose when trying to obscure the identities of Spokane psychologists James Mitchell and…
Republican state Sen. Michael Baumgartner's campaign will refund $63.48 to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture Foundation after the nonprofit organization learned that a check it thought was simply to cover the cost of breakfast for two employees had been recorded as a political…
Spokane City Hall may be on the verge of having two separate and potentially competing legislative agendas for the first time in memory. The priorities unveiled last week, which included backing for Washington State University's bid for its own medical school, represent only the City…
Spokane City Hall is backing crimson over purple. The city announced this week it will help Washington State University lobby the Legislature for money to begin establishing its own medical school on Spokane’s Riverpoint campus. The WSU request for $2.5 million in startup funding over…
The gloves are off in the 6th legislative district Senate race. After trading jabs for the past few months, Republican incumbent Michael Baumgartner and Democratic challenger Rich Cowan now are pummeling each other in a series of back-and-forth sound bites and other insults triggered by…
Former Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna will headline an Oktoberfest fundraiser in Spokane next month for state Sen. Michael Baumgartner. McKenna lost his bid for the governor's office two years ago but produced perhaps one of the campaign season's most memorable moments…
Although soon-to-be former Spokane City Councilman Steve Salvatori famously gave up a full-time council assistant and made arrangements to send the $50,000 allocated for the position to worthwhile community causes instead, his replacement would still be able to hire one. Turns out that $20,000 of…
Audience comments during the Spokane City Council’s debate over adding gender identity to local civil rights protections were at times so graphically vile that Councilman Jon Snyder suggested it was evidence of why the ordinance is necessary. Former state Rep. John Ahern, for example, warned…
By spending nearly a year meeting with neighborhood groups and others to develop an urban farming plan that addressed various concerns before bringing it to a final vote, Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart has created an unexpected new problem. Any plan on almost any…
Spokane's latest push to expand urban farming opportunities had at least one councilman wondering if TV sketch comedians Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein might be lurking nearby. "Sometimes when I'm reading this ordinance I feel like I've landed in an episode of "Portlandia,'" Councilman Mike…
Activists trying to rally support for immigration reform outside Spokane City Hall got a rude welcome to the Inland Northwest this morning. A young man walked briskly past the ongoing news conference and, with TV cameras rolling, muttered, "Go back to Mexico." He then continued…
Last week’s off-year election isn’t even certified yet, and now 2014 already is heating up. Spokane police Detective Doug Orr is gearing up for a run against Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. Orr, who also serves as an adjunct criminal justice professor at Gonzaga University, has filed…
Spokane Mayor David Condon is proposing to eliminate 100 City Hall jobs to avoid raising taxes next year. But he wants to boost spending in at least one area: his own paycheck. Condon, who agreed to hold his annual salary to $100,000 in his first…
The Inland Northwest has seen its share of off-beat, low-budget political TV ads, and anyone who's looked at the calendar lately should realize the new season of silliness is about to begin. But it would be tough to top the campy, folksiness of Texas railroad…
If you tune in to NBC’s “Meet the Press” this weekend, you’ll see a familiar face from the Inland Northwest getting some network air time. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Spokane Republican serving as vice chair of the House GOP Conference, will be among…
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, and possibly Congressman Ron Paul, are getting some help in their bids for the GOP presidential nomination from an unusual source: The Washington State Democratic Party. The state party is targeting GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney with a blitz in advance…
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, vice chair of the House Republican Conference, gave Fox News a preview of the GOP's rebuttle to tonight's expected themes in President Obama's State of the Union address. The congresswoman from Spokane took repeated shots at Obama's rejection of the…
Spokane Mayor Mary Verner will be nominated by President Obama to serve on the board of a Washington-based nonprofit group dedicated to helping make the nation's buildings safer and more efficient. Verner, who would serve on the National Institute of Building Sciences Board of Directors,…
This just in -- Idaho's open primary elections were ruled unconstitutional today by a U.S. District Court judge. Check out Eye on Boise, the SR's political blog for Idaho, for continuing coverage and a copy of the ruling. The open primaries were challenged by the…
