Steve Jackson

Google is sponsoring a Spokane event for business owners to get some hands-on learning this week in digital skills.

Google spokeswoman Nicky Rigg says the company will hold classes related to marketing your business at the Spokane Public Library.

On a day when the Articles of Impeachment were sent to the Senate from the U.S. House, leaders from both parties joined on Wednesday to honor one former Spokanite with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Steve Gleason played football at Gonzaga Prep and Washington State University and went on to play with the New Orleans Saints.

Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but even that couldn’t slow him down, as witnessed by his famous quote, “No white flags.”

The U.S. Census Bureau is searching for workers in the Inland Northwest to carry out the once-every-10-years count.  

The bureau is advertising thousands of temporary jobs in the region. Those jobs will last about eight weeks. Pay is up to $16 an hour.

The death toll has risen in the aftermath of the avalanche that hit the Silver Mountain ski resort in northern Idaho this week.

Searchers today [Thursday] located the body of a third person. That person hasn't yet been publicly identified.

Idaho officials say the number of people who signed up for health insurance under the state insurance exchange was down this year.

The decrease was exactly what officials anticipated would occur with the recent Medicaid expansion.

Idaho Governor Brad Little delivered his State of the State address Monday.

Much of his focus was on education.

The Idaho Republican Governor touted improvements in the state’s school system, including pay raises for teachers, and doubling funding for literacy programs.

Providence Sacred Heart and its nurses have reached a tentative labor agreement.

The pact includes key provisions sought by nurses, including enhanced language about staffing levels and workplace violence prevention and limits on the employer's ability to raise premiums. It also preserves important health benefits, provides wage increases of 10% over the duration of the three-year contract and a ratification bonus of $2,100, prorated for part-time nurses.

Nadine Woodward was sworn in Monday as Spokane's 45th mayor.

An inaugural ceremony was held at the U.S. Pavilion in Riverfront Park.

After being introduced by her former TV news colleague, Charles Rowe, Woodward gave an inaugural address that included remarks focusing on the homeless issue that she made a centerpiece of her campaign.

The Republican minority leader of the Washington state House of Representatives is calling for Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley) to step down following an independent investigation that says Shea has promoted domestic terrorism.

One who has followed the Shea story for several years is Leah Sottile, who as a free lance journalist has written for Rolling Stone and Atlantic magazines.

An event to mark National Homeless Persons Memorial Day was held in Spokane Friday.

The names of 76 people who died in Spokane this year who had no place to call their own were read out loud at an event downtown. Participants came forward and placed a bell with that person’s name on a small Christmas tree.

The audience heard how the homeless, on average, can expect to live 30 fewer years than those who have permanent housing.

The Pend Oreille County Public Utility District has halted an agreement with a Canadian company that proposes to build a silicon smelter near Newport.

The PUD recently sent a letter to PacWest Silicon, saying it has terminated what is called a "cost reimbursement agreement." The letter also contained a $315,000 check.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s office has awarded $1.7 million to the Spokane Workforce Council.

The Economic Security for All Grant will help the collaborative efforts at the Spokane EnVision Center.

Nearly 80 years after the completion of Grand Coulee Dam, the Spokane Tribe will finally receive compensation for losses it suffered from the project.

The tribe lost lands that became submerged under the waters of the Columbia River. It also lost the salmon runs that had fed their people for centuries.

The city of Rathdrum, Idaho found elevated levels of lead during routine testing of the water system of three residences.

The sampling has been ongoing since 1998, but it wasn’t until the most recent testing of 23 homes in August that official found high lead levels. Three homes showed levels higher than the federal standard of 15 parts per billion, with highest one testing at 63 parts per billion.

Plans for rezoning a parcel of property along Lake Coeur d'Alene are coming under fire from nearby residents. The proposed development could include a large dock and perhaps a building.

A number of health care providers in Washington are coming together to ensure they are prepared to deal with climate change and its impact on patients.

The Washington Health Care Climate Alliance includes eight health care systems statewide that represent 40 hospitals.

Opponents of a proposed smelter project near Newport are celebrating a victory.

Pend Oreille County commissioners have rejected a comprehensive plan amendment which would have changed the public lands designation in the county to rural lands, a step that was seen as opening the door for industrial use outside of the urban growth areas. The plan would have allowed the construction of a controversial silicon smelter just outside of Newport.

A new statue was put in place in Redband Park in Spokane on Wednesday. Redband Park was formerly known as Glover Park in Peaceful Valley.

The statue is of a redband trout, a native fish of the Spokane River.

Sponsors of the project included the city of Spokane, Spokane Indians baseball team, TC Energy, Spokane Tribe, and the Spokane River Forum.

The forum’s Andy Dunau says the "Redband Rising" statue is designed to call attention to the fish, which has been in decline for many years.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has officially pulled out of a pact with the state to oversee the lake management plan and Governor Brad Little has asked for a third party to conduct a review and analysis of the previous lake management efforts.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has reached a partial settlement with Avista for a rate increase in gas and electricity rates.

The settlement also deals with the company’s plans to phase out coal-generated power for its Washington customers.

While nurses at Spokane’s Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center are making strike preparations if no agreement can be reached on a new contract, their counterparts at Providence Kadlec Regional Medical Center in the Tri-Cities have reached a tentative contract agreement.

Sacred Heart nurses are getting strike training, after mediation with Providence last Friday produced no breakthrough, say nurses' union officials.

Efforts are underway to beef up the steelhead breeding population in the Snake River by releasing adult females that have already made one trip to the ocean and spawned previously.

Unlike salmon, steelhead can migrate to the ocean and return to spawn more than a single time. But few of the fish that have previously spawned make it that far back upriver after their first breeding because of the difficulty in migrating past all the dams.

A new survey conducted by several Spokane organizations finds a real need for affordable healthcare in the community.

The survey quizzed over 200 people of low or moderate income who have received assistance from the Spokane Regional Health District, Transitions, The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, and other organizations.

The Department of Ecology says Washington State saw a small decrease in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the most recent data released.

According to the latest data from the department, total carbon emissions rose 1.7 percent in 2016 to 97.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, then fell slightly in 2017 to 97.5 million metric tons.

The Washington State Board of Health today voted to ban an additive contained in vaping products that they believe could be responsible for a rash of lung injuries reported nationwide.

The additive is called vitamin E acetate. It's used in many vaping products, often as a thickening agent.

At a hearing in Spokane Monday, the health department’s Kathy Lofy described how CDC testing found the compound to be a common element in samples of fluid collected from lungs of 29 patients in 10 states with vaping-associated lung disease.

An astronaut who grew up in Spokane is part of the program put on by the Spokane Symphony this weekend in their tribute to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

The performance features three space-themed music selections, Holst’s The Planets, Berlioz’s Around the Earth in 90 Minutes, and Debussy’s Claire De Lune.

The Washington State Department of Ecology held a workshop this week to discuss ways that dischargers that release chemicals called PCBs into the river can meet legal limits of those chemicals, even though current technology is not quite ready to do that.

The so called “variances” would loosen the current standard of 7 parts per quadrillion for the chemicals that have been linked to cancer in humans by allowing the dischargers more time to meet those standards, in some cases as long as 20 years.

The Spokane Symphony is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing this weekend with a special performance that features three space-themed music selections.

Those selections include Holst’s The Planets, Berlioz’s Around the Earth in 90 Minutes, and Debussy’s Claire De Lune, with special guest conductor Roger Kalia.