
Eastern Washington University was founded in the 1880s as a school where teachers were trained. It was initially a quote-unquote “Normal school,” which is what teacher training institutions were once called. In 1937, it was renamed the Eastern Washington College of Education.
Eastern is still a place where students learn how to teach others. But university leaders, including President Shari McMahan, want it to be known for more than that, so they’ve rebranded EWU as “The Region’s Polytechnic.”

Aaron Hitefield, Ziona Rose and Dylan Richardson will soon take the trip of a lifetime to Azerbaijan, site of the next United Nations climate summit, COP 29. COP stands for “conference of the parties.” Officials from U.N. member nations talk about issues related to climate change and the human contribution to it. Hitefield, Rose and Richardson will attend as observers.

When it gets really not, we know from experience that human beings’ bodies become stressed. Turns out, it’s the same for farm crops too. Fruits such as apples can get sunburned. Orchard owners sometimes take extra measures, such as misting and shading their fruit, to keep that from happening.
Washington State University researcher Kirti Rajagopalan studies how heat changes growing plants’ need for water.
Rajagopalan and her team recently received a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to, among other things, investigate the best ways to cool fruit in the heat.

Producer Katie McCutcheon created a seven-part documentary series to mark the 50th anniversary of Spokane’s Expo ’74. We aired the first five programs over the summer. You can hear them here, or access them through QR codes on the kiosks at Riverfront Park. Today, part six, which focuses on the Spokane Tribe and its ancestral relationship with the Spokane River.
Next week on Inland Journal, we’ll present part seven, the final installment.