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Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

SPOKANE, Wash. — New wildfires pushed by strong winds burned three homes in a wooded area of suburban Spokane Valley late Thursday, and other homes were being evacuated. KREM-TV video showed three houses in flames in the Dishman Hills area, where winds reported gusted as high as 50 miles per hour.

1. Bring in a couple of major companies and make Spokane their headquarters. Let's get a major industry base here. Service sector jobs alone won't cut it. 2. A downtown grocery store. 3. Get STA to run their buses during late evenings. 4. Food stalls downtown (Not just hot dogs!) 5. Still keep on Trader Joe's about getting a store here. 6. Some neighborhoods set aside for diversity (alternative lifestyles and ethnicities). 7. More nightclubs and bars. Bring in more bands to come into Spokane and not just to do shows at The Big Easy (The Big Easy sicks!) 8....

Thrown Object Knocks Out Santa   Dec 19 12:31 PM US/Eastern   SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A man dressed as Santa Claus was knocked unconscious by a thrown object that hit his face while he was riding on the back of a truck decorated as a sleigh. Kevin Smith says he never saw what hit him Saturday. Whatever it was, it broke his nose and gave him a concussion and two black eyes. "One second I was up there waving to people, and the next minute I wasn't," Smith said. He was taking part in Santa Run, sponsored by...

SPOKANE -- The cross is coming off the official patch worn by Spokane Police Department chaplains after a federal lawsuit prompted changes inside the police chaplains office. The removal of the cross stems from a lawsuit filed against the city last year by a senior police volunteer who argued it was unconstitutional to have a cross on an official City of Spokane insignia. The federal lawsuit, filed by Ray Ideaus, said the patch was illegal and the department's requirement that chaplains adhere to the Judeo / Christian ethic was also unconstitutional because government cannot favor one religion over another. So...

SPOKANE, Wash. - They made a list, but they should have checked it twice. In a December newsletter to the families of elementary school students, Spokane Public Schools' list of "important dates" didn't include Christmas. Hanukkah, Human Rights Day, winter break, the Islamic holy day Eid al-Adha, first day of winter and Kwanzaa all made the list. But no Christmas. "It was absolutely an error of omission," district spokeswoman Terren Roloff said. "In our efforts to be inclusive, we missed the obvious." The omission drew complaints from some parents that in an age of political correctness, Christians are being overlooked...

OLYMPIA, Washington: A Republican state legislator resigned Wednesday amid revelations that he had sex with a man he met at a pornographic video store while in Spokane on a party retreat. The move comes days after state Rep. Richard Curtis insisted to his local newspaper that he was not gay and that sex was not involved in what he said was an extortion attempt by a man last week.But in police reports, Curtis alleges he was being extorted by a man he had sex with in a Spokane hotel room. The other man contends Curtis reneged on a promise to...

Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko Date/Time: 8/3/2007 3:26:58 PM Title: Spokesman-Review deals with budget problems Posted By: Jim Romenesko All of the above holds the promise of closing the gap between this year's budget and the dismal performance against budget to date. It does not address the publisher's longer term concern for rising costs against flat or declining revenue. Let me make this clear once again so there is no confusion: Our staff will be smaller this time next year. My guess is we'll be down anywhere from 8 to 12 positions. My goal is to achieve this reduction through...

SPOKANE, Wash. (CNS) -- There are several paths within the journey that has brought 15 women religious into communion with the Catholic Church: care, compassion, interaction and, most certainly, prayer. Even technology played a part. But one of the key turning points in the journey was watching the moving funeral liturgy for Pope John Paul II. Two former members of the schismatic community at Mount St. Michael in north Spokane discussed their return to the Catholic Church in an interview with Inland Register, Spokane diocesan newspaper, at their new home at Immaculate Heart Retreat Center in Spokane. The Mount St....

SPOKANE -- A baby found locked in a hot car in North Spokane Thursday night is recovering, but uninjured. Employee spotted baby 'all wet, red, not crying' inside SUV An employee at the Grocery Outlet spotted the inside the sweltering SUV around 6:00 p.m. She advised the store to make an announcement over the intercom, advising customers there was a baby locked in a car. The employee told KREM 2 News, "nobody came up for like, 10 minutes." Employees confronted the woman when she finally spoke to them; they say she told them, "Oh my God, I forgot I had...

In the Inland Northwest, it was a Fourth of July to celebrate freedom – or clash over the freedoms Americans have. Under the Clocktower in Spokane’s Riverfront Park, 17 people protesting police brutality were arrested about 6:45 p.m. as people gathered in the park for Neighbor Day and the annual firework displays. Officers charged the group, which included self-proclaimed anarchists and other teens and young adults, after ordering them to disperse. One arrest was after what police say was an assault on an officer. Protesters dispute that.

Lewis is suspected of barging his way into a Shari’s restaurant and trying to drag a waitress to a his loaner Chevy Corvette while sexually assaulting her in the process. He’s also accused of punching out a senior citizen who tried to stop the incident and then ramming a police car during a short chase that ended in his apprehension. Once finally in custody Herman shouted to police that he was God and officers had no authority to arrest him. While in custody he also told police he was living a double life enjoying crack cocaine and prostitutes. Lewis refused...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A man sought in a pornography raid at what turned out to be the wrong house is now in custody, and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie D. Knezovich says the conduct of deputies in the search will be reviewed. A "very cooperative, very embarrassed and very contrite" Robert M. Sherman, 42, was arrested Wednesday for investigation of telephone harassment involving about 30 obscene calls - mostly voicemail messages - to women studying at Whitworth College, sheriff's Sgt. R. David Reagan wrote in a news release. Following the arrest, investigators learned "that Sherman began calling Whitworth students after calling...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Spokane County Jail has stopped providing dozens of copies of Spokane's daily newspaper for inmates, ending a decades-long practice after the jailers union complained the newspaper poses a "security risk."

White construction worker sues Colville tribe 5/18/2006, 12:00 a.m. PT The Associated Press    SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A white construction worker is suing two Colville tribal corporations, contending that racial slurs by American Indian co-workers caused him to quit his job.Tribal attorneys say that Christopher Wright's employer, as a tribal entity, is entitled to sovereign immunity and cannot be sued in state court.Arguments in the case were heard Tuesday before the state Supreme Court in Olympia. It is the first time in more than 25 years that the high court has heard a tribal sovereign immunity case. A...

Peoria man pleads guilty in diploma mill case Latest News more>> Truck pulling horse trailer full of illegals crashes SPOKANE, Wash. An Arizonan has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for his role in a gigantic diploma mill operation. Richard John Novak pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Spokane, Washington, to conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Novak, who formerly lived in Spokane and now lives in Peoria, could face up to ten years in prison and (m) millions of dollars in fines. Novak is the second person to reach a plea agreement with the Justice Department...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Fans of No. 5 Gonzaga have been asked to stop yelling "Brokeback Mountain" at opposing players. The reference to the recent movie about homosexual cowboys was chanted by some fans during Monday's game against Saint Mary's, and is apparently intended to suggest an opposing player is gay. The chants were the subject of several classroom discussions over the past week, and the faculty advisers for the Kennel Club booster group urged students this week to avoid "inappropriate chants" during the Bulldogs' Saturday game against Stanford, which was nationally televised on ESPN. "We implore the students of the...

SPOKANE — Mayor Jim West was recalled from office Tuesday in a special election prompted by news accounts that he offered City Hall jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room.In the city's first all-mail election, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted "yes" for recall, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain West, 54, who became the city's first elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.Just more than half of the 110,000 ballots mailed to voters in the city were counted in the first batch of results released Tuesday night."I...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) A tally of mail-in votes shows Mayor James E. West has been recalled from office over allegations he used his office computer to woo young gay men over the Internet.

SPOKANE -- It was a day of reckoning for Spokane Mayor Jim West. The preliminary results of the historic mayor recall election as posted by the Spokane County Elections Office show "Yes" votes as 38,718 or 65% to 20,681 "No" votes. The "No" votes equaled 35% of the vote total. It has been a long road for all involved in the recall election. The scandal broke seven months ago when the Spokesman-Review published their investigative report on the mayor....