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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
The owner of the historic Chancery Building in downtown Spokane is planning to demolish the structure and replace it with a residential development. Centennial Real Estate Investments announced Wednesday it wants to construct a four-story, 37,000-square-foot apartment complex on the Chancery Building site at 1023 W. Riverside Ave. ... Centennial Real Estate Investments is the real estate division of Cowles Co., which also publishes The Spokesman-Review.
I’ve been reading the obituaries in the newspaper since I was in my late teens and working as an intern at the Miami News. It wasn’t a fascination with death, just the beginning of a lifelong desire to be a good journalist. A seasoned editor I respected told me I should do so. Obits, he said, tell you a lot about your community and its people, things a savvy reporter should be aware of.
Drought, flooding, market instability, inflation … to partially quote Rahm Emmanuel, “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” When conventional agriculture is facing multiple crises, it’s a good time to give a nudge to regenerative agriculture. Civilization has been dealing with drought since before Joseph’s brothers packed him off to Egypt. Society today manages the impact of drought much the same way as Pharoah, setting aside in good years to carry through lean years, only now we call it crop insurance and cash reserves. There is another path to drought resilience. When soil is treated as a living ecosystem, it absorbs and holds more moisture. Instead of cash reserves, the soil holds water and nutrient reserves. The key is changing management practices in agriculture....
Not much is known about the mysterious omicron variant of the coronavirus that is cropping up around the world. The mystery extends even to the pronunciation of the word “omicron,” which is a letter in the Greek alphabet. The founding of the language, breathing patterns and traditional teaching translations are among the reasons for the etymological confusion. ... In the Greek alphabet, there are two variations of the letter o: omicron (o) and omega (ω). Omicron is the shorter vowel pronunciation of the two, but time, wars and modern civilization eventually merged the pronunciations. ... Though this is the 13th major variant of COVID-19 detected, the World Health Organization decided to skip “Nu” and “Xi,” the 13th and 14th letters of the Greek alphabet, because “Nu” and “new” are homophones, and, in the case of oral explanations, could evoke fear in those who don’t know the distinction. WHO officials decided also to skip Xi, pronounced “shee,” since it is a common Chinese surname and could confuse people .
The Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade. Here’s what that could look like in the Inland Northwest
Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seemed poised to uphold Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and possibly do away with the nationwide right to abortion altogether, a decision that could have lasting effects in the Inland Northwest. The justices heard arguments Wednesday, and conservatives on the court – who currently hold a 6-3 majority – indicated they would likely uphold the Mississippi law. It could signal the biggest shift in abortion rights since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
While all eyes are on the new and little-understood omicron variant that is popping up around the country, the delta form of the coronavirus isn’t finished wreaking havoc in the U.S., swamping hospitals with record numbers of patients in the Midwest and New England. “Omicron is a spark that’s on the horizon. Delta variant is the fire that’s here today,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Maine, where an unprecedented 334 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 as of midweek.
A Libyan court ruled Thursday that a son of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi can compete in upcoming presidential elections, overturning a decision by the country’s top electoral body to disqualify him. A court in the southern province of Sabha ruled in favor of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Libyan media outlets reported. For almost a week, the court had been unable to convene to hear the appeal after the building was surrounded by armed men who prevented judges from entering. Last week, Libya’s High National Elections Committee had disqualified him, citing past convictions linked to using violence against protesters. The candidate had appealed the ruling.
The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. Earlier in the day, congressional leaders announced they had finally reached an agreement to keep the government running for 11 more weeks, generally at current spending levels, while adding $7 billion to aid Afghanistan evacuees.
Migrants seeking to enter the United States will again have to stay in Mexico as they await immigration hearings, as the Biden administration reluctantly announced plans Thursday to reinstate the Trump-era policy and agreed to Mexico’s conditions for resuming it. Revival of the “Remain in Mexico” policy comes even as the Biden administration maneuvers to end it in a way that survives legal scrutiny. President Joe Biden scrapped the policy, but a lawsuit by Texas and Missouri forced him to put it back into effect, subject to Mexico’s acceptance.
President Joe Biden is set to kick off a more urgent campaign for Americans to get COVID-19 booster shots Thursday as he unveils his winter plans for combating the coronavirus and its omicron variant with enhanced availability of shots and vaccines but without major new restrictions. The plan includes a requirement for private insurers to cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests and a tightening of testing requirements for people entering the U.S. regardless of their vaccination status. But as some other nations close their borders or reimpose lockdowns, officials said Biden was not moving to impose additional restrictions beyond his recommendation that Americans wear masks indoors in public settings.
The United States, European Union, Britain and Canada slapped simultaneous sanctions Thursday on dozens of officials, organizations and companies in Belarus, with the EU taking aim at those accused of participating in a “hybrid attack” on the bloc using migrants. The three countries and the 27-nation EU have targeted Belarus since President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term last year in an election that the West and other observers say was fraudulent, and over the security crackdown on peaceful protestors that followed.
A man who attended an anime convention in New York City in late November tested positive for the omicron variant of COVID-19 when he returned home to Minnesota, marking the second case of the variant in the U.S. and prompting officials in the nation’s largest city to urge thousands of convention attendees to get tested. The case came a day after the U.S. announced its first case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus had been detected in California, in a person who had recently traveled to South Africa.
Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced Thursday he is stepping down just two months after taking over from predecessor Sebastian Kurz, who stumbled over corruption allegations. Schallenberg, a former foreign minister, said he would leave office as soon as the conservative Austrian People’s Party names a new leader. Kurz was the party’s leader but announced just hours earlier he was quitting politics to spend more time with his family.
New autism numbers released Thursday suggest more U.S. children are being diagnosed with the developmental condition and at younger ages. U.S. autism numbers have been on the rise for several years, but experts believe that reflects more awareness and wider availability of services to treat the condition rather than a true increase in the number of affected children.
The state’s long-term care tax set to go into effect in the new year could be delayed after Gov. Jay Inslee said Thursday he supports waiting to iron out certain details of the bill. Inslee told reporters he does not have the authority to make an emergency declaration to delay it, but he could work with lawmakers to come up with a pause. He said he supports delaying if the Legislature offers a “meaningful way to do it.” ... Inslee’s support comes after Democratic leaders sent him a letter on Wednesday, urging him to pause the tax for one year while the Legislature could provide fixes. The delay would allow the Legislature to “engage the public in a transparent, deliberative process to address concerns that have been raised with the WA Cares Fund without being limited by a premium assessment that is already in progress,” the letter reads.
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