Bloglander

HERE

Spokane City Council says a proposed nudity ordinance aimed at bikini baristas can be on the ballot, as long as backers collect 8,000 signatures. (S-R)

It was announced yesterday that controversial Idaho state schools Superintendent Tom Luna will not seek re-election. (S-R)

Beary sad. A 3-year-old Montana sanctuary grizzly bear that underwent an MRI at Washington State University after suffering seizures has died. (KHQ)

Spokane cops arrested a 17-year-old and are searching for two others after an attack on a couple downtown last evening. (KXLY)

THERE

President Obama, using his executive powers, plans to raise the minimum wage for new government contractors to $10.10. Tonight, you can also catch him giving the annual State of the Union Address. (WaPo)

Weather continues to suck across the Midwest, making our own winter climate seem like a tropical paradise. (Boston.com) Although, there is a 70 percent chance of snow hitting us tomorrow. (weather.com)

MUSIC

Several big things happened in Inland Northwest music news yesterday. First, Spokane's own America’s Got Talent finalist Cami Bradley unleashed a brand new music video. And it was announced Snoop Dogg would be headlining WSU’s Springfest. (Inlander)

Folk legend Pete Seeger died yesterday of natural causes. He was 94. (RS)

Today, Spokane’s own singer-songwriter Cami Bradley, of America’s Got Talent fame, released a brand new music video filmed locally at Barrister Winery. The song featured is a bright cover of the Supremes’ 1965 single “Stop in the Name of Love” — a completely different arrangement from the original. Bradley’s husband Eric is also featured in the video.

Construction has started on the Bennett Block in downtown Spokane, another piece in the ongoing transformation of Main Avenue. The renovation building will have retail and offices on the first two floors, with loft-style housing on the top floor, according to a property description from Goodale & Barbieri. Initial renderings show a new public entrance at ground level and a new elevation for the northeast stairway. These are probably not the final plans, but provide a glimpse of what may be coming.

Project architects, Nystrom + Olson, recently posted a few photos of interior work.

Bennett Block businesses are open through the current level of construction, but change is on the way. Spokane Uniform House will be moving within the next few months. Mizuna, located on the Howard Street side of the building, will be doing a remodel at the current location and expanding the kitchen and dining area.

Spokane Exercise Equipment, the corner retail tenant, will be moving a block east to the former Huppin’s space with plans to open by March 1. That section of Main Avenue is also seeing major changes, with renovations following the separate closures of Dutch’s music shop and Huppin’s in 2013. One new business there will be a bar and restaurant from the owners of Madeleine’s and Casper Fry.

Here’s a locator map for some of the projects on Main Avenue right now. Farther east, work continues on the former Merlyn’s space, which will be home to Black Label Brewing Company and other small businesses.

Remember when I swooned over the warm options on Bon Bon’s winter menu a few weeks ago? It’s still cold, so I’m still on that kick. And Boots is giving Bon Bon a run for its money. Try the boozy coffee or the boozy tea. Loosen your inhibitions, warm your insides, be well.

— HEIDI GROOVER

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Like all former denizens of Bend, Ore., I wrongly feel like I own a piece of the Deschutes Brewery. I’ve probably put some brewer’s kid through college with the amount of the Deschutes I’ve downed in my drinking career, so yeah, my allegiance is strong. And it gets stronger every January when Deschutes unleashes upon the market Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale. If you’re not hip to it, “Northwest Pale Ale” is basically a less hoppy IPA. And if you took Red Chair to the East Coast, they’d probably call it an imperial IPA. Sissies.

How good is it? Uh, well it won the World’s Best Beer distinction at the 2012 World Beer Awards. That do anything for ya?

Red Chair is a delightful beer — the beer I’ll be drinking almost exclusively until Deschutes inexplicably takes it away from us sometime in the spring.

— MIKE BOOKEY

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Call me new to the beer game. And even then, I don’t care for the taste of a bitter IPA or the slightly urine-like tang of Bud Light. My tastes lie somewhere in the middle — and yes, I think Blue Moon is delicious (roll your eyes if you will). So when I discovered Session Premium Lager at Morty’s on the South Hill I was extremely pleased with what I was swallowing. It tastes better than Miller High Life and PBR, I swear. There’s no bitter aftertaste and is as smooth as can be. Adding to its cool points, the beer has been made by the independently owned Full Sail Brewing Company out of Hood River, Ore., for decades. For anyone out there who, like me, can only handle the more mild beers, pick up a six-pack of Session in your nearest grocery store booze aisle and enjoy.

— LAURA JOHNSON

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I’m a beer-drinker through and through, and while most of the time you’ll see me tipping back something a little crisper and lighter — Belgians, hefeweizens, pilsners, etc. — this winter I’ve been all about the stouts and porters. To be honest, dark brown beers used to scare me. Before I gained a rudimentary beer education, I thought dark = bitterness. (I’m not a big fan of IPAs, by the way.) While I’ve been working my way through the warmer, richer flavors of dark-colored beers this winter, I’ve come across a couple favorites, but the obvious winner of them all is Ninkasi’s Vanilla Oatis Oatmeal Stout. It’s the perfect sipping beer, and with an ABV of 7.2% and the option of single 22-oz. bottles, you can — and should — enjoy its vanilla-y smoothness a little longer.

— CHEY SCOTT

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Since I just turned 21 a few months ago, I’m not exactly well-versed in the world of alcoholic beverages (although I do greatly enjoy a rum and coke or a Bailey’s on the rocks every now and then). I’m more of a juice aficionado. And I can be found sitting at my desk drinking Capri Sun — yes, those cute little pouch drinks from elementary school — on a daily basis. If there is a beverage and the word “juice” can be connected to it in any way, I already love it. I save the Capri Suns for work because they’re portable, but at home, I’m drinking Welch’s white grape peach juice, kiwi strawberry Snapple and Tropicana’s peach orchard punch.

— CLARKE HUMPHREY

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For the mornings: This isn’t new, but I’ll confirm what other people have said about coffee from local Manners Roasting Co. — it’s excellent. We picked up a bag of the Acopio Suyatal Nicaragua from Coeur Coffeehouse recently and these gray winters mornings have been a lot more bearable.

For the evenings: Boise-area Sockeye Brewing appeared in our market suddenly a few weeks ago, first on tap and now in cans as well. The hearty, hoppy Dagger Falls IPA is great winter drinking. In other cold-weather drinking, winter warmers can start all blending together by this point in the season, but River City’s Deep Thaw Winter Warmer is one worth seeking out.

— LISA WAANANEN

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Pineapple-orange-banana juice. All the tropical zing of pineapple, all the can’t-rhyme-with-it defiance of orange, all the slapstick appeal of banana, combined into a single beverage. Now, if only Rosauers carried it in the cheaper concentrate form, I would buy it by the gallon.

— DANIEL WALTERS

Washington State University's Student Entertainment Board (SEB) has a big surprise in store for its annual Springfest Music and Arts Festival.

This morning the SEB announced Springfest 2014's headliner: the one and only Snoop Dogg. (We're not sure where he stands these days regarding the name change to Snoop Lion, but we did notice the mention of the mainstream rapper's alter ego in small print on an event poster, below.)

Tickets to the April 26 performance at Beasley Coliseum go on sale to the public Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 10 am through Tickets West. Tickets for WSU students with a CougarCard are $24 (and must be purchased at the Cougar Card Center on campus), and for those non-students, tickets are $39.

Compared with past years' Springfest headliners, booking Snoop Dogg is a pretty impressive accomplishment for the SEB.

Here's a list of Springfest's past music acts:

2007 Everclear
2008 Eve 6
2009 Tech N9ne, Rebelution
2010 The Ying Yang Twins, The Maine
2011 Ludacris
2012 3OH!3, Chingy
2013 Mac Miller, E-40

While most students are focused on the music aspect of the two-day, outdoor event, Springfest also includes food, games, group activities, kids' entertainment and more.

And so another week begins.

HERE

A North Spokane explosion in a Jeep on Saturday took off a man’s hand. There are no suspects at this time. (KREM)

As annoying as they may be, new statistics show that Spokane streets are safer since the installation of red-light cameras five years ago. (S-R)

Saturday, stamps went up in price once again. They’re now 49 cents from the previous 46 cents. (CNN)

THERE

The Maryland mall shooter who killed three including himself Saturday has been identified. The reason for the incident remains unknown. (WaPo)

In messy news, a high-pressure toilet flushing system has been recalled after it was found to potentially shatter the toilet tank – or explode. (ST)

MUSIC

At last night’s Grammys, Washington’s own Macklemore and Ryan Lewis got some love winning Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. (Grammy.com)

My brother's friend found the kitten on the side of a rural highway outside of the city a few weeks before Christmas.

Knowing he's a cat guy, she called and asked what Andrew thought she should do with the kitten, who was injured — she guessed a broken leg. It was late, past 10. My brother offered to watch the kitten for the night, planning to take it to the shelter in the morning.

In the beginning everyone thought the tiny cat, no more than three months old, was a girl. Turns out, she was really a he. He earned the name Panda from his foster parents.

The first and only night he stayed with my brother, Panda slept right next to him in bed, snuggling and purring incessantly, despite the unknown injury he'd sustained. Our guesses: hit by a car, intentionally thrown from a moving vehicle, caught in something, attacked by another animal. But there was no blood, just an old scab wound. His white fur was clean, his belly round and well-nourished. But his front right paw was bloated and swollen, almost twice as big as the other.

The next morning, Andrew took Panda to the Spokane Humane Society, and the shelter manager agreed to take the kitten into their care. The shelter's veterinarian was off that day, a Friday, but over the phone he instructed warm compresses be applied to the leg until it could be examined on Monday.

My coworker here at the Inlander, Raevyn West, agreed to foster Panda over the weekend since our family cat, Alice, would have nothing to do with this "intruder," nor my brother harboring it in his bedroom.

On Saturday morning, Raevyn told me she and boyfriend Jordan were taking Panda to their veterinarian. The swelling in Panda's paw and his overall condition had drastically worsened overnight.

Their vet said Panda's leg was probably injured from something tightly tied around it, maybe even deliberately based on the even red lines under his fur. When the wound closed up at the surface, an infection spread rapidly. The doctor guessed if we'd waited all weekend, he'd have lost his leg.

With the wound drained and antibiotics prescribed, Panda went back home with Raevyn and Jordan, who agreed to foster him until he'd healed and could go up for adoption. In less than 24 hours, they'd fallen head over heels for the tiny white and black-spotted kitten who cooed and trilled, and became their cat Thunder's temporary best friend.

Panda stayed with Raevyn, Jordan and Thunder for more than five weeks while his leg slowly healed. After the swelling went down, the dead tissue around his foot lost its fur and scabbed off, new healthy tissue underneath. Even though they'd caught the infection before it was too late, at first no one knew if he'd keep the leg. It took weeks before he began even testing out walking on it again.

Panda went to his forever home on Monday, Jan. 20.

It was a hard choice for Raevyn and Jordan, to let go of this little kitten who'd played such a big role in their lives for more than a month. But they knew having another cat would make it more difficult to continue fostering kittens for the Humane Society. It never gets easier as a shelter pet foster parent, to let the litters of tiny kittens and puppies or hard-luck cases go when they've entered your lives and hearts so deeply. Panda is one of more than a dozen kittens the couple has taken into their home over the past year to nurture and socialize before becoming someone else's beloved pet.

When I look back at Panda's experience, my heart is warmed thinking of all the people who stepped in to help him: my brother's friend, Anandae, who stopped to pick him up of the side of the road that night (she later went door-to-door to see if someone missed him); the shelter staff and the veterinarians who cared for him. But most of all, his doting foster parents and foster brother, Thunder, who nurtured him and chose to adopt him out so they could continue helping other lost, abandoned and injured kittens in the future.

Good luck, little Panda!

For its 68th season, the Spokane Civic Theatre will stage multiple beloved musicals, including Fiddler on the Roof and The Music Man, the theater announced today.

Other main stage productions will be: A Christmas Carol, The Musical; The Servant of Two Masters; Nunsensations!; and Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four. Season tickets will be available soon. In the current season, Crazy For You runs through Feb. 9. The rest of the 2013-14 season is listed here.

Here is the full 2014-15 list from the Civic:

Main Stage

Fiddler on the Roof (Directed by Troy Nickerson and Heather McHenry-Kroetch)
A Christmas Carol, The Musical
The Servant of Two Masters (Directed by Patrick Treadway)
Nunsensations! (Directed by Troy Nickerson)
Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four (Directed by Christopher Wooley)
The Music Man (Directed by Tia Wooley)

Firth J. Chew Studio Theatre

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Directed by Susan Hardie)
Orphans (Directed by Marianne McLaughlin)
Clue: The Musical (Directed by Delvone Bullis)
Sylvia (Directed by Melody Deatherage)

Academy Musical Performance Camp

Legally Blonde (Directed by Delvone Bullis)

Special Event Fundraiser

The Women (Directed by Thomas Heppler)

It’s been 30 years since the Macintosh computer was introduced, and Apple created a timeline to promote the occasion with an innovator for each year. Representing 1993 are Robyn and Rand Miller, local creators of the video game Myst.

Earlier this year we wrote about Myst — created in a double-wide mobile home on a hill in Chattaroy — and Cyan’s long-awaited game, Obduction, which was funded through a Kickstarter campaign this year.

The Inlander was also started in 1993 with the help of a Macintosh SE, but apparently that didn’t make Apple’s list.

HERE

Two suspects have been arrested in connection to a string of local pharmacy robberies. (KXLY)

Preliminary autopsy results show no sign of foul play in the death of Kellogg teen Dylan Parker. (KHQ)

Two Bonners Ferry men have been arrested for allegedly breaking into ATMs in seven states and stealing up to $500,000. (S-R)

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers will give the Republican response to President Obama's State of Union address. (S-R)

The unemployment rate in Washington has dropped to a five-year low. (Herald)

THERE

House Speaker John Boehner tells Jay Leno he likes playing golf, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes too much to ever run for president. (National Journal)

A 46-vehicle pileup in Indiana killed three people and injured more than 20 others. (USA Today)

Apple's Macintosh computer turned 30 today. (WaPo)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Enjoy this brief history of Michael Scott's best awful jokes. ("That's what she said!") (The Atlantic)