http://www.inlander.com/spokane/articles.sec-67-1-briefs.html Sorting out Washington's new booze law. Plus, a new judge, and an uninvited sheriff.]]> The conference�€™s opening reception is this Friday, Feb. 17, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane. It will feature spoken word and music, along with a screening of the short film �€œMaria Full of Hope,�€� and it�€™s free to the public.]]> Bills allowing same-sex couples to marry received their first hearing before committees in the Washington State House and Senate on Monday. That same day, Senate Democrats announced that they expect to have the 25 votes needed for the measure to pass..]]> The ideas include many Stuckart thinks the city can enact, like instituting body cameras on officers, determining whether the department needs a civilian spokesperson, and making disciplinary actions more consistent.]]> �euro;�Mielke�euro;�s answer to a budget crisis is to increase taxes,�euro;� Roskelley said in his statement. �euro;�Examine his record. He was the public face for the recent animal control facility property tax, and lobbied the public for three sales-tax increases: a jail operations tax in March 2008; the Crime Check tax in May 2008; and the Public Safety tax in 2009.]]> �euro;�Hotelling�euro;�s law describes a tendency for competing firms to end up making their products as similar as possible,�euro;� Caitlin Knowles Myers, an economist at Middlebury College in Vermont, told NPR. �euro;�This could mean that they�euro;�re producing virtually identical goods or that they�euro;�re locating next to each other spatially.]]> In last week�euro;�s cover story (�euro;�The Road Forward,�euro;� 12/15/2011), we ended the piece with Tim Connor, a longtime police accountability advocate, and his skepticism that any reforms would be made at the police department.]]> The KOOTENAI ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE last week filed suit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prevent the removal of 500 trees that sit atop the Rosenberry Levee, located along Lake Coeur d�euro;�Alene to the south and west of North Idaho College.]]> Spokane could become home to the new BOEING 737 MAX, the most recent version of the aircraft manufacturer�euro;�s best-selling airliner. After a study done last month by the Washington Aerospace Partnership said Washington was competitive to host the new factory, Spokane-area leaders began angling to get the factory here.]]> Kendall Yards, Cont. After building and selling more than 40 residential units near downtown Spokane in the last couple of years, Liberty Lake-based development firm Greenstone has applied for a ]]> Thompson submitted his resignation in a two-sentence letter to City Administrator Ted Danek last Friday. He was escorted out of the Public Safety Building later that same day. Thompson, who makes about $73,000 a year, was paid through Thursday and will keep his health benefits through the month, according to city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.]]> In a twist of economic irony, this year Washington officially set a date to shut down the state’s last coal-fired power plant while at the same proposing to build two new coal export terminals to ship the stuff out of the country. To get the coal � which comes from the nation’s interior � to these terminals, it will need to go through Spokane.]]> Council strips watchdog of powers The office of the SPOKANE POLICE OMBUDSMAN lost its stronger, independent investigative power after a Monday night vote by the City Council. The 5-2 v]]> Ellington had been convicted of these charges in 2006, but the Idaho Supreme Court in May reversed the conviction when they found that a state police officer likely perjured himself while testifying in the original trial, as reported in last week’s edition of The Inlander.]]> BRIEFS A jet-biofuel effort in Washington gains steam; plus, our pols in D.C. weigh in on the debt INLANDER STAFF.]]> But after passing an online test at home and competing in a simulated game in Seattle, Runsvold landed in front of Alex Trebek himself in March. His debut episode premiered on Friday, July 15. As of press time, he had won his first two games. In fact, he dominated them, blitzing across the board, hammering on the buzzer, rattling off correct responses.]]> “The downtown weathered the economic [crash] better than most,” Dickinson says, crediting, in part, the mix of national and local businesses. Even while business shuddered nationally, she says, additional business � like the Apple Store � came to Spokane.]]> A local blog ran a post that began with, “Governor Butch Otter, in league with notorious Marxist, B. Hussein Obama, have hatched a plan to make Idaho the first Chinese owned state in America.” The post argued that Otter’s Project 60 � a plan to attract foreign investment � would enable a Chinese takeover.]]> Seattle, and not Spokane, is part of a federally funded project to install electric-car infrastructure in 18 metropolitan areas across the country. The first six were installed this month at Qwest Field and the rest should be finished by the end of the year.]]> Sasquatch Shenanigans When Joy Arch realized her 8-foot, 300-pound steel Bigfoot statue was missing from beside her downtown business last week, she knew it wouldn’t be long before someone spott]]>