Spokane

It may be a little early to announce victory, but The Lands Council has chosen a date to plant 10,000 Ponderosa pines. If they become a finalist in the Tom's of Maine's contest, with the large sum of money they receive they'll plant pines in various Spokane locations on October 22nd of this year. They're calling it Reforest Spokane Day. "It takes a lot of planning, but were confident that we're going to make it in the top six," Lands Council executive director, Mike Petersen said. The top finalist would receive $50,000 and the remaining five would receive $20,000. If they win the 50 grand, Petersen says that will pay for everything including snacks and lunches for the 500 needed volunteers. If they only get the 20 grand, they'll still plan on planting 10,000 trees. 

The Hart Field Preservation is filing suit against Spokane Public School District 81 today.The history of the lawsuit started in 2009 when voters approved a SD81 bond that would authorize the district to modernize schools.The Hart Field Preservation organization says that relocating Jefferson Elementary to 37th and Manito Boulevard does not constitute the definition of modernize.

Safety issues surrounding the annual Artfest are the concerns of the Brownes Addition neighborhood. They'll be discussing the future of Artfest at their monthly neighborhood council meeting tonight. Rumors surrounding the event potentially moving to Riverfront Park have been circulating the community. The Brownes Addition Twitter even called this discussion:

Compared to some highways that lack the system, the North Spokane Corridor has an animal safety feature that protects them and the drivers above. Construction crews installed a thirty foot arched culvert over Deadman Creek where the two highway meets. Along with the culvert, they installed a motion-activated camera."We installed a motion-activated camera to see if the local wildlife would make the change in their wandering habits from crossing the busy highway to the new, wider and taller route," wrote Al Gilson, in his latest WSDOT blog entry.

Growing up in Michigan, "Ponderosa" meant one thing: inexpensive buffet dining.  I didn't see my first real-life Ponderosa Pine until I moved to Spokane in 1998.  Now, I'm surrounded by them in my old-growth neighborhood.  They're towering, stately, and to me, epitomize the majestic natural beauty of the Inland Northwest.  Now, there's a plan to bring more Ponderosas to Spokane - 10,000, to be exact.  The Lands Council's ambitious proposal would have 500 volunteers plant 20 trees apiece in a single day.  To pay  for "Reforest Spokane Day," the Lands Council needs your vote to win a community improvement contest sponsored by , the natural beauty products company.

Coworking is a style of work which involves a shared work environment with independent activity. It encourages freelance and work-at-home individuals to leave the comfort of their home or coffee shop to interact with similiar people with in a collaborative process.

Local Pita Pit franchises are participating in the Share Our Strength's Dine Out For No Kid Hungry. 

If you haven't had a chance to visit the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture you might want to put it on your calendar for this weekend. The exhibit will be on display until Monday, September 5th.

A Spokane SWAT raid on the south hill last night turned up several stolen assault rifles. Just after 8:30 last night, the SWAT team executed a search warrant at a home on the 3300 block of East 35th Ave. Once inside, detectives recovered six to eight guns stolen from several homes in the Spokane Valley last week.

Greenbluff is a true treasure in the Inland Northwest, but getting out there isn't always exactly the easiest task. So the Spokane Northside Farmers Market makes getting local, fresh produce easier for you. You can check it out every Wednesday from 3pm to 7pm until mid-October.  You can check it out Saturday mornings too.  It's at Franklin Park Mall, across from Franklin Park on North Division. Here's a list of the goods:

Every year Pig Out in the Park takes over Riverfront Park. Along with some new food vendors like Mommy G's grilled cheese truck, Scrappy the Broccoli will be wandering Pig Out in the Park next weekend. Wait, who is that? Well, he's a new mascot being adopted by Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. They're hoping he'll promote their new food scraps recycling program. He's cheerful, he's green and he's a stalk of broccoli.He's no Recycle Man yet, but he'll be stamped onto the t-shirts of Team Scrappy, volunteers from the Master Composters/Recyclers program. They'll be busy all weekend helping foodies separate their meal leftovers from non-recyclable items like plastic ware and utensils.

Americans have been celebrating Labor Day for over 100 years. The first observance was on September 5th, 1882 in New York in accordance with the Central Labor Union. It became a nationwide holiday in 1884 after 23 other states had already adopted the holiday in honor of workers.Here in Spokane we celebrate it with some businesses taking the day off and free parking in downtown Spokane.City Hall will be closed along with other city facilities including Municipal Court, libraries, garbage transfer stations and the waste-to-energy plant. Garbage pickup will be a day late. As usual, city council meetings for the day are canceled and will continue the following week.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers will host her annual public town hall in Spokane on Wednesday, August 31. If you'd like to express your opinions about jobs, government spending, health care, energy, and national security then you may want to attend the meeting. A lottery system will be used to take questions. Those who wish to ask questions will be given a ticket once they enter the room. During the event, if that person's ticket is selected, they will be asked to proceed to the nearest microphone where they can publicly direct their question to the Congresswoman. The town hall meeting is being held at the located at 1316 N. Lincoln in Spokane starting at 6 p.m. 

Residents concerned for fire safety at Spokane's High Drive bluff are invited to participate in an open-discussion of forest health next Wednesday, August 31st.A workshop hosted by WSU Spokane is being held to focus on a plan to reduce fire risk on the bluff and for neighboring homes."We've been working with a group of volunteers that live near the bluff. It's been a process. Their priorities have been trail maintenance, fire risk abatement and weed management," WSU extension agronomist, Diana Roberts, Ph.D, said. She continued, "We definitely want more people involved. It's open to anyone interested."

Spokane Police Department has joined Twitter. The news comes four months after their neighboring police department in Coeur d'Alene joined the Twittersphere.Their first tweet discussed the call for help to identify the vehicle that be related to the death of Evon Moore near Ralph St. and Riverside Ave. on August 13th. They hope to use their Twitter presence as another way to get the latest info to the community straight from the Department.So far they've reached 25 followers. Follow them at .

Hockey fans were out in full force for yesterday's Red-White scrimmage, which ended with a 4-3 win for the Reds.

Who's planning on heading to Pig Out this weekend? Send us your pictures of all the fab food!