June 30 / Projects here in state construction budget

The Washington Legislature passed a $3.5 billion spending plan for capital construction projects that included funding for a number of projects here, including $11.8 million to expand the Spokane Skills Center in the Hillyard neighborhood. It failed, though, to pass a $10 billion transportation package that would have provided $480 million for the North Spokane Corridor, but that called for raising gasoline taxes by 10.5 cents over the next 12 months and increasing other vehicle fees.

June 29 / Target buys land for south Spokane store

Spokane real estate developer David Black said Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has completed its purchase of a 10.6-acre site on Spokane's south side and plans to build a 135,000-square-foot store there. The store will anchor the envisioned Regal Plaza shopping center, at the southeast corner of the Regal Street and Palouse Highway junction. Target plans to start construction in October of the store, which will be its fourth in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, and the store is slated to open in July 2014.

June 28 / Police open downtown facility

Spokane Mayor David Condon and Police Chief Frank Straub, in collaboration with business and community organizations, said the police department is opening a downtown facility that's intended to put officers closer to the people they serve as part of a plan to drive down crime. The opening of the facility at 725 W. Riverside is the result of a police department partnership with the Downtown Spokane Partnership business organization, which is providing the office space, and the Spokane Transit Authority, which is providing seven parking spaces for police vehicles at the nearby STA facility.

June 25 / Employment here rises

About 212,000 people held nonagricultural wage and salary jobs in the Spokane area in May, up by 3,300 from the May 2012 level and up by 2,000 from April this year, preliminary state figures said. Preliminary results from another state survey put the unemployment rate here at 7.8 percent during May, down from 8.7 percent in the year-earlier month.

June 24 / PFD advances hotel site deal

The Spokane Public Facilities District board approved a letter of intent that outlines details for the sale of a city block just south of the INB Performing Arts Center downtown to the Worthy Group for construction of a nationally branded, 700-room "headquarters hotel" with a 900-space parking garage. Davenport Hotel Collection owners Walt and Karen Worthy already had signed the letter of intent, which provides a more detailed framework for advancing the project.

June 21 / Initiative opposition grows

The Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a newly formed coalition of civic and business leaders, said it's supporting 15 petitioners and Spokane County Commissioners in challenging the legality of two initiatives headed for the November ballot. The proposed measures are Envision Spokane's Community Bill of Rights, Initiative No. 2012-3, and Spokane Moves to Amend the Constitution's Voter Bill of Rights, Initiative No. 2012-4. The petitioners in the lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court are asking the court to rule on whether the initiatives represent an abuse of the initiative process.

June 21 / County to pay $2 million settlement

The attorney for the family of Spokane Valley Pastor Wayne Scott Creach said Spokane County has agree to pay $2 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the family after Creach was shot and killed by a county sheriff's deputy in 2010. The incident occurred on the night of Aug. 25, 2010, when Creach noticed a vehicle parking in the business's parking lot, but apparently didn't realize it was an unmarked patrol car. Reports of what happened next conflict, but the deputy in the vehicle ultimately fired on Creach, killing him. An internal investigation cleared the deputy of any wrongdoing.