Stefanie Collins had always felt she was risking her career when she challenged her boss, Prosecuting Attorney Larry Haskell, in this year's election. She was eliminated in August's primary election, and now Collins thinks her days as a deputy prosecutor in the county prosecutor's office are numbered. While still employed, she recently changed her LinkedIn status to #OpenForWork. Collins says Haskell had removed her from the high-profile Richard Aguirre murder case, which was reassigned to someone with "significantly less experience." Collins had been the prosecutor on the case when it ended in a hung jury mistrial last year, but says she was not given an explanation for why she was removed from the case. Another clue, Collins says, was that she was booted from her office so support staff could be located there. "He moved me into a converted storage closet," Collins says. "No door, no window, no vents. I have a curtain for a door." Asked about Collins' fate, Haskell says he refers "all personnel-related inquiries to the County Human Resource department," according to an email. "I can read the tea leaves," Collins says. "I'm not going to be caught flat-footed." (DANIEL WALTERS)
INSLEE TOUTS HOUSING
On Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee toured Spokane's Catalyst Project, a new housing project for homeless people that the state is funding through its Rights of Way Safety Initiative. The Catalyst Project, set to open in the former West Hills Quality Inn this week, is being managed by Catholic Charities and will have space for roughly 100 people. "This is going to be a big step forward to providing housing so the folks in Camp Hope can go to a better long-term solution so that place won't be necessary anymore," Inslee said, referring to the large East Central homeless encampment on state land that city and county leaders have repeatedly clashed with the state over. The state is funding other housing and shelter projects in an effort to relocate the camp's estimated 433 residents, but the slow pace has frustrated local leaders. Outside the Catalyst Project on Monday, Inslee was met with a handful of protesters concerned about the project's impact on their neighborhood. (NATE SANFORD)
SNOW BY THE NUMBERS
When writers here at your favorite weekly rag are curious on a Monday, we sometimes seem a little slow on the uptake by the time this paper gets in your hands on Thursday. But since we asked, we still wanted to share some of the whopping cleanup figures Spokane released about the record-breaking 7.5 inches of snow we got on Nov. 30. In the all-city plow of 2,200 "lane miles," which wrapped up Saturday, crews spread nearly 182,000 gallons of liquid deicer (about a third of what an Olympic swimming pool could hold) and 66 tons of granulated deicer (that's like 10 elephants worth of salt! Or 90 cows). They also spread 370 tons of traction sand (the internet says that's like two Statues of Liberty) and used 53 pieces of equipment (think tractors, plows, graders, and trucks with those shovel attachments your annoyingly snow-savvy neighbor has, too). (SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL) ♦
