Good evening and thank you for joining
us for Crempton News at 5:00 tonight.
I'm Mark Hanrahan. And
I'm Whitney Ward. Thank you for
being here for the first time t.
The Spokane Transit authorities city line
buses opened their doors to the public.
STA hosted a test ride session for people
to ride for free and then provide feedback.
Rep Twos Janelle Finch was there
talking to riders as we get a first hand
look inside the new city line b.
Today Spokane Transit Authority
invited people to come and teste
one of its newest city line bus.
Everyday Spokane bus riders tell
me they felt the battery powered
ride was smoother and quieter
compared to STA standard fleet.
When people think about
their ideal transit system,
several details can come to min.
Ease of use, Safety is probably
a big concern for everybody.
This is what STA wants to hear d
consider ahead of the City Line
launch in just over two months.
STA says Battery Electric 0 Misn
buses will be in full operation. This
is a great way to move people
through the community.
It's something bus riders say
they're looking forward to.
I've been wanting to ride this s
ever since I've seen it come ou.
Me too. And then I've I'm a
regular bus rider, so anything o
do with Spokane Transit, I woul.
I like to be on board,
James Van der Meer says.
He rides the bus often.
That's why he signed up to test
ride the city line Wednesday.
I live on the South Hill.
I live close to the park and ride and I.
Take the bus almost every
time I want to go somewhere,
STA says. The ride is about
an hour from end to end
and connects Browse EDITION alle
way here to SEC through Gonzaga
downtown with High Frequency service.
Test riders got off the bus excd
about the lines official launch.
It was quiet, It was fast.
I didn't have to wait very long to get on.
Yeah, I like the map in the bus
that shows you where it's going.
That was actually,
I think that is nowhere else. On other buses,
STA says it ran over 6
million rides last year.
It says the city line will redue
traffic congestion and bring
in an estimated $175,000,000 to
Spokane over the next 20 years.
STA is planning to celebrate the
launch of its City Line rapid
transit system by providing rids
with free rides for seven weeks
starting July 15th in Spokane.
Janelle Finch, Crumpty News.
In other top stories tonight,
police continued to investigate
an active shooter hoax call at
Pullman High School and several
other area schools today.
According to the Pullman Police Department,
early this morning the call went out for
an active shooter at Pullman High School,
so they quickly went into lockd.
Then police entered the building right
around 10 and cleared it in less than 30
minutes to determine there was no threat.
But other schools in our area,
including Central Valley School District
also received those swatting ca.
And out of an abundance of caut,
Spokane Public Schools increased
police presence throughout the.
District Today
and the update tonight on the Pullman bomb
threat that happened over the weekend.
Newly filed court documents shoe
suspect identified as Apollo lawyer is
now formally charged with three felonies.
Those charges include harassmen,
assault and malicious placement
of an explosive. That suspect
is accused of threatening to boa
family members Pullman apartmend
then during a search of that ho,
police say they did find 2 pipe bombs
and an improvised container with
gunpowder inside wrapped with t.
Lawyer faced a judge for
the first time on Monday.
He does remain in the
Whitman County Jail tonight,
new at 5:00 tonight.
74 year old James Dean,
the man who shot a 30 year old n
named Shane Brown and Coeur d'Ae
in a parking lot there last mon,
will not face charges.
Back in April, police say Dean and his
wife were walking back to their truck
when they saw Brown inside their pickup.
After confronting Brown with a handgun,
the suspect got into another
car and according to police,
accelerated and hit Dean with i.
That's when Dean fired several rounds,
killing the suspect.
In today's release,
a detective finishing his review saying that
Dean acted lawfully and in self-defense.
For that full story,
just head to our website, thatscram.com.
In the meantime,
switching gears to talk weather
on this Wednesday afternoon.
If you are a fan of our warmer weather,
well,
you're going to love this forec.
Yes, it sounds like the climb. I mean,
it's it's a lot of a climb every single day.
And Chief Chief Meteorologist Jeremy Legu,
you're going to tell us all about it?
Yeah, I guess so.
Well, yeah, that'd be great.
How do you feel about that? I m,
I'm ready. Let's do this.
Temperatures right now on
the warm side of things,
65 degrees are going warm side of things.
Yes, step outside, it's rather .
And today 65 degrees is about average for
what we should see this time of year.
Couple of stray showers,
Those are pretty average as wel.
But coming up, we're talking above average,
not just in terms of heat,
but in terms of sunshine.
We've got a couple of stray rums
of Thunder still coming down.
I got a message from a viewer.
We did have one of those rumbles
coming out just outside of Ritze
a bit earlier just to the north
and that out near Lind, kind of,
excuse me, just southwest and
that's kind of falling apart.
So as we move through
the rest of the evening,
those all kind of dissipate tomorrow,
a couple not near as widespreads
today and a whole lot more suns.
And then by Friday all bets are
off as we soar to near 80 degre.
It's seriously.
A much warmer forecast as we
head through the next few days.
We are climbing into the 70s
Tomorrow near 80 on Friday.
By Saturday,
we're in the mid 80s and on Mots
Day it is looking like a hot on.
Across much of the Northwest,
temperatures soar up into the 90s for
some for the first time this ye.
My
goodness. All right, Jeremy, thank you.
New numbers released today showe
resurgence of tourism in Spokane
post Pandemic, Creme du Shannon.
Maudi gives us a look now at
the economic impact and the
other benefits of this comeback.
On a sunny day in Riverfront
Park, it's easy to see Spokane
is springing back.
Coming out of the pandemic,
we are stronger than ever.
New numbers from Visit Spokane w
that in 2022 visitors spent $1.4
billion generating $616,000,000n
labor income from tourist emplo,
adding up to a little over 17,000 jobs.
And that also created $219,000,0
in state and local taxes.
Tourism is not only something that we get
to show the best and brightest of Spokane,
but it also makes a difference o
the well-being of our citizens.
Beyond those numbers,
there are other tourism benefits for Spokane,
like increasing the exchange of cultures,
ideas and even a little fun.
And we'll get you some throat.
Robert Hetner's hot dog cart has pulled
in tourists near Riverfront Park for 11
years. Or maybe
it's the hat. Very much so.
I've been wearing this
for almost 10 years now,
and if I don't put the hat on,
somebody will stop and wonder
why something's wrong. But
during the height of the pandem,
even that couldn't help him.
Very painful with the loss
of tourism. And half his season,
about half of each year, 2020 and 2021,
I was allowed to be out here.
How you doing, brother? Good.
How are you? So Robert's doing .
Yes, this business is better now
than it was before the pandemic.
Especially since Spokane is comg
back by planning ahead for big events
like the 50th celebration of Expo 74,
all sorts of convention busines.
Obviously the 50th anniversary
is going to be another big thing
downtown. Big things ahead.
Let's hope he's got enough
dogs. Shannon Maudie,
Kram DO News.