The Spokane Youth Sports Association (SYSA) is pleased to announce their upcoming "Breakfast with a Side of Sportsmanship" fundraising event on Thursday, June 7 at 7:30 am.  The breakfast will be held at the SYSA Bingo Hall on 2230 E. Sprague.

A minimum contribution of $100 is requested, but all gifts are welcome.  This year’s breakfast host is 700 ESPN's Rick Lukens and the featured speaker is Gonzaga Women's Basketball Coach, Kelly Graves.

Graves has turned the GU women’s basketball team into one of the elite programs in the nation in his 11 years at the helm.  He led GU to their unprecedented seventh-straight West Coast Conference Championship and fourth WCC Tournament Title in the last five yeaers.  He has also taken the Lady Zags to the Sweet Sixteen for the past three years and to the Elite Eight once.

SYSA has over 8000 youths participating in sports and camps throughout the year.  Over 600 youths were able to participate because of the generous support from the community totaling more than $40,000 to the SYSA Scholarship fund in 2011!

If this warm weather has you thinking about getting outside and lighting up the campfire, there are rules you need to follow to avoid a fine or something worse. The Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency is outlining the rules and regulations for the season.

"As the weather improves the number of reports we receive about illegal outdoor fires increases. We want people to know and follow the rules related to recreational fires," said Lisa Woodard, Spokane Clean Air. "The rules are in place to ensure safety and to keep smoke to a minimum."

Recreational fires include cooking and camp fires, barbecues and other backyard warmers that burn charcoal, propane, natural gas or firewood. Those fires are allowed only on private property and in designated areas in parks and other public lands.

Here's what Spokane Clean Air recommends if you plan to light up a fire in our region:

My family's adventure in kitty-sitting took a turn, just a week into fostering kittens for SpokAnimal.  We have a little of 5 kitties. They were teeny, tiny when we got them, weighing less than a pound a piece. Our job is to fatten them up and love on them; socialize them so they are ready for their new homes.

But, with kitties found and brought in, there's no way to know what they've been exposed to. When we got them they seemed healthy.. but, about a week in, we noticed one, the runt started getting sick. She had nasty diarrhea, wouldn't eat and was lethargic. We called SpokAnimal who had us bring her in right away.

It turns out, she had a parasite called coccidia (among the most common infections in cats and dogs).  She was very sick.  A tech at SpokAnimal, Trina, has been nursing her back to health. Trina's had to give her special feedings every 2 hours and medicines. It's been a week and she's ready to come back home with us and her kitty siblings.

Trina was wonderful, sending us picture and text updates.