The U.S. Government is using competition to get America's youth interested in math and science.

Several middle school students from around our area are participating in a regional competition for the 23rd Annual National Science Bowl, put on by the Department of Energy.

In the regional competitions, teams of four are asked "tough mathematical problems and tested on their knowledge of a vast number of areas including astronomy, biology, Earth science and physics."

Middle school students from Centennial, Chase, All Saints, Kettle Falls, Creston, Lincoln and Moscow will all be part of the competition.

For the past 23 years, more than 225,000 students have participated in what has become one of the nation's largest science competitions. For 2013, about 9,500 more high school students and 4,500 middle school students are expected to participate.

How did you spend your New Year's Day? Napping away a hangover on the couch, pretending to watch football?

That kind of afternoon sounds foolish to the group of rafters who floated the Spokane River on Tuesday. The Northwest Whitewater Association celebrated the 20th Annual Only Fools Float the River on the First the only way they knew how – by eschewing a day at home and getting onto the water despite the air being only 22 degrees when they launched.

“If you're a boater, you take every chance to get on the water,” Bruce Bernhardt said.

More than 30 people attended the event with more than 20 boats on the water.

“This is more exciting” than watching football, said Pat Keegan before launching.

Rain and wind. NOW it feels like Fall.  

So with that in mind, it's a good time to think about an annoying chore that many of you will be doing in the coming days.  That chore of course is picking up leaves.  A necessary evil of home ownership, but also a major factor in water pollution prevention.  And after you read this, you'll realize that you actually live on "riverfront property"

Leaves are harmless, right?  Totally natural.  So how do they contribute to water pollution you ask?  

Wind blown leaves that make their way to the streets combine with leaves that naturally fall in to the street, creating excessive amounts of leaves that end up being washed down storm drains and in to the Spokane River where they begin to decay, and release nutrients contributing to the excess algae in lakes like Lake Spokane.

Even if the leaves themselves don’t move, rain seeping through leaf piles and leaves crushed by car tires makes a rich “nutrient tea” that flows along the curb into the storm drain system.