WSU Spokane's campus goal to use more efficient lighting has earned them $20,000.

The effort to lower energy costs at their Innovate Washington building qualified them for the Avista energy rebate. WSU installed more efficient ballasts and lamps in the building.

"This is really the right work for the university to be doing,” campus facilities operations director Jon Schad said. "It’s great that Avista provides the cash incentive to help us make it happen.”

According to WSU News, Schad said the project is part of a bigger effort to increase the energy efficiency of buildings on campus. The university partnered with McKinstry in 2010 and 2011 to upgrade lighting, heating and air conditioning systems.

Other buildings on WSU's Spokane campus are also getting the new lighting. Both the pharmacology and medical education building under construction are getting the upgrades. WSU Spokane hopes the two new buildings will get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building efficiency certification and will get them more rebates from Avista after construction is finished.

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.