WSU measures up with one of nation's best

COUGARS

Our final post of the night. I promise. On it you will find the unedited version of my basketball game story for tomorrow's S-R.

Wild Card/Tuesday -- 11/18/08

I'm off to listen to the Gonzaga Bulldogs dismantle UIdaho at the McCarthey Center, beginning at 6 p.m. The Vandals seem somewhat better this year than in their miserable recent past in men's basketball. So I don't think the Zags are going to drop 100 points on them, as Michigan State did this weekend. But it should be settled fairly quickly. After the miserable football season that we're all still enduring, it's nice to know that one of my teams will win tonight in Spokane. I'll see you back here Wednesday. Here's your Wild Card ...

Bad, yes, but how bad?

That's what we'll find out this morning in hearing room B of the House office building in Olympia.

At 10 a.m., the state's Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will be told what the state treasury's likely to look like over the next two years. TVW, the state's public affairs network, will air the meeting live.

A year ago, the 2009-2011 forecast looked a bit cloudy, but nowhere near as bad as it does today. The state's economists last December figured Washington's government would be short about $500 million.

Over the spring and summer, that grew to $2.7 billion, and in September, it jumped to $3.2 billion. This morning, we'll see where things now stand. The shortfall is already nearly 10 percent of the state's general fund.

"I think this has not hit home with people," said Sen. Margarita Prentice, chairwoman of the Senate's budget-writing committee. "The cuts that we're going to have to make are going to be awful. People are going to be very unhappy and hope that there will be an exception for the things they care deeply about."

How about staving off cuts with tax increases? Prentice said she agrees with Gov. Chris Gregoire that a sagging economy isn't the time to boost taxes. Businesses are struggling, Prentice said, and "I can't think of too many places we can start taxing even if we wanted to."

Prentice said the focus is likely to be on trying to create jobs, in hopes of growing quickly out of the economic slowdown.

"That's going to be the refrain you're going to hear from us," she said.

Beware the Superbug (MRSA)

The Seattle Times has produced an impressive series on the outbreak of MRSA at hospitals. It's scary stuff and calls into question the practice of hospitals over the years.

The drug-resistant germ MRSA lurks in Washington hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading at an alarming rate, but no one has tracked these cases — until now.

It's a three-part series, and well worth reading. It includes a database where you can look up the occurrence of the disease at hospitals across the state.

The VA routinely screens for MRSA, which has effectively killed the spread at its hospitals. No non-VA hospitals do this now.

Do you know anyone who has contracted MRSA?

Gross Foods

I got an idea after reading one of Jeremiah's post. Check out the Recipes of the Week post, here, for some enlightening comments about peanut butter, tofu, and Rocky Mountain Oysters. Or you could just look up 'Rocky Mountain Oysters.' I dare you.
Here's a list, from Associated Content. I wouldn't reccommend looking at it while eating, preparing to eat, or having just finished eating. I considered posting the picture that went along with it, but it was too revolting.

Funny story- goes with the picture. My Dad had my brother try raw oysters. He did, and we have about 10 pictures of my brother trying the oysters, and then spitting them back out. Hilarious.

What are the weirdest, or grossest foods or recipes you have ever eaten or heard of? Have you tried any of them?

Another country heard from...

OK, we’re back on Black Friday here…

We saw a post at MainStreet (via the blog Wallet Pop) titled, “The Money-Sapping Secrets of Black Friday Sales.” As you might have guessed, it comes from the anti- side of the aisle.

The story says you can find the same deals online or at other times during the season, and that Black Friday is a good way to get yourself into debt, drawn in by good deals only to find yourself overspending. The story also says that Black Friday “pros” -- people who watch the ads for weeks, plan meticulously and get up earlier than you – already have you beat at the game.

Holiday furloughs for some Idaho state employees

Hundreds of Idaho state employees are being ordered to take time off without pay at the holidays this year, to help balance the state budget. Gov. Butch Otter today praised the moves by two state agencies thus far as “good management,” saying that employees may be shorted in pay, “But they’ve got a job.”

“This is a good management style, as far as I’m concerned,” Otter said. “They’re taking two days out of the year … where there’s precious little activity.” The state Department of Agriculture is ordering all its 325 employees statewide to take the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas off without pay. The state Attorney General’s office is having all its workers take a half-day without pay the day before Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. With more state budget cuts in the works, other agencies are likely to follow suit. You can read my full story here at spokesmanreview.com.

Toxic-Free Toys

Last summer, parents across the country had to take away Thomas the Tank trains, Baby Einstein color blocks and other toys that contained dangerous lead paint.

A December 2007 test on more than 1,200 children’s products found that 35 percent contain lead levels that were far above the federal recall standard standard, according to the Associated Press. The study was conducted by the national Center for Health, Environment and Justice along with the Michigan-based Ecology Center.

Safety -- in addition to creativity -- was foremost on the minds of some of the toy experts I interviewed recently for this week’s story, “Finding the Right Toy.”

Tomorrow, the Seattle-based Washington Toxics Coalition will release its Healthy Holiday Gift Guide to make sure parents remain vigilant this holiday season. According to the WTC, new federal standards for toxic chemicals in toys won’t take effect until after the 2008 holiday season. Check out their website for simple tips on what types of toys to avoid and which toys to buy.

Parents: Please tell us about some of the toys on your child’s list this holiday season.

The count is on

In a process that may or may not be as exciting as watching paint dry -- reasonable minds on scene disagreed -- Spokane County is comparing "remade" ballots to the problem ballots that were marked by voters but the machines couldn't read.

Elections workers are checking 200 ballots from around the county, which were held out of the count so far, as a way of double checking the accuracy of the process.

This was prompted by the House Republicans' request to have all 7,000 remade ballots from the 6th Legislative District reviewed.

It's the 6th where Democratic challenger John Driscoll leads Republican Rep. John Ahern by 63 votes.

But even though it's the Republicans who were most interested in this process, it might also be said that it is the Republicans who are causing it to drag on...

New youth center opens at Northtown

Founder Kitara McClure says people are waiting for federal or state funding to start helping teens, but her idea was for a place where teens and adult volunteers can help each other, and donations can cover the rest. She founded P.O.N.Y.T.A.L.E.S. Youth Services, which stands for Positive Outreach Navigating Youth Teaching Adolescents Leadership and Entrepreneurial Spirit, which led to the opening of the new center, a place for teens after school, where they can learn job skills, get tutoring, take a dance class or work in the recording studio.

The Greater Tragedy...

AP photo

Good morning, Netizens...

It is not quite dawn and while I sit in solitude on the stoop in front of the Virtual Ballroom, Spokane awakens, awakening from her sleep, she combs the beer cans out of her hair and makes preparations for another day's business.

I watch from the shadows as Foghorn, my next-door neighbor, wheels her car out of her parking place and drives down the avenue to her job at Albertsons. While there are many neighbors on my street, whose names I know, whose faces I recognize and whose spirits I cherish, Foghorn is perhaps the only person on the block who is aware of The Virtual Ballroom, although she has never set foot inside, just peered around the entrance curiously watching people come and go.

Old Mr. Odduck, who lives halfway down the block, acquired his name for his habit of saying, “Howdy Neighbor” to everyone who lives on this street as he drives or walks by. It isn't as if we have names that he would bother to remember, nor that he would stop and talk about the weather, politics or how the garden did this last summer. He simply waves his hand in a laconic manner, without affection nor animation, and travels onward, having fulfilled his neighborly obligation.

Part Five: Chapter 42

Ever since the day that Becky and her family took the southern trail and I struck off west on the Smith cutoff, I’d had dreams about her. Some had been good but most were pretty bad. The night after we were told she’d been kidnapped by Indians, I had one hell of a bad one. But tonight, after learning she was locked up in a house for lunatics, I had myself the worst nightmare I could ever remember. Most of it had to do with me following Becky down long, dark corridors that seemed to go on forever. All the way down the length of these hallways on either side of me were locked doors that seemed to bulge outward into the passageway as I passed and door knockers that rapped all by themselves and shadows that reached out for me, then disappeared. And all the while a chorus of groans and hysterical screams echoed all around me.

Wang's movie gives 'Good Prayers'

I’ve been watching Wayne Wang’s films since 1985, when his little family feature “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart” played at the old Magic Lantern (at least that’s where I think I saw it).

Not that I’ve liked all of his films. His 1987 film “Slam Dance” was a bizarre kind of neo-noir that needed more than just his determined independent sensibilities. But those same sensibilities made a hit of 1995’s “Smoke,” just as was able to find some success with his more-mainstream 1993 adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel “The Joy Luck Club.”

I just got out of a mid-afternoon screening of Wang’s latest film, “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,” his shot-in-Spokane movie that is so slight that it seems even a mild breeze might blow it off the screen. I mean that, though, in a good way.

Henry O stars as Mr. Shi, a resident of Beijing who has come to Spokane to visit his daughter Yilan (Feihong Yu). They haven’t seen each other for a dozen years, and the separation hasn’t made for easy relations. He expresses his concerns in a controlling way, urging her to eat more, to go to sleep early, all so that she can “recover.”

But from what? That’s the film’s slow reveal, the plot point around which father and daughter slowly, gradually but ultimately do learn not just to talk to one another but to do so honestly.

The acting, especially by Henry O – whose credits include “The Last Emperor” and “Snow Falling on Cedars” – is authentic to a fault. The scenes in which Mr. Shi talks in blends of their respective native languages and broken English with an Iranian woman (Vida Ghehremani) feel as if we are eavesdropping on a private conversation.

And Spokane, badly used by so many filmmakers – think of “Benny & Joon” director Jeremiah Chechik waxing about the “1970s feel” of the city – comes across well enough. There’s only one shot at the beginning of the west-side train/freeway bridges, which is a shot of pure beauty, and the strip-mall shots won’t do much for local tourism. But Spokane does at least feels real.

Thanks, Wayne. You and North By Northwest, which provided the production crew, have done us all a big favor.

Can you explain the Obama headline?

Q. Can someone explain the thought behind today's (11/5/08) headline? Is there some clever wording or profound innuendo that I've missed? Obama Rolls??? I take it to mean the votes rolled in for him, across the country. If that's correct, then what a disappointing, tepid, weak headline for one of the most significant and momentous events of our country's history.

This is not only a front page, but a keepsake; the layperson's own, little piece of history to hold on to and show their grandchildren. Did you not have enough time in the past 18 months to come up with something better to embody the spirit of this election? There are no re-dos on this one and unfortunately this headline fell flat.

Amy W.

A. I'm sorry you were disappointed by our headline. We considered a variety of options last evening and felt we had selected a very good one. Your reading of it was correct -- the votes rolled in for Obama, starting in the East and spreading widely out to the West. As the underline stated, "Democrat dominates coast to coast in historic election."

At least one other paper, the Denver Post, used the same headline on the front page in its Wednesday edition.

The circulation department reports that our sales at retail outlets and the newspaper racks were quite brisk, so I think the headline and dramatic photo captured the attention of a lot of readers.

Rand Miller does a post-mortem on why "Myst Online" failed

OK, we'll continue sending out items relating to Cyan Worlds, who is on life support temporarily.

We found this story in GamesIndustry.biz, devoted to remarks made by Cyan co-founder Rand Miller at a recent game developers meeting in Texas:

Myst creator warns of over ambition in MMO space
At a panel discussion at the Austin GDC, Myst creator Rand Miller gave his audience a look behind the scenes why his URU: Myst Online MMO has failed commercially not once but twice, summing up its failure by saying "it's frankly cheaper to build a treadmill than a national park. We were building a national park."

Posted at TXT

... and I'm out.

I wrote my first story for The Spokesman-Review when I was 15 years old.

It was a Q&A with Sir Mix-a-Lot.

That's when I learned that I could actually get paid to go to concerts and hang out with celebrities.

So I stuck with the paper.

Wednesday items: Pedestrian survey and more

(1) Have gripes about pedestrian issues in your area of Spokane? Take an online survey to tell the city about them, and officials might incorporate the ideas into the new Spokane Regional Pedestrian Plan.

(2) Longstanding boards on the 809 W. Main building (the former J.C. Penney structure) at Lincoln and Main downtown have come down, revealing large windows into a retail space. The building is owned by CPC Development, a subsidiary of the Cowles Co. (which owns The Spokesman-Review). Owners do not have a tenant lined up for the roughly 10,000-square-foot space, located adjacent to men's clothing retailer JoS A. Bank, said Bob Smith, of Centennial Properties, another company owned by Cowles.

“We had so much going on building up condominiums, the residential, that we didn’t get a chance to finish up with the few show windows down on that end,” he said.

(3) Readers have pointed out for-lease signs on the Music City, CenterStage, New Madison and former Otis Hotel buildings on First Avenue. Kiemle & Hagood Co. has the contract to lease out ground floor spaces for retail, said Chad Carper, sales associate. It is unclear what will happen with some of the buildings following a dispute between the owner and a local contractor.

Another layoffs update

One more note before I clean off my Mac. We received a long update email about those manager layoffs, from editor Gary Graham. His announcements include the following points:

» Three managers have been laid off and one other manager will become a non-manager. Former assistant managing editor Carla Savalli's position will not be filled.

» The high school journalism initiative The Vox will continue to the end of this academic year because student participants are earning academic credit or AmeriCorps scholarships or are using the experience for their senior projects. Funding will come from leaving the managing editor position vacant until next summer.

» S-R Radio will continue (according to contract with Mapleton Communications). Funding and staffing decisions for Radio will shift to the marketing department under Shaun O'L. Higgins. That's all we know right now.

» A decision is still in the works about whether S-R will keep Associated Press content.

Time to move on

In case you didn't catch her comment below earlier today, let's let Shelly Monahan have the final word here:

To all of the jurors,
Please know that the entire community knows how difficult your decision was in this case. For all of the victims and their families, thank you. Thank you also for wanting to spend time with me and others after the trial concluded. You will never know how much it meant. I was overwhelmed by each and every one of you.
From the time this rape happened to me, I promised God I would help other sexual assault survivors in any way I could. It was my way of making it out of the rape alive, to give back to other victims, to let them know they would be okay.
My husband and I have prayed about this for a long time. Our God tells us to be forgiving and compassionate. I will pray for Kevin Coe each day. I hope that he seeks treatment and in doing so will some day no longer be a lost soul.
I would also like to thank all of you who have been so very supportive through this process; a process that I never imagined I nor the other victims would go through.
To my family, friends, the management at KHQ, my co-workers, Rick and Karen at the Spokesman, and all of you who have prayed with me and sent your love and support, your kind emails, cards, letters, and phone calls ... thank you.
It is time to move on .... time to finally be able to heal and close this chapter.
Most sincerely, Shelly Monahan

It's true.

Severe budget cuts forced the Cowles Media Company to perform astronomical layoffs here on the fourth floor yesterday.

I can't bring myself to talk much of it here, other than to say I was on the list of terminated employees.

I won't speak of the rest of the list ... People should have the opportunity to announce these things in their own way.

I can say that I will be here for at least another week, trying to figure out how to say goodbye.

I don't know what this means for the future of restaurant writing at The Spokesman-Review. That's anybody's guess.

But it will change, and drastically. That's a given.

I'm sure I'll have more to say before I clean out my desk in a couple of weeks.

But right now, let's aim hopeful thoughts at those colleagues of mine with mortgages and families who just found out they no longer have jobs.

The student perspective in Turkey

One of the many benefits of our 10-day trip across Turkey has been the wide range of individuals we've had access to, from the prime minister to villagers living in dusty poverty.

One day this week we spent the morning and lunch time with 15 to 20 students of Sabanci University, a 10-year-old private university about 25 miles outside the city core. In the evening, we split into groups of threes and fours to have dinner in the private home of ordinary Turks.

The students were eager to discuss their country's future and the role they themselves will play. The family I visited with two of my colleagues was more subdued. The students are paying $20,000 to $25,000 a year in tuition. The family of Abidin Karabulut, on the other hand, has to survive on far less than those tuition payments.

Abidin's cousin, 48-year-old Suleiman, used to be a well-paid hotel manager. However, Suleiman does not speak English and as the hotel saw its English-speaking clientele increase, it replaced Suleiman.

Suleiman now works in a publisher's warehouse, bringing home only about $400 a month. Rent on the family's four-room apartment in the Gazi Mah neighborhood is $320, so his two teenage children, each making about $480 a month, are playing key roles in the family's survival.
By comparison, Abidin's father runs a teahouse but is also a musician who can make more than $300 for performing for two hours at a wedding.

Abidin and his family are Alevis, considered an unorthodox, liberal branch of Islam. According to the BBC, it is estimated that as many as one in five Turks worships this way. Abidin says Alevis don't go to mosques because that's where Alevi was slain centuries ago. Alevis believe in both Alevi, God and Mohammed.

Abidin described three fundamentals of the Alevi faith:

-- Never lie.
-- Don't cheat on your husband or your wife
-- Don't steal from others.

Alevis don't fast during Ramadan, although they fast at other times of the year.

As for the students at the prestigious Sabanci University, members of our group heard a variety of opinions from the students, many of whom are studying management, economics and engineering. Asked “what do you fear most?” the students gave answers we would find in the U.S.:

-- Finding a job

-- The transformation around the world, especially regarding economic and social issues.

-- An economic crash

-- The polarization in Turkish politics.

One student, perhaps reflecting universal cynicism of political life, said “It's hard to be a politician in Turkey if you are honest.” Another student said simply, “Most of my generation is not interested in politics.” A third student said young people are not encouraged to enter politics and argued that such events as a military coup in 1980 discouraged students from getting involved. Still, this particular group of young Turks seemed very interested in politics and world affairs. And the vast majority said they liked Barack Obama over John McCain.

No matter the age group, when the discussion turns to how women are treated in Turkish society, the issue of wearing headscarves comes up. This mostly Muslim country is secular by constitution and practice, but the ruling AK Party has Islamist leanings. The AK-controlled government recently moved to eliminate the ban on wearing scarves in public universities. The government move was overruled by a court, but the issue still comes up frequently in many conversations with visiting journalists.

Sabanci has what it calls a middle of the road policy toward scarves. Students are allowed to wear the scarves while on campus but not in the classrooms.

One female student said “Living as a girl or a woman is very hard in Turkey.” The underlying issue on scarves, she said, “is a gender issue. The head scarf is just a symbol.”

The university president said women often hold top positions in academia, but that is less likely in other employment sectors.

“In some ways, women prefer getting older faster because it's easier for them to live as an older woman,” said another female student. Still another said “for me, in Istanbul and Sabanci, being a woman is no big deal.”

Most of the students seemed eager to see Turkey expand its role in the world. One key to attaining an increased status would be approval of Turkey's application for membership in the European Union. “We want to catch up with the world,” said one student. “We want Turkey to have more global say. Turkey at least will become a regional power in the next 10 years.”

Our tour of Turkey, sponsored by the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, officially ended on Wednesday. As I write this on Thursday, we're on a three-hour and 20 minute flight from Istanbul to London, where we will connect with a British Airways flight to Washington, D.C. I've been unable to post any of the more than 200 photos I took on this trip because I forgot to bring along my USB cord, but I hope to put up some of the images along with more narrative when I return to the U.S.

Farewell

I've been meaning to post for a long time to let the few straggling readers know that this incarnation of the Fresh Sheet blog soon will be shuttered.

When the Spokesman-Review makes its switch to a redesigned Web site in the next few weeks, the Fresh Sheet won't be moving with it. Since I heard that news I haven't been posting.

We've a host of ideas for a new blog someday soon that would focus on food at home and beyond in Spokane. So stay tuned to The Spokesman-Review for that information.

If I had been blogging, I would have been sure to post about the fabulous peaches we picked... and picked... and picked at Green Bluff this summer. It seemed as if the season might go on forever.

Or, I might had told you about the two lonely hot peppers we grew in our garden this summer and our plans for them.

Or, perhaps I would have gushed about the way we wrapped up summer with the most delicious blackberry cobbler. We picked the fruit at the wonderful Eleven Acres (as well as Japanese eggplant and green beans.

Or, how I considered driving 20 miles out of my way each week after I heard that Fresh Start Produce in Otis Orchards was struggling.

In the meantime, if have any ideas for stories, you're searching for a recipe or you just want to let me know that it's Main Avenue and not Main Street in Spokane give me a holler. I can be reached at lorieh@spokesman.com

Anybody out there?

After reading this story from the New York Times, I decided to try a little experiment.

CartShark signs off, for now. Here is a last list of worthwhile shopping sites

Dear CartShark Readers: I’d like to think the Inland Northwest is home to some of the savviest online consumers anywhere. Which makes this, my final CartShark column, that much easier to write.

Although I’ve enjoyed sharing shopping tips about coupon codes and misguided attempts at Internet product promotion, the newspaper is perhaps not the most efficient delivery vehicle for such fodder.

CartShark was a short-lived endeavor, but over the past few months I amassed a body of online tips, shopping sites and other material held in reserve for future columns.

And so it goes

Hey there readers and fellow bloggers. As we are making tough decisions about where to spend our money that doesn't stretch as far these days, so too are businesses. I got word last night that freelance budgets are tightening at The S-R and this blog is one of the features that has to go.

It's been a good run, over a year's worth of interaction with all those who hang out in the blogosphere. Our conversations can certainly continue in other Spokesman-Review blogs, or perhaps I will spend some time exploring options and start a blog of my own.

Happily, the Out on the Town column is not in jeopardy. Features editor Ken Paulman reiterated his commitment to it last night. Feel free to use my email address, outonthetown7@yahoo.com, to log opinions, ask questions or give feedback on my weekly installments in 7.

I'll look forward to seeing you all around, whether in email or while out enjoying our beautiful community.

'I just had to be here'

Kootenai County Sheriff's Detective Brad Maskell was celebrating his birthday with his wife when he was summonsed to the Wolf Lodge Bay home May 16, 2005, the day Slade Groene, Brenda Groene and Mark McKenzie were found bludgeoned to death.

Today, more than three years later, Maskell witnessed a jury of nine men and three women sentence Joseph Edward Duncan III to death for his kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder of 9-year-old Dylan Groene in the Lolo National Forest, where he held the boy and his sister for weeks.

"I just had to be here," he said after the verdict. "I was the guy standing out in the rain that very first night."

Duncan's crime spree deeply affected some authorities charged with investigating it, as heard in court testimony.

In the first day of testimony, former Kootenai County Sheriff's Deputy Dale Moyer, who patrolled the Wolf Lodge Bay are and knew the family well, told the jury the case "pushed me to the end."

"I went into the civilian world for four months to kind of get my head back in the game," said Moyer, now a Spokane County Sheriff's deputy.

In July 2005, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Wayne Longo, then a sergeant with the Idaho State Police, told The Spokesman-Review: "A lot of us have shed a lot of tears over the eight weeks we've been working this. It's been a roller coaster of emotions. You feel so vulnerable."

Thoughts about Joseph Duncan, and our coverage...

Like many of you following the Joseph Duncan trial, I feel appalled by what we've heard in testimony and from Duncan himself.

Three years ago when Shasta and Dylan first went missing, I interviewed the children's grandmother. She was a very soft spoken woman, who was in shock over what happened. And quite honestly, during the interview, I didn't know what to ask her...or how to ask it. What do you say in a situation like that?

We spent most of our time talking about the differences between the two children, who liked school, and who didn't. What they wanted to do when they were older...and if the family was holding up under all this pressure.

Of course, I was caught up in the whole media storm over the story...covering it for radio in Spokane, appearing on CNN, "Nancy Grace," and filing radio reports. I didn't really have time to think about how or what I felt. I was too busy trying to cover the story...and everyone from all over the country seemed to be fascinated and disgusted by what had happened in this tiny area of North Idaho.

Fast forward to August of 2008, and after reading SR reporter Betsy Russell's account of what those two children went through...I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach. Everything I didn't feel three years ago...I'm feeling now. And I know I'm not alone.

Now that the first phase of the trial is over, I'm starting to really get the chance to look at how we covered this story in recent weeks...on radio, in print and on line.

I honestly don't think we sensationalized the coverage (and believe me, if I thought we had, I would tell you right here)...after listening to what's come out of the courtroom, that just isn't possible. Many people think when a story like this breaks it's a way for newspapers to gain readers. Editor Steve Smith says it's just the opposite... we'll probably lose subscribers.

Since my background isn't print, I've been able to compare and contrast the two reporting styles. It's been horrific reading about what jurors heard or saw on any given day in the courtroom. But to me, it's been more difficult having to turn the written word into the spoken word...and report what's happened on the radio. I'm actually hearing it, in my own voice. And that, to me, makes it even more real.

When reporter Betsy Russell talks with us on the radio, I hear the story in a different way than I do when I read her articles. In fact, on several occasions, I've told her not to worry about coming on...covering something like this day after day gets to you...I don't care who you are, or how long you've been in the business.

There's been a lot of talk about how the media...and the Spokesman Review, has covered this story. Some feel we might have gone too far. Others say the insight from our reporters was needed. To tell you the truth....I don't know. I'm an employee of this paper, so I know my (our) job is to report the story, and I think Betsy Russell and Meghann Cuniff have done a damn fine job.

But I'm also a subscriber (yes, I buy the paper just like you),and I'm looking forward to the day when Duncan doesn't have to be front page news anymore. And judging from the jury's decision last week, that day may be in the not too distant future.

What do you think?

dan mitchinson

Kids at camp preserve dying art

Penmanship, letter writing – talk about old school. Does anybody still practice these ancient art forms?

Besides those folks in the county jail or the convalescent center, I have only been able to come up with one small sliver of society that persists in this archaic form of communication: kids at summer camp.