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Huckleberries Online

Wild Card/Saturday — 3.13.10

I’m not quite ready to turn controls of Huckleberries Online Central over to Cindy. But I’m close. I’ll let her recover a bit more from her night of carouseling with other Merry Hucksters at HBO After Hours, Spokane style. She’ll be sitting at the controls Monday morning while I begin my week of unpaid furlough. Seems someone at HBO After Hours suggested a women’s thread for the coming week. So you might be looking for that. Or other experiments by Cindy. I plan to take it easy and maybe do a little gardening. Now, for the Saturday Wild Card …

Simpson Won’t DQ Himself From Case

Item: Simpson refuses to disqualify himself from the Brannon case/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d’Alene Press

More Info: First District Judge Benjamin Simpson isn’t going anywhere. Simpson ruled Friday evening that he would remain as the judge presiding over the election challenge lawsuit, saying that an unfavorable ruling against the Plaintiff Jim Brannon isn’t enough to remove a judge from the bench. “Objections to the court’s power to set the bond amount are not supported in the law or by the facts of the case,” Simpson wrote in his ruling. Brannon, Simpson concludes in his ruling, “has failed to carry his burden of proof with his respect to bias or prejudice.”

Question: Reaction?

Hart: Just Say No To Full-Body Scanners

A Transportation Security Administration (TXA) agent, right, scans airline passenger Kelsi Dunbar, using X-ray technology that can see through people’s clothes and show the body’s contours with blush-inducing clarity at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. (AP File Photo/The Arizona Republic, Jack Kurtz)

The House Transportation and Defense Committee has approved Rep. Phil Hart’s, R-Athol, bill to limit the use of whole-body imaging machines in airports and government building in Idaho, though Hart’s legislation has some issues yet to be resolved. Under Hart’s plan, security personnel in airports, or other public facilities, would be prohibited from using the scanners as a primary means for ensuring the safety of a respective facility.  The bill says that screeners must first use an alternative method of screening, such as a metal detector, as the primary inspection method/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. More here. Also: Hart’s plan to restrict technology in driver’s licenses clears committee/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter

Question: Do you support Hart’s bill?

Costello: The Man Behind The Tree

he Washington Democrats’ scheme to seduce the electorate into granting Olympia the power to afflict the state with an income tax is a stark reminder of why we should never trust them. While thrashing about for ideas on how best to close the state’s budget chasm, Senator Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, cooked up a quintessentially Democratic idea for having the citizenry give her the power to enact an income tax: Impose an income tax on evil rich people, while reducing the sales tax for everyone else. This conforms to the legendary Louisiana U.S. Sen. Russell B. Long’s definition of tax reform: “Don’t tax you. Don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.” As a reward for granting politicians the power to impose an income tax, the great majority of Washingtonians would see tax relief for doing what Brown considers the right thing. It’s that guy behind that tree who will get stuck with the bill. The Washington state constitution just about forbids politicians from imposing an income tax and it certainly prohibits a plot such as Brown’s/Mike Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Should Washington adopt an state income tax to help balance its budget?

Risch Got Tax Shift, Otter Got Shaft

Why is Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter taking ownership for one of his predecessor’s worst foul-ups? Responding to a series of editorials, Otter - joined by House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale and Senate President Robert Geddes, R-Soda Springs — recently rejected out of hand any attempt to repeal the 2006 measure that removed the last vestige of basic public school support from the property tax and replaced it with a one-cent rate hike in the sales tax. “The vast majority of Idahoans supported that change and with good reason,” the GOP trio wrote in an op-ed column that appeared Sunday in the Tribune. “Now with property values down along with the economy, reversing it would shortchange schools and impose a crushing burden on local property taxpayers who already are struggling at a time that we’re trying to revive - not suffocate - Idaho’s economy.” Otter’s being too generous. Much of the budget grief he’s now enduring stems from that 2006 tax shift. And the governor responsible isn’t Otter. His name is Jim Risch/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. More here

Question: Do you agree with Opinion Editor Marty Trillhaase that the move in special session by former Gov. Jim Risch to shift school maintenance & operations from the property tax to the sales tax is fueling the economic mess in the state today?

Cindy: What I Learned @ HBO After Hours

Cindy and about a dozen other Merry Hucksters staged a HBO After Hours event at O’Doherty’s on Spokane Falls Boulevard Friday night to welcome in the St. Paddy’s Day weekend. Here’s what she learned:

  • 1. Guinness is a beer that lingers on the tongue until a Blue Moon washes the taste away.
  • 2. OtisG has a fearsome five-year-old daughter who WRESTLES.
  • 3. ME thinks we should have a “Ladies” thread next week.
  • 4. Kevin Taylor doesn’t have a cell phone.
  • 5. Mavis says my green beer + my blue beer will = brown. But I don’t want to think about that.
  • 6. BethB had was invited to tour the Guinness castle with Desmond and Penny and PASSED.
  • 7. MeghanC has a friend named Lucky Sunny Day. There’s a Burning Man story involved.
  • 8. I’m the only one in the UNIVERSE without a Facebook account (until after this weekend anyway).
  • 9. JeanieS is addicted to Facebook.
  • 10. Bent actually BELIEVED JBelle would make an appearance.

Question: What post would you like to see Cindy make next week while I’m on my furlough that you usually don’t see at Huckleberries Online?

KXLY: KCSD Releases Shooting 911 Tapes

Tania Dall/KXLY made the following report from tapes released by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department in the Hayden shooting earlier this week. You can hear the 911 tape by clicking here.

  • Dispatcher: “Who is the shooter? That’s what I’m asking.
  • Starnes: “His name is Chad Moore, M-o-o-r-e.”
  • Starnes: “I have a very faint pulse on him, please hurry.
  • Dispatcher: “I know, they’re coming. They’re coming as fast as they can lights and sirens.”
  • Starnes: “Baby you gotta wake up (inaudible) Breathe Ryan please. No they’re coming.”
  • (A Kootenai County Sheriff detective says that Chad Moore fired a total of nine rounds from a .45 caliber handgun at Taylor, hitting him five times in the head, knee, calf, thigh and foot. Detectives say the shot to the head is what ultimately ended Taylor’s life.Starnes: “I have a very, very faint pulse.)
  • Dispatcher: “OK is there anything you can put on the wound to stop the bleeding?”
  • Starnes: “Do you have any towels or anything I can put on his wound?”

Question: Why are people so angry today?

Media Jumbos To Charge For Online?

The free ride may be over for online news customers of the New York Times and newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch (pictured). Breitbart reported today that media heavyweights debated Thursday whether readers will pay for news on the Internet. Quote: “The Times plans to require payment for full access to NYTimes.com in early 2011 and Murdoch, who already charges for The Wall Street Journal online, has pledged to begin charging Web readers of his other News Corp. newspapers.” Admittedly, something has to happen to make online news gathering and reports profitable. But is this it?/Breitbart. More here.

Question: Would you pay for online news?

Parting Shot — 4.12.10

Colin Shober of Schuylkill Valley High School gets a leg in the face as he takes down Alex Stanton of Blue Ridge High School during their AA 140 Pound Class semi-final match today in Hershey, Pa., at the PIAA High School Wrestling Championships. Shober advanced. (Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

TGIF Wild Card — 3.12.10

I’ll be turning the controls of HBO Central over to Cindy next week, while I enjoy 5 days of unpaid furlough, chauffeuring in-laws and gardening. Mebbe I’ll even repaint the chimney, if the sun shines enough. I don’t like taking off a week when the last of the candidate filings will occur. So you guys shouldn’t hesitate to post new filings or other tidbits of information under the Wild Cards. Meanwhile, Cindy, Bent, ME, and others are planning a Guinness salute to St. Patrick’s Day in downtown Spokane at 5:30 p.m. today, sort of an HBO After Hours, to get ready for handling things here. But I’m not gone yet. So I’ll post this Wild Card and go in search of other topics …

Woman Shaving Bikini Area Crashes

Florida Highway Patrol officers say Megan Barnes crashed into the back of a pickup truck because she was distracted while driving, but not because of talking or texting or changing the radio channel. She was distracted, according to officers, because she was driving while shaving her “bikini area.” But wait, there’s more. Barnes was in the driver’s seat, quite literally on the razor’s edge, while her ex-husband steered from the passenger seat. She was driving in Cudjoe Key, Fla. to meet her current boyfriend, presumably the reason for the 65 mph “landscaping,” as officers called it/Kathrine Nero, ABC 15.com. More here. (AP illustration)

Question: How do you explain this one?

HBO After Hours @ O’Doherty’s Tonite

CindyH: Attention Hucksters: Inspired by a love of Guinness, Bent and Me (not me, me but Huckster Me, if you know what I mean, oh dear…) have instigated a pre-St. Patrick’s day gathering tonight at 5:30, in Spokane, at O’Doherty’s, 525 West Spokane Falls Boulevard. Nothing like getting a jump on the celebration :-) Blurkers, bloggers and commenters are welcome. I may even try a Guinness myself. Maybe.

DFO: Hey, I’m 100% Portuguese. So I don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s. Do you?

PM: Boise State Fires Coach

Darcy Pederson, left, takes a photograph of her husband, Ray, center, with Joe Vandal, the mascot of the Idaho Vandals during the first half of an NCAA women’s basketball game against Fresno State at the Western Athletic Conference tournament in Reno, Nev., Friday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

APhoto Of The Day — 3.12.10

US boxer Adam Richards, left, and Marco Huck from Germany, right, pose during the official weighing in Berlin, Germany earlier today, a day prior to their cruiserweight World Championship boxing fight. You write the cutline. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Top Cutlines:

  • 1. Tony Berns and Dan Gookin engage in a stare-down over Gookin’s public records request.from the LCDC.
  • 2. Two boxers brief-ly display the two-faced nature of their sport: on the one hand a loosely-gloved reference to sportsmanship and on the other hand Adam’s wish to simply get the Huck out of there — JohnA.
  • 3. This photo was snapped just before the two wrestlers launched into a game of tonsil hockey, once again proving that wrestling (in its current professional formation with oil and speed-os) is not a heterosexual sport — Digger.
  • HM: Arch Druid

PM Scanner Traffic — 3.12.10

  • 4:51 p.m. A security guard has a skateboarder penned against a vehicle near Penney’s at the Silver Lake Mall. Other skateboarders have left the area.
  • 4:39 p.m. An extremely drunken male is threatening to kill himself in a Spirit Lake bar because the bar tender wants to take his vehicle keys from him.
  • 4:27 p.m. Super 1/Hayden wants an officer to remove a male who has bothered customers during numerous visits to the store today.
  • 4:11 p.m. A golden retriever appears is in a ditch after apparently being hit @ Pleasantview and Prairie. A companion retriever is running in and out of traffic.
  • Much more below

Continue reading PM Scanner Traffic — 3.12.10 »

ISP Resolves H95 Hostage Situation

The Idaho State Patrol discovered a hostage situation inside a vehicle that had been involved in a crash at about 7:15 a.m. today on U.S. 95 at mile post 444 (Corbin Hill Road). Allegedly,  Damien Bunch, 27, of Spokane (pictured) was holding a knife to the throat of Deanna Lafrombois, 29, also of Spokane. U.S. 95 was closed for about 30 minutes while officers negotiated the release of Lafrombois, and took Bunch into custody. Lafrombois was transported to the Kootenai Medical Center, where she was treated for cut wounds. Bunch has been charged with kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, violation of a protection order, and possession of methamphetamine. Additional charges may be forthcoming. Meghann Cuniff’s Sirens & Gavels story here.

HBO Blogosphere — 3.12.10

Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin celebrated his 74th birthday with Councilwoman KerriT on KVNI this week. Kerri was pinchhitting during the morning show while Rick and Teresa Lukens were on vacation. Alison McArthur, Clay’s daughter, is fond of saying that her father is still glad that he’s on the Bingo card. Which numbers up to 75. Clay, apparently, also likes to play Bingo. See more shots of individuals who participated on Kerri’s shows here.

Gov. Otter Files Candidacy Papers

He’s still made no official announcement, but Gov. Butch Otter today put the speculation to rest over whether he’ll seek a second term: He will. Otter filed his candidacy papers with the Secretary of State’s office today. Also filing today were Republican Vaughn Ward, who’s running in the GOP primary for the 1st Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Walt Minnick; P. Tom Sullivan of Tetonia, a Democrat who filed to run against U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, who’s seeking another six-year term; and Republican Steven Dana Pankey of Shoshone, a Republican who filed to challenge incumbent Lt. Gov. Brad Little in the primary/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

Fresno Ends Vandal Women’s Season

Fresno State’s LaShay Fears, right, fights off Idaho’s Rachele Kloke as they go for the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the Western Athletic Conference tournament in Reno, Nev., Friday. Fresno State eliminated Idaho from the tournament by beating the Vandals 80-66. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Politico: Evangelicals Fear Tea Parties

At Idaho Politics, Dan Popkey has posted a Politico article by Ben Smith re: Evangelicals and the Tea Party movement that quotes Bryan Fisher, former executive of the Idaho Values Alliance: “There’s a libertarian streak in the tea party movement that concerns me as a cultural conservative,” said Bryan Fischer, director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association. “The tea party movement needs to insist that candidates believe in the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage.” “As far as I can tell [the tea party movement] has a politics that’s irreligious. I can’t see how some of my fellow conservatives identify with it,” said Richard Cizik, who broke with a major evangelical group over his support for government action on climate change, but who remains largely in line with the Christian right on social issues. “The younger Evangelicals who I interact with are largely turned off by the tea party movement — by the incivility, the name-calling, the pathos of politics.” More here. (AP File Photo: Troy Maben)

Question: Are you surprised that the Tea Party movement isn’t on the same wave-length as Evangelicals?

Nadine Woodward Joins KXLY Monday

Nadine Woodward, who was a fixture on KREM’s nightly newscast for 19 years before being let go by station management last fall, will begin co-hosting the KXLY 920 AM morning news program on Monday. She will join Bud Nameck from 7 to 9 on weekday mornings. In late April, Woodward will begin co-anchoring Good Morning Northwest HD with Mike Gonzalez from 6 to 7 a.m. on KXLY ABC 4 HD. KXLY news release here.

Question: How will this move affect the balance of power among the Spokane television stations?

MikeK Explains IEN Controversy

In a quote pulled from Muskrat/43rd State Blues, Councilman Mike Kennedy explains the hubbub at the Idaho Education Network: “Here’s an analogy a legislator gave me: when they passed this legislation for IEN (which everyone thinks is a good idea) the legislators thought Qwest would build the superhighway and we smaller local companies would be able to plug in the ‘offramps’, especially since companies like mine have those all around the state already built. Now (and maybe always) Qwest has decided to build the offramps themselves and cut out smaller local companies, even if it means duplicating existing services at dramatically higher cost.” Full Muskrat post here.

Question: What should the Legislature do to fix this situation, if anything?

Egan: ‘The Missionary Impulse’

At the least, the curious case of Laura Silsby raises questions about cultural imperialism: what makes a scofflaw from nearly all-white Idaho with no experience in adoption or rescue services think she has a right to bring religion and relief to a country with its own cultural, racial and spiritual heritage? Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering “opportunities for adoption” back to Haiti. He could say, as those who followed Silsby explained on a Web site, that “the unsaved world needs to hear” from the saved/Timothy Egan, New York Times. More here. H/T: Fort Boise: “It’s all a misunderstanding”

Question: Will Laura Silsby be able to cash in on her notoriety as the missionary that was incarcerated the longest in Haiti?

High Noon: What About Elmer’s?

Zelda Krup: I was leafing through the ad inserts in today’s S-R and came across a shiny, coupon-laden ad for a place called Elmer’s. But no where in the ad did it say where Elmer’s is located. I found it online and there’s one in CDA. Seems like if you’re going to pay for a hard-copy ad, you should at least tell folks where to find your restaurant.

Question (from Zelda Krup): Anyway, has anybody eaten there? Good, or not so good?

INW: Wolves Suspect In Alaska Death

In this 2009 photo provided by the Lake and Peninsula Borough School District, Candice Berner, an Alaska special education teacher, holds up crab caught on a school district outing. Autopsy results announced Thursday indicate Berner, 32, died Monday in an animal attack outside the village of Chignik Lake, Alaska. Based on wolf tracks and other indications at the scene, Alaska State Troopers say Berner likely was killed by wolves but that the kind of animal cannot be determined without additional testing. Story here. (AP Photo/Lake and Peninsula Borugh School District, Alaska)

Question: Do you expect wolves to kill someone in Idaho some day soon?

AM Scanner Traffic — 3.12.10

  • 11:55 a.m. Hayden City Hall reports a disorderly male on the premises.
  • 11:50 a.m. Canfield Middle School student is suffering an asthma attack on soccer field.
  • 11:48 a.m. Super 1/Post Falls manager reports that a male in a purple ballcap and jacket is tweaking at a checkout counter, making females nervous.
  • 11:34 a.m. Motorist reports that another driver is texting on Seltice Way.
  • 11:21 a.m. A 60YO female slipped on ceramic tile and may have broken her hip @ Frontier Trail & Treaty Rock/Post Falls.
  • 11:15 a.m. A 14YO male is lying on the River City Middle School football field complaining of neck pain after being injured in a football game.
  • Much more below

Continue reading AM Scanner Traffic — 3.12.10 »

Bracket Could Get You Busted

It’s still illegal to buy into a college basketball bracket contest, even though the governor signed off on changing the state’s gambling law last week. Betting with money on the upcoming NCAA Basketball Tournament — even just an office pool — technically amounts to a misdemeanor under the state’s gambling law. But playing into a bracket contest probably won’t land you in an Idaho jail/Andrea Jackson, Twin Falls Times-News. More here.

DFO’s Animal: Resuscitating Tigger

A cat named “Tigger” gasps for air while getting oxygen provided by firefighters on the scene of a fire on Cannon Street in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier today. (AP Photo/The Post-Standard, Mike Greenlar)

Judge Delays Action On Brannon Suit

Huckleberries hears that Judge Benjamin Simpson delayed action on the motion by attorney Starr Kelso on behalf of plaintiff Jim Brannon to disqualify Simpson from hearing the case. In action this morning, Simpson said he would rule on the disqualification motion in the next day or two. Simpson told Kelso and attorney Scott Reed, representing incumbent Mike Kennedy, that he couldn’t rule on other motions filed by Kelso until he settled the disqualification issue. As a result of Simpson’s schedule in the coming weeks, the judge said he won’t be able to decide Brannon’s motion to reduce the $40,000 bond he ordered in the case for at least two weeks.

About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.

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