Best of the Northwest — 6/20/05
Shannon Sullivan (above, volunteering at her son Dylan's elementary), 37, the single mother pushing the recall effort against Spokane Mayor Jim West, has lost her job and her savings account. And now is looking for work. Her life would have been much simpler had her 9-year-old not seen Mayor West on TV after his sex scandal broke and asked: Why isn't anyone doing anything? For the story of this courageous woman, click here.
1. "Sesame Street" looks at proposed Repub cuts in public broadcasting funding via the pen of David Horsey/PI here.
2. The longer Spokane Mayor Jim West stays in office the bigger his state and local pension checks will get, according to Richard Roesler and Mike Prager, SR, here.
3. John Hodge began and ended his career with the Benton County (Tri-Cities) Sheriff's Office with a bang, crashing a cruiser six weeks after he started and then getting crunched by a car running a red light six weeks from retirement here (free subscription).
4. The Internet could play key role in Washington's No New Gas Tax signature push, according to Joseph Turner, Tacoma News Tribune, here (free subscription).
5. Spokane, Portland and Seattle have nothing on Phoenix, Ariz., when it comes to sweating. After a one-year hiatus, Phoenix tops the charts as the "Sweatiest City" in the US, while Spokane checks in at No. 68 and Portland and Seattle rank near the bottom with San Francisco here.
6. IMHO-NW: Idaho Statesman (Idaho's obesity problem), Spokesman-Review (Spokane crime rate), Steve Smith/Spokesman-Review (Timid civic response to West allegations), Kay McFadden/Seattle Times (Disastrous public broadcasting bill), and Steve Kelley/Seattle Times (Ibanez living up to Edgar's legacy).
*Developer David Hale thinks Boise needs its own version of Portland's downtown Pearl District, or maybe New York's Greenwich Village, according to Joe Estrella/Idaho Statesman, here.
*Headstones where Indians died fighting Custer to be dedicated here.
*Fallen activist's father raises funds to rebuild Palestinian homes here.
Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here.
