Berry Picker (re: "Today's Top 2 Reasons People Should Read the Spokesman"): The Coeur d'Alene Press got scooped big time on the firing of Dave Matheson by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and his arrest for alleged domestic violence here. The S-R also had much more indepth about the new Kootenai Humane Society executive director who's been fired from his last two jobs and sued one of those former employers here.

DFO: Thank you for those kind words, Berry Picker. In the Matheson story, all the credit goes to Becky Kramer and Taryn Brodwater, who ran into stone walls at the Benewah County Sheriff's Office and on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation. At first, neither the Benewah County sheriff or dispatcher would cooperate by providing booking information to verify that Matheson had been jailed, even after our reporter explained in little words that it was a public record. The tribe was tight-lipped. The story made it to Page 1 simply because we have very good reporters.

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