Wanna know how to get all the candidate information you ever wanted to know and more? Kootenai County Clerk Dan English (also known as "Dan of the County" on my Huckleberries blog) recommends that you order an absentee ballot by mail from his Elections Department. Take it away, Dan: "Once we start mailing out absentee ballots – possibly by next Friday – then just about every candidate or (his or her) committee gets a list daily of those voters who have requested an absentee ballot. They then very promptly send out literature hoping to get it there before the voter fills out and returns their ballot." You can request an absentee ballot on the elections Web site ( www.co.kootenai.id.us/elections) or by calling (208) 446-1030. Then, sit back and wait a few days, sez Dan, "and all kinds of brochures, et cetera, should show up like magic."

•For those keeping score at home, Luke Malek's parents have the Gospels covered. Luke's the twentysomething North Idaho Man Friday for Gov. Jim Risch. His brothers are named John, Matt and Marc. Any more boys, and the Maleks would have been forced to turn to the epistles.

•Didja hear the one about the unruly kid who tried to file "child abuse" charges against her parents for spanking her? It happened – at 11:48 a.m. Monday in Priest River. A Deputy Dawg responded to Girl Crying Wolf. His analysis is printed in the Bonner County police log: "The report was unfounded." Sounds as though the discipline was too little too late.

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