I received a few calls over the weekend from readers who believed showcasing two war-related packages on Mother's Day was inappropriate. The first package continues the story of the Shipp twins of Hauser Lake, Id., whose journey from high school to the Marines and then on to Iraq has been the subject of several excellent stories in the last two years. ... The second war related package was Kevin Graman's excellent report on the Saturday funeral of Army Staff Sgt. Chad Caldwell, killed while serving his third tour of duty in Iraq. Personally, I think Mother's Day is a good fit for stories about how we send husbands, sons and fathers to die in a far off war. Maybe Mother's day is the perfect time for such stories/Steve Smith, News Is A Conversation. More here

SR Blog roundup:
*An IF list/Thuy Nguyen, Daily Briefing
*Real estate Web sites compete for MLS data/Parker Howell, Here's The Dirt
*Monday's Quickie Political Briefing/Jim Camden, Spin Control 2.0
*Full nesters and the stages of parenting/Virginia de Leon, Parents Blog

Question: Does The Spokesman-Review do a decent job balancing Iraq War reports with news of local casualties?

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