Spokane7
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Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, pictured, (first elected not all that long ago, in 2008), 
a quarter of Idaho high school graduates attending Boise State University are so far behind on their English and math skills, they’re required to take remedial courses to catch up. In some cases, more than half of the students from an Idaho high school arrive unprepared for basic freshman-level college classes. Data from Boise State University show that in the 2010 class, 388 BSU students less than a year out of high school had to take remedial classes in English, math or both/Erik Makrush, Idaho Freedom Foundation. 
makes it possible for Coeur d’Alene police to cite individuals who have alcoholic beverages, opened or unopened, on public property. Which, of course, would be a problem, if Mary is analyzing this correctly. Who wants to be cited for inadvertently carrying an unopened six-pack of beer of bottle of wine across a public right of way in front of your house. No where does Mary say that she bothered to contact Mayor Sandi Bloem, city staff, or a council member to see if she is interpreting the slight change correctly. Also, Mary goes onto gush that the Tea Party movement of which she’s an organizer is having an impact. And she issued a call to arms to her followers to join her at 10:45 a.m. Sunday at the corner of 19th & Sherman to be part of the 4th of July Parade. You’ve been warned. 
millions of teenagers across America, Jessi Stobart, Madi LePiane and Allison High were all atwitter this week as they waited for Tuesday’s midnight premiere of “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” the third film in the massively popular “Twilight” series. But if the trio of Missoula friends seemed a little more excited than most, they could be excused: They’re in the movie. And if you see them walking around Wednesday with a glint of I-told-you-so in their eyes, they could be excused for that as well: They’ve finally proven to their friends that they weren’t just making up their silver-screen story/Joe Nickell, Missoulian. 
department has started work on a controversial drug abuser study commissioned earlier in the year by state lawmakers. The study, the official confirmed, will likely be completed well before the start of the 2011 legislative session, the date by which lawmakers ordered the study be concluded. … Officials with the department, Shanahan said, will evaluate if there would be any benefit to the state through removing reoccurring drug offenders from public assistance payments like Medicaid or food stamps/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. 
for 4th of July weekend travel, the National Motorists Association Wednesday issued lists of the states where drivers are most, and least, likely to get tickets. Idaho came in at No. 44 among 51 contenders - the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. And for your holiday traveling planning, Idaho borders the least ticket-prone state - No. 51, Montana - and one of the most ticket-prone - Nevada, tied with Georgia for No. 2/Idaho Statesman. 
College President Priscilla Bell, as a result of that dustup with the college over her pay. Seems Patrick was miffed when college spokesman John Martin complained mildly re: the accuracy of the figures used in a Press story re: Bell’s compensation. Such was Patrick’s outrage that he included this questionable sentence in his editorial today: “At the top of the list is the fact that at precisely the same time so many in the education field are having their financial tulips trimmed, Priscilla Bell’s garden is getting extra fertilizer. It’s not our fault or the public’s that fertilizer smells like, well, you know. It is what it is.” Big boys have big feelings/DFO.
increase at the very first reading of the college’s budget. Ron Vieselmeyer and Mic Armon, to their credit, opposed the tax hike. However, trustees did not offer so much as a respectful pause for public comment between reading the budget for the first time and adopting it with the full tax increase included. But that is what we have come to expect of the current regime. We live in an era when college presidents are rented, stay long enough to collect retirement benefits and then move on to the next campus that is eager to give them too much authority and too little accountability. We can’t comprehend why NIC’s trustees would reward their president with more money and a contract extension at a time like this. Unfortunately for Kootenai County taxpayers, it is what it is/Mike Patrick, Coeur d’Alene Press. 
Hart (pictured) should resign from the Idaho legislature. Of course we know that is not going to happen. But at the very least he should offer a substitute to serve in his place until he has paid his state tax bill in full. That won’t happen either. Instead Rep. Hart will continue to serve in the legislature despite the fact he owes the state a bundle in overdue taxes. Which makes this screed as fruitless as n well, fighting the government with some bogus claims about the Constitution and income taxes. … There is never a shortage of wingnuts who confuse their disagreement with the income tax with patriotism. But it is quite another thing altogether for an elected official to abuse the power of office/Dan Hammes, St. Maries Gazette-Record. 
steady drift of Idaho’s majority party toward ideological purity will drive moderates out. Nominating people who agree with repealing the 17th Amendment and imposing loyalty oaths should play right into the hands of Idaho Democrats, who will pick up legislative seats in competitive districts. But there are neither enough competitive districts nor enough Democratic candidates to make much of a difference. The GOP will retain control of a smaller but even more conservative legislative majority. Don’t expect the people dominating Idaho’s Republican precincts, central committees and state convention to have their way this year. Or even two years from now. But eventually, they will/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. 
House Speaker Lawerence Denney has appointed an ethics committee to investigate the conduct of Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol. Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, will chair the seven-member panel, and Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, will be vice-chair. The committee likely will meet in August. … 
noting only that Labrador had voted for the Republican presidential nominee in 2008 while Minnick has supported Democrats for president, including Barack Obama. “Raul Labrador has voted for all Republican presidential candidates as did the overwhelming majority of Idaho voters in the 1st Congressional District,” said Gum. “So who best represents the 1st CD? The conservative Raul Labrador or the smooth Walt Minnick?” Minnick campaign manager John Foster fired back at Labrador’s camp, taking McCain’s side. “Walt would never, as Labrador has done, question the ethics and principles of an American hero who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war,” Foster said/Politico. 
join Bent in hoping that the two reporters (Melissa Weaver and Erika Hoefer, pictured) from the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., and the other two people with them in the missing airplane are found safe. They’ve been missing since Sunday. Others have survived plane crashes in that rugged country of northwestern Montana. But more haven’t. A job as news editor — and later managing editor — at the Inter Lake brought me to the Inland Northwest 33 years ago. The Inter Lake building was built by John Barlow while I was editor in Kalispell for the Hagadone Newspaper Co. I know that newsroom. It’s a small one. The two empty desks in there today are looming huge. My thoughts and prayers are with the staff and the families of these two women. Now, for your Wild Card …
is hearing via Scanner Traffic that 2 males have plastered swastikas and racist material on every light standard and telephone pole along Highway 95, between Neider and Bosanko. One male, described as a white man with long hair and a gray shirt, is on foot. The other is in a tan Ford Explorer. As you may recall, Fast Lane Quick Lube, at Highway 95 & Bosanko is the business where a worker found that pipebomb under a vehicle, owned by former Aryan Nations lawyer Edgar Steele and driven by Steele’s wife, Cyndi. Steele is now in jail facing murder-for-hire charges involving his wife and mother-in-law.
commissioner Karl Benson (pictured) announced today that the WAC will delay any expansion of its membership until July 1, 2012 at the earliest. This means that for the 2011-12 season, the WAC will operate as an eight-team league that consists of Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Utah State. “The WAC and its eight member schools remain well positioned for the future,” said Benson. “Over the past few weeks, the WAC’s Board of Directors and athletics directors have explored several membership options. We believe it is in the best interest of the WAC to operate as an eight-team league for the 2011-12 season. We will now take several months to ‘drill down’ on the various membership options before making any decisions that would impact the 2012-13 season”/via Brian Murphy, Idaho Statesman. 
On Facebook, SR colleague Joe Butler, who was wandering through Illinois at the time, mentioned that he has gone through a toll booth for the first time in his life and he’s seen fireflies for the first time. He prefers fireflies to toll booths any day. Now, I’ve visited a toll booth or two in bygone days, in California. But I’ve never seen a firefly.
human body. Every time you flush, you are adding phospates to the system. You will be seeing much more about phosphates in the systems in the future dealing with the TMDL (total maximum daily load) of phospate limitations placed on all cities on the Spokane River by the State of Washington. Total cost estimated at as much as 2 billion dollars to meet those standards, presently unattainable with todays technology. Anybody ready for a 500 per month sewer bill???????
someone who has yet to put an avatar beside his/her name displayed on the front page of HBO. I think posters should show proper respect to other Hucksters and put up an avatar before being given the spotlight at HBO nation. Anyone with me on this? … Also: I think we should have an HBO constitution or something … or at least some rules to be considered a legitimate commentator. I don’t want to see jokers with no avatars running around with Phaedrus, Sis, Spoke, or MM. In the words of Mayweather, “step yo game up.”
platform that calls for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for direct election of U.S. Senators. The platform also calls for state legislators and the governor to “nullify any and all existing and future unconstitutional Federal mandates and laws, funded or unfunded, that infringe on Idaho’s Tenth Amendment sovereignty.” … “If the state’s Senators had to be accountable to the State Legislators instead of to the people at large, Senators by and large would be much more in tune to the interest of the states as opposed to interest of people,” Bryan Smith, a GOP legislator from Bonneville County, told the Idaho Falls Post-Gazette/Seattle P-I Blogs. 
Mike H: Minnick comes across as moderate or even conservative on most issues. However, his first vote will be in the Democrat caucus. That vote will be to select Pelosi as their leader in the Democrat Party in the House. That vote alone makes it impossible to support him.
biggest Hoopfest in history is behind us but not before a gang-related shooting gave the event a black eye. Luckily the shooting happened right in front of an off-duty policewoman who played an integral role in bringing the incident to a swift conclusion. Detective Stacey Carr had volunteered for a charity event in the park along with her 11-year-old daughter when she saw the shooting happen. Carr discretely followed the suspects until she could guide other officers to the scene on her cell phone. “I saw his hands out like he’s holding a gun, but I don’t see the gun … [and] he turns around and he looks like he’s firing but again I don’t see the gun and I hear the pop, pop,” Carr said. The bullets intended for a rival gangster ended up hitting two innocent bystanders who did not want to be identified/Jeff Humphrey, KXLY. 
know-it-alls at the state Republican convention disapprove of the results, they’ll just call a do-over. That’s what party faithful said last weekend. Delegates to the state convention voted to send a letter urging 
A colleague asked me this morning what’s the best place to park and to watch the Fourth of July fireworks show along the north shore. I have a system that generally works, in which I arrive late — sometimes 15 minutes before the show begins — and get home without much hassle from the number of vehicles leaving on Northwest Boulevard, Government Way, and Fourth Street. I also sit on City Beach. Which, as crowded as it appears, always has room for Mrs. O and me. How about you?
A
search for a missing aircraft that was carrying two Daily Inter Lake staff writers and two men from Missoula shifted sharply late Monday from the Flathead Valley area to Sanders County and the National Bison Range. A command post for the search was set up Monday night at the National Bison Range Visitor Center, far from the original search area that extended from Kalispell as far as Glacier National Park and Canada. The plane had been missing since Sunday afternoon. … On board were Melissa Weaver (pictured), 23, a police and courts reporter with the Inter Lake, and Erika Hoefer, 27, a business reporter and page designer who also writes for the Flathead Business Journal.
DFO: The Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., is another Inland Northwest newspaper owned by Coeur d’Alene’s Duane Hagadone. It’s a newspaper about the same size as the Coeur d’Alene Press. I worked for five years there.
biggest reason we have studiously avoided Hoopfest all these years, however, is that I develop a severe rash of a most private nature when I am in a vast warbling mass of unwashed people, regardless of their intentions or why they came together. Yes, I admit it. I get a severe rash on the forefront of my brain just thinking about 30,000 plus strangers in close proximity to me and mine. Give me a quiet afternoon sitting out back in the Virtual Garden watching the Garden Gnomes and a few closely-held friends celebrating the ripening strawberry plants and the serenity of the rose bushes/David Laird, Community Comment. 
two professors, Washington University law professor and political science department Chair Andrew Martin and Colorado State University political scientist Kyle Saunders, analyzed every vote cast in the Idaho Legislature, they found no evidence that Democratic crossover voting in Idaho’s primary elections has resulted in the election of “Republicans in name only” who actually vote like Democrats. Instead, they found that all of Idaho’s GOP lawmakers voted more conservatively than the state’s Democratic lawmakers/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. 
Norm Semanko was elected as chairman of the Idaho Republican Party in 2008, a deep division was created within party membership. The divide may have been closed Saturday as Semanko was unanimously re-elected to the post. Semanko faced no opposition in his re-election bid, even though delegates from each county in the state had the opportunity to nominate someone of its own choosing. Delegates had only good things to say about Semanko, who some referred to as a person who has bridged the divide between those who supported him in 2008 and those who supported former chairman Kirk Sullivan/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. 
himself. His movements were bird-like but they were not so much like the cardinal or the sparrow as like a feisty little banty rooster. But Harry was a monogamous old bird, a one-hen rooster all the way. And as for beauty, how true it is that such judgments are in the eye of the beholder. He lived in a time of Lena Horne, one of history’s great beauties, but he only had eyes for Bess. She was his childhood sweetheart, a woman who appeared a bit sparrowish to others. But until the day he died, Harry Truman looked at Bess and saw a woman so adorable that the birds in the trees envied the song in his heart/Bill Hall, Lewiston Tribune. 
right, ma’am. He’s a big, fat prevaricator. Look it up yourself. Britain’s Science Museum recently commissioned a poll on gender and truthfulness and found — hope you’re sitting down, ladies), that the average guy tells three lies a day, or 1,092 a year. (By contrast, the typical woman lies just twice a day, which works out to 728 falsehoods annually.) But there’s worse. The most likely person for a man to lie to is his mother. One-fourth of men say they’ve misled mom — compared with 20 percent of women. “I didn’t have that much to drink” is men’s most popular fib/Steve Crump, Twin Falls Times-News. 
Supreme Court held today that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live, expanding the conservative court’s embrace of gun rights since John Roberts became Chief Justice. By a 5-4 vote, the justices cast doubt on handgun bans in the Chicago area, but signaled that some limitations on the Constitution’s “right to keep and bear arms” could survive legal challenges. Justice Samuel Alito said for the court that the Second Amendment right “applies equally to the federal government and the states.” The court was split along familiar ideological lines, with five conservative-moderate justices in favor of gun rights and four liberals opposed. Roberts voted with the majority/Associated Press. 
dazed and ecstatic as she received her winner’s medallion with the class of 2010 squealing and crowding around her, showering her with tight hugs and uplifting chatter. “I can’t believe I was chosen from all of these winners,” said a flabbergasted, shiny-eyed Leonard. “All of these girls qualify to be where I am. I’m so honored.” She walked away from Saturday night’s 
Son, if you hung out at Car d’Lane rather than attending “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” production June 19. I was center stage, fourth row, when Mike, Will and two other audience members were called to the stage to spell words for the mock bee along with Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre cast members. Mike and Will bounced, danced (term loosely used here), and spelled as part of the fun play based on – as the name indicates – a spelling bee. Mike nailed his first two words, including “Mexican,” before he tripped up on “muntjac” (a small jungle deer of Southeast Asia and the East Indies). Will outlasted his dad by a coupla words, including “cow”/DFO, HucksOnline. 
become synonymous in the minds of
quite a few voters as a bunch of crazy folks who want to overthrow the
government. You pass that resolution and Democrats will be out in the
streets telling all their friends, the Republicans want to violently
overthrow Obama. Now, I know many people will say, “Who cares what the left says?” I’m
not someone who worries that liberals don’t like us. That’s not the
issue. The issue here is not whether people like us, or whether they’re
saying nice things, but whether we’re handing them a stock of
ammunition, standing in front of them in our skivies and saying, “Fire
when ready”/Adam Graham, Adam’s Blog. 
conservative delegate said that only Ada and Twin Falls counties
brought with them to Idaho Falls members of the old-guard Republican
establishment. “Other than those two counties, I’d say
conservatives have been successful getting their (delegates) here
without a fight,” said Larry Spencer, from Bonner County in northern
Idaho. Spencer went further: U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, due to speak
Saturday, “is not much of a Republican,” he said. Simpson has
fallen out with hard-core conservatives over his stances on the 2008
Wall Street bailout - he backed it - and a wilderness plan for central
Idaho/John Miller, Associated Press. 
District race for a few hours Friday afternoon after
he failed to mention his party’s nominee for the race, Raul Labrador, in
a keynote address to delegates gathered at the state convention in
Idaho Falls. Late Friday night, in another speech to Idaho Republicans
at the Melaleuca ranch, Otter said that he didn’t mean to intentionally
snub Labrador. 
I think there should be a competition for moms. Like IronMOM that would include maternal feats of strength, multitasking, schedule juggling, and racing through stores. I think I could be competitive depending on the day and my diet.
hears … that Gov. Butch Otter may have stiffed state Rep. Raul Labrador in his lunch speech at the Idaho GOP convention in Idaho Falls today. According to my sources, Otter was supposed to bring Raul Labrador to the stage and endorse him. But he didn’t. He didn’t even mention Raul’s name. Later, state GOP executive director Jonathan Parker was observed being fairly steamed about the snub. In its report, the Associated Press mentioned that Otter had mentioned U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, who are also facing an election challenge, and thanked them for their service to the state. But said nothing of Labrador. 
Idaho Republicans won’t be adopting the Jedi religion or pushing for it to becoming the official state religion. A committee at the GOP’s convention on Friday unanimously rejected a resolution recognizing the religion popularized by the Star Wars movies. The resolution was submitted by Taso Kinnas of Boise, who didn’t speak to the committee and would not comment on the plan/Brad Iverson-Long. 
doesn’t recognize gay or lesbian marriage, but some Republicans want the state to go a step further. A panel of GOP delegates at the state party’s convention passed a measure Friday to define marriage as a bond between a “naturally born” man and woman, effectively barring transgenders. Bannock County delegate Ralph Lilling says his amendment to the state party’s platform will help further protect the traditional family unit. But Donna Montgomery, a delegate from Kootenai County, argued that the additional language was unnecessary because people from Idaho understand man is a man and a woman is a woman. The measure still has to go before the full convention for approval/Associated Press. 
summer. Now, let’s discuss the crazed triathlete that we must endure for weeks up to the event. On my Facebook page, one commenter had this close encounter w/a rude triathlete this morning: “Driving onto (North Idaho College) campus this morning, I rolled down my window and reminded a jaywalking Ironman that it was safer in the crosswalk he was ignoring … got a less than pleasant response — so much for the runners high!” Another recommended: “During the weeks prior to Ironman, drivers need to ramp up their bike watch game. Realize these stealth athletes are in camo and travel at 3 times the average biker speed. Look 6 times at the intersections.” (SR File Photo: Dan Pelle, from 2009 Ironman Coeur d’Alene)
A small film shot in North Idaho won big at its first film festival, the Playhouse West Film Festival in Los Angeles. “
seems to believe he can live by a different set of tax rules — different from the rules he helps to craft as a member of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee. Philosophically, Hart fits right into a conservative legislative killing field for tax reform. That’s how representative government works, and I get that. But there’s more where Phil Hart came from. House leadership can easily find another conservative for this committee, one who actually respects the rule of law. A House ethics committee will look into Hart’s tax problems. Regardless of the outcome, House leadership should relieve Hart of his seat on Revenue and Taxation/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. 
John Foster, campaign spokesman for Rep. Walt Minnick … called on (Republican challenger) Raul Labrador … to apologize for sending out a campaign e-mail that, Foster said, denigrated Idaho businesses. Thursday, China Veldhouse Gum, acting spokesperson for the Labrador campaign, fired back at Foster, saying that Minnick has much more to apologize for than does her candidate. The controversy was due in part to a line of text in a e-mail message the Labrador campaign sent out to supporters earlier this month/Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter. 
Gonzaga guard Matt Bouldin didn’t hear his name called during the NBA draft on Thursday, but there was plenty of activity behind the scenes. Late in the second round, Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson phoned Stu Lash, Bouldin’s agent. “They were very excited Matt was available to them and for John to call at the tail end of the draft is a strong indication of how they value Matt,” Lash said. Lash said Bouldin has agreed to a free-agent contract and will join Chicago’s summer league team. The Bulls’ first summer league game is July 13 in Las Vegas/Jim Meehan, SR. 
Coeur d’Alene man was honored this week for his lifetime of improving highway management in Idaho. Ray Oliver was one of the first Worley Highway District commissioners and held the position for nearly two decades. He also worked with the state legislature to get more funds distributed to local highway entities. So what did he get for his efforts? A gold watch? A plaque with his name on it? Nope, how about a building?/Staci Lehman, Kootenai MPO. 
Idaho State Rep. Phil Hart, who’s currently facing a House ethics review over his ongoing fight over unpaid federal and state income taxes, has paid his property taxes late on his Kootenai County home every year since 2002 and had to pay hundreds in interest and penalties. Tax records kept by the Kootenai County Treasurer’s Office show that Hart currently owes $1,011.23 for the 2009 taxes on the home, plus $55.04 in interest and $18.74 in penalties. Over the past eight years, he’s been as much as 16 months late on the property taxes on the home, and has paid $1,527.05 in interest and $325.64 in penalties and fees/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. 
am out to Higgens Point was more serious. I saw numerous Ironmen with the carbon fiber bikes and the pointy helmets out today. I did not see any up around Hayden Lake, which is different from my previous riding days up north lately. The Prairie Trail was home to quite a few runners today but I can’t differentiate runners from Ironmen so I’m not sure if it is related. On my way back through town, it appeared to be packet pick up day for racers. The downtown corridor was heavily congested with foot traffic that all had the same blue Ironman bag full of info and a Wheaties sample. Between the athletes, the cyclists and the car traffic, you really need to drive slowly through downtown right now/Christa Hazel, special correspondent for HucksOnline.
retired Coeur d’Alene police chief’s home. Robert Nuttleman, who served as the Coeur d’Alene chief in the 1970s, said he found the swastika and the words, “white power,” painted at 11273 Avondale Loop (Avondale Lake) at 6 o’clock Wednesday morning. Nuttleman told a Kootenai County deputy that the vandalism happened between 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6 a.m. Wednesday. He also said he didn’t know if the graffiti was directed at him, because he’s a former police chief, or someone else. The deputy asked that the Lakes Highway District remove the racist graffiti. Earlier last week, a Garwood area resident found a swastika sign hanging on her door in the morning. Also, Rachel Dolezal, director of Coeur d’Alene’s Human Rights Institute, found a noose hanging from her carport in the last week.
on the Trail of the Coeur d’ Alenes have a new viewpoint at the trailhead just north of Plummer, Idaho. On May 29, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe Veterans Memorial was dedicated. Gov. Butch Otter gave the keynote address and tribal veterans from across the U.S. attended the event. After seeing photos of the magnificent steel sculpture created by Virgil “Smoker” Marchand of Omak, I knew I had to see it in person. So, last Friday I made a pilgrimage to Plummer. And it didn’t disappoint. Visible from U.S. Highway 95, the exquisitely crafted warrior astride a horse holds a peace pipe aloft and gives testament to the proud Coeur d’Alene heritage of military service. Granite columns flank the sculpture, and behind it a semicircle of stones are engraved with the names of tribal veterans from every branch of the armed forces/Cindy Hval, Washington Voices. 
“throw the rascals out” mood of the electorate is so strong that any incumbent has to face the November general election with fear and trepidation. Gov. Butch Otter is no exception. As lieutenant governor, Butch Otter presided over the Idaho Senate during 10 of the 12 years I served in Boise. He wielded a quick gavel and knew his Robert’s Rules, but I never considered him a visionary. His record in office has proven me right on that score. If you ask any Idaho resident to name one thing Butch Otter has done for Idaho, chances are they can’t come up with anything. And the Idaho Statesman, generally an Otter supporter, stated it is “fair to describe Otter’s record as lackluster”/former state senator Mary Lou Reed, Inlander. 
Facebook friend sent this message from the University of Idaho re: spare tickets to the Sept. 11 game in Nebraska: “In order to comply with Nebraska’s ticketing policies and to ensure an equitable distribution of tickets; awarding of this new allotment of seats will be based on your LIFETIME GIVING TO U of I ATHLETICS. Requests for orders will be placed in rank of LIFETIME GIVING TO U of I ATHLETICS and tickets will be awarded until the allotment runs out or orders are fulfilled. Orders that are filled will have their credit cards billed immediately. Tickets will be shipped upon receipt of allotment from Nebraska.” 
Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre will present five performances of the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” in Moscow next week to open the IRT season. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Monday-Friday at the Hartung Theatre on the UI campus. Kelly Quinnett of the University of Idaho theatre department, who will be co-creative director of IRT next year, said she and “Spelling Bee” director Roger Welch had talked about doing a co-production for years and that things finally fell into place/Alan Solan, Moscow-Pullman Daily News. 
Obama had no choice. Then he made the best possible choice. That was the prevailing reaction from Idaho political leaders Wednesday, as Obama booted Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the insubordinate U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who turned Rolling Stone magazine into his own personal millstone. The delegation also supported the president’s choice of a successor: Gen. David Petraeus, a former leader of U.S. operations in Iraq, and most recently McChrystal’s superior as head of the Central Command/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. 
passed him and stopped at the intersection of Fourth & Garden. Two of the men approached the pedestrian. One said: ”Sorry I have to mess with you” and pushed the victim backward. Then, the robber told the victim, “I want your stuff,” according to police reports. The victim was scared he was going to be beat up and handed over an undisclosed amount of money, and some personnel items. At that point, the robber’s companion told the victim to “run away” or he would be shot. Suspect #3 was the driver of the vehicle, but never came over to the victim/Coeur d’Alene Today. 
disclose the financial contributions he’s rounded up since the election went from the campaign trail to the courtroom. Brannon, challenging his five-vote loss to City Council incumbent Mike Kennedy, dodged answering questions about whether he intends to file that annual report or not last night before the Kootenai County Republican Party’s central committee meeting. “One never knows,” he said when asked. Brannon went on to say he didn’t think he had to disclose the sunshine report that tracks all the donors who’ve contributed $100 to $1,000 to his campaign because the money’s no longer going toward an election but rather to a court battle, so the sunshine laws don’t apply/Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d’Alene Press. 
don’t believe a college education is mandatory to being a better person. I do think it is a necessary evil to getting a better job. … My question is … if your daughter chose to be a (stay at home mother) and stay home until marriage is that a bad thing? If she feels called to be ‘just’ a wife and mom will you encourage her? Are you training her to be the BEST helpmeet she can be? Or will she go to college ‘just in case’ or as a backup plan for a failing marriage?/Crazy Homeschool Mama. 
Mike Kennedy asks (in Twitter and Facebook): “Anyone in Kootenai County want to make a reference for a good orthodontist? It’s braces time in Casa Kennedy and while I have met one or two over the years, it was never in the context of needing their services for kids.”
the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee is mulling a $2500 donation to challenger Jim Brannon in his never-ending attempt to overthrow his 5-vote loss to incumbent Mike Kennedy in the 2009 City Council elections. This, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press. At this point, the R’s are split on the propriety of the move, with some wondering if it’d set a bad precendence. The Press reports that the R’s are waiting for an opinion from counsel Jason Risch re: whether they should do so. The money was raised at the central committee’s Lincoln Day fund-raiser in February.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, in an interview: McChrystal had appeared to be the right person at the right time in Afghanistan, but his critical remarks constitute a “serious, serious error.” “(Obama) didn’t have much of a choice,” Risch said. Petraeus probably will be confirmed swiftly by the Senate, as Obama wants, and he has Risch’s vote. “He’s probably the best choice the president could have made”/via Kevin Richert’s blog. 
Picker Christa Hazel will be representing Huckleberries Online (full press credentials, and all) at Ironman Coeur d’Alene through Sunday. She just e-mailed this: “I was down (at Ironman Village at City Park) this morning. Tents are going up and a lot of worker bees seem pretty busy. I’m also noticing quite a few out-of-town plates with extremely fit drivers/passengers exploring CdA and the surrounding area. The Centennial Trail out to Higgens Point is fairly congested between families walking and tri-athletes training. I’ve started using the road instead of the path because the walkers with little kids are making it more dangerous on the trail while cyclists are trying to move along.”
Alford, our esteemed former publisher, recently took an unexpected dip in Payette Lake at McCall. During the Payette Cup Regatta, Alford was aboard his sailboat, the Nancy Ann, when he was knocked into the 48-degree water by the boom. A nearby sailor threw him a lifeline and pulled Alford from the frigid lake. His left leg smacked a winch during the mishap, but he was able to race the next day. Unfortunately, this sailing-gone-awry story doesn’t end there. When it was time to get his San Juan 21 sailboat ready for the trip home, the mast fell 3 to 4 feet, striking the Lewiston semi-retiree. “A falling mast is a sailor’s nightmare,” he told the Tattler. “It missed my head, but it hit my left leg”/Tribune Tattler. 
I sustained the most serious grilling injury of my long and illustrious barbecuing career over the weekend when a chicken tender flared up and singed my hair. I needn’t tell you that this near-tragedy really brought home the dangers of gas grills and tequila-based marinades. So naturally I went to George Mason University’s stats.org website — the oracle of indispensible statistical information on the Internet — to find out how close I came to losing an eyebrow. Here’s what I learned: Your risk of being involved in a nonfatal grilling accident is 1 in 86,830 — but 1 in 66,191 if you’re a guy. Kids 9 and under are at the greatest risk — 1 in 41,239, or 1 in 33,509 for boys alone/Steve Crump, Twin Falls Times-News. 
A supermarket tabloid that recently exposed Sen. John Edwards’ affair with a documentary filmmaker is now reporting that former Vice President Al Gore attacked a Portland masseuse at a local hotel. 
While I am on the side of the Tribe in their dispute with Benewah county, I still have a problem with the manner that the Tribe generates all of its profits. Generating millions of dollars from gambling profits from alot of people that cant afford to be throwing their money away is an issue for me. I understand that no one is forcing these people to gamble the grocery money away but I am not a gambling fan. Yes, the Tribe does do some good things. But I dont think we should turn a blind eye to the negative impact that gambling has on some people.
walk-on he certainly wasn’t the most highly recruited. But Tim Bush was the best, and not just on the gridiron. “Tim was a leader, always,” said Dave DeCoite, a strong safety from Truckee, Calif. “He’d get everybody amped up for games, and he was just a dominating defensive end. Not the biggest or the baddest, but he had the best heart I’ve ever seen.” DeCoite is saying this Tuesday, four days after Bush, 29, died in a mining accident near his hometown of Pinehurst, Idaho. Of all the Griz who played alongside Bush, DeCoite might’ve been the closest, and he knows more about Bush than the 34.5 sacks and 50 tackles for loss most of us remember him for/Fritz Neighbor, Missoulian. 
band and choir kids. You may well be the last of your kind. Maybe at some point in the future, you can sit your little brothers and sisters down and tell them what a bittersweet blessing it was to have played the last Sousa march or sung in the last spring concert ever performed in Melba. Or maybe it’s better they never find out what they missed. And let us pray there is no nascent Mozart or Wynton Marsalis or Joan Sutherland coming up through the Melba school system. What a tragedy that is, eh? Talent with no place to go? It was nothing personal, kids. The school board was only doing what it was told had to be done. The State Legislature informed them—along with every other school district in Idaho—that sacrifices had to be made”/Bill Cope, Boise Weekly. 
property into trust (tax exempt status) for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Once the process is finalized, Benewah County stands to lose about $15,000 from the property tax rolls. Instead of working with the tribe, Benewah County officials opposed and apparently will now appeal the tribe’s request, primarily on the grounds that such a transaction would cause severe and irreparable financial harm to the county and its residents. This reckless and unfounded claim is toxic for everyone in Benewah County because it perpetuates misguided hostility toward the tribe/Marc Stewart, Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe. 
and garbage abandoned at a campsite in Mineral County likely attracted a black bear that bit a Washington man on the head early Monday, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Rob Holmes, of Ellensburg, Wash., required 21 stitches on his earlobe after the bear bit him through his tent around 4:30 a.m., as he and a friend slept up Little Joe Road just southwest of St. Regis. Holmes’ injuries were not life-threatening, and he and his friend had left for home by Monday afternoon. After the bear bit Holmes, the man screamed. He then grabbed a flashlight and tried to follow it before driving to a Missoula hospital/Jamie Kelly, Missoulian. 
a judge found he had intimidated potential witnesses in the case — his wife and son. In a detention hearing today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office played two tapes of phone conversations Steele had with his wife, Cyndi, and his son, Rex, while being held at Kootenai County Jail on June 13. On the tapes, Steele tells his wife that she will be contacted by the attorney general’s office the following morning and will be asked to authenticate his voice on recordings that he says are doctored to sound as if he’s hiring a hitman to kill her. He pleads with her to say that it’s not his voice she hears on the tapes/Alison Boggs, SR. 
federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday blocked a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling projects that the Obama administration imposed in response to the vast 
so much of a guard’s job centers on power and overwhelming an opponent at the line of scrimmage. Like Davis, Iupati definitely is quick. And he had no issues as far as his conditioning. Iupati’s biggest task may be pass blocking. The Idaho product was soundly beaten during the Senior Bowl game in January, especially by quick Georgia defensive tackle 
while. I can’t remember submitting a homework paper that wasn’t first reviewed by him. I remember a lot of lessons he taught my siblings and me. I learned a simple rule for using ‘me’ vs ‘I’; I learned his fondness for the ‘comma’ and the ’semicolon’. It brings a smile to my face to remember his work with us as we learned to communicate clearly. His lessons, often, would end with all of us kids laughing and rolling on the floor. He would say to my mother “Marjorie, are you sure these children are mine? They don’t seem to take this seriously.” And we’d start laughing all over again.
friend Ward, whose house fronts on Sandpoint’s new traffic circle, would disagree with my support (for the new roundabout at Boyer and Larch). He’s been quite fond of saying he’s willing to sell tickets for seats on his lawn to watch what a disaster this will be. And I can’t blame him for being less than positive about it. No one likes to be a guinea pig, and given the high truck traffic at the intersection of Larch and Boyer, this might not be the location I would have selected for our first traffic circle. (Division and Pine, that’s where we need one! Just sayin’, Kody)/Trish Gannon, Politically Incorrect, River Journal. 
a Berry Picker sent me an e-mail from one of the blog’s zanier posts. Which I couldn’t resist. Seems Mary Souza read in the Press that the small safety building at City Park was named after CPD Blue spokeswoman Christie Wood (pictured). Huffs Mary: “This is a slam against poor Christie because the “building” named after her is really a utility shed! It’s a small, cheap, concrete structure that looks like a hot dog stand. It is rarely used, has no heat, no bathroom, no telephone, no amenities and it’s closed most of the year, except around Ironman.” ‘Tis nice to see Mary defending Christie for a change. But none of this ‘tis true. Christie weighed in on the Press story to say the building wasn’t named after her. The fun continues in the comments section of the OpenCDA.com as Dan Gookin lectures Christie re: dangling a participle in her post. 
An Idaho investment manager said the state’s retirement fund has a small amount of stock holdings in BP, the oil company linked to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and that they’re unlikely to sell the stock owned for the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI). PERSI Investment Officer Bob Maynard said the fund that pays retirement benefits for state workers has historically underweighted BP, meaning it holds less of BP stock than an average investment portfolio would/Brad Iverson-Long, Idaho Reporter. 
rights activists in Coeur d’Alene have decided to fight flags with flags. For months, people have been walking into the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene asking what they can do about two nearby residences flying white supremacist flags, said Rachel Dolezal, the institute’s education director. The institute’s staff and volunteers brainstormed a response and decided to create a flag of their own, this one emblazoned with a human rights message. They are encouraging residents to fly the flags in their neighborhoods and use them to establish “hate-free zones” throughout the region/Alison Boggs, SR. 
Sunday ago Kurt and his wife went to the Chili’s Restaurant in Hayden, parked in a handicapped spot and walked inside to eat. An hour later they came out to find Kurt’s car had a nice scratch across the hood. Then he saw the note, tucked under his windshield wipers. “[It] said that they thought I was too mobile to be issued a handicapped placard and that I should be ashamed of myself.” “I read the note and that made me mad,” he said. The Coeur d’Alene Police have the note and is now investigating the vandalism done to Kurt’s car/McKay Allen, KXLY. 
Erickson received. For those of you keeping score at home, Keith (a former Coeur d’Alene Press reporter) and I were rival local government reporters back in the day. Now, fast forward to Sunday when Keith’s wife gave him a $5 Aerosmith-“Dream On”-themed, Idaho lottery ticket. Which turned out to be worth $500. Coincidentally, Aerosmith’s “Dream On” was playing on Keith’s head set when he turned it in at a local convenience store for the cash.
2004 I filed 1040 returns to get caught up. Suddenly I found myself in an IRS audit. I had to sue the IRS to avoid turning over the names and addresses of those who purchased my book, “Constitutional Income.” I was represented by the Center for Individual Rights, a Washington, D.C., public interest, freedom of speech law firm. The Center for Individual Rights won these lawsuits for me. The IRS audit report denied all my legitimate business deductions totaling $300,000. Why? An IRS employee told me “When you don’t give us everything we ask for, you get all of your deductions denied.” For them, this isn’t about the liens or the money; it’s about getting the names/Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol. Moscow-Pullman Daily News. 
put others at risk - like those who drink excessively - may not be held accountable. Elsewhere in Benewah County, Coeur d’Alene tribal cops may stop but not detain an intoxicated driver if he’s not a member of the Coeur d’ Alene Indian Tribe. Same goes for nontribal members accused of domestic abuse. If a representative of the Benewah County sheriff’s office doesn’t show up, tribal cops have little recourse but to release the suspect. All of which was supposedly resolved months ago, long before the summer tourist season began/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. 
decision by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (pictured in AP pool photo) to use Twitter to cover the execution by firing squad of Ronnie Lee Gardner Friday. Writes Callari: “A lot of controversy has been cyber-ventilating the collective blogo-and-twitterspheres today as the result of Utah’s attorney general need to provide a blow-by-blow lead-up to a firing squad execution via Twitter. Some have labeled it a ‘tweet too far.’” Among the last tweets of the event from Callari was this one: “I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner’s execution. May God grant him the mercy denied his victims.” 
Kerri Thoreson/
which is to say temperatures consistently above 80 degrees in the daytime and tomatoes consistently without frost damage at night, is what makes south-central Idaho livable. Without it, we’d just all best move to North Dakota. In North Dakota (state motto: “Winter can kill you here any time of year”), life runs on spec. Summer may come, or it might not, but Nodaks understand there’s not a darn thing they can do about it. Folks in Fargo spend their Aprils sandbagging the flooding Red River in the midst of a blizzard. In that kind of environment, you can never really count on anything good happening/Steve Crump, Twin Falls Times-News. 
Oct. 2, when Hart got word of his $53,000 obligation, he had 91 days – until the new year – to appeal. The deadline arrived “during the ten days next before the commencement” of the 2010 Legislature, so he waited until the session was over to submit his notice of appeal. The commission wants that appeal dismissed on grounds that not only did Hart miss the deadline, he failed to submit the full deposit required to be paid at the time of appeal. This is the fourth time Hart has invoked the legislative exemption during his six years in office. A strict reading of the Idaho Constitution may secure his right to do so. But for an elected official interested in maintaining his status as a citizen legislator, common sense would argue against it/Spokesman-Review Editorial Board. 
in a special “Viewpoint” program entitled “Plagiarism in Politics” that aired yesterday, did extensive analysis on unsuccessful GOP congressional candidate Vaughn Ward’s January announcement speech and reached a startling conclusion - the whole speech was plagiarized, not just the final paragraph in which Ward echoed Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic convention speech. According to the station’s analysis, while other parts of the speech also repeated Obama’s words, the entire meat of the speech echoes an announcement speech given by a Pennsylvania congressional candidate, Pat Meehan, four months earlier/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. 
I hope to hear a complete and thorough accounting of the (Smokin’ the Coeur d’Alenes) BBQ event this weekend. I didn’t make it. Anyone know how things went? How did Bent do? My favorite home brew Laughing Dog was there. I hope Bent got to spend some time with Fred. I heard of the possibility of tens of thousands of people. That seemed high. How many folks were there? I heard people that paid to get in didn’t get to eat the good stuff. What did they eat?
minor incongruity was one of many pleasant revelations uncovered during a recent mid-afternoon visit to MoonDollars in Post Falls. The location itself is somewhat unexpected, sitting on the corner of Polston and Syringa Streets, the only eatery in a neighborhood consisting primarily of insurance offices and medical facilities. … Tucked inside the substantial menu is a somewhat boastful printout of “Great Facts to Know About MoonDollars Restaurant”, but as we would soon learn, they have every right to brag. Everything seems to be undertaken with an organic, back-to-basics approach that adds an element of personality that makes the Red Robins and Pizza Huts of the world seem like utter fakery/OrangeTV, Get Out! North Idaho. 
Spencer enjoys stirring up things in North Idaho, whether he’s fighting to stop the Kroc Center in Coeur d’Alene or Timberlake Fire District officials closer to his Bonner County home. The uberconservative gadfly spent some of his spring stumping for successful Kootenai County commissioner candidate Jai Nelson. He spent part of primary election day with a person holding a sign in support of a write-in candidate for a GOPrecinct post near the Seventh-day Adventist polling place. So you’d think that Spencer woulda taken time to vote. But he didn’t. When I called him on his oversight on my Huckleberries Online blog, Spencer offered this excuse: “Well, for one thing, the polls weren’t open when I left in the morning, and I worked in CdA until nearly 8 p.m. going door to door in CdA getting people driven to the polls down here. By the time I was done, there was not time to make it back to vote before the polls closed”/DFO, SR Huckleberries. 
Smith Kennedy (re: 
Most people miss the link between the June 16 Bloomsday, which was
coined 88 years ago in the James Joyce novel “Ulysses,” with Spokane’s
Bloomsday, which involves 50,000 people running 12 kilometers around
town on the first Sunday in May. Garrison Keillor is no exception. Keillor, a nationally acclaimed oral storyteller, led the cast and
musicians of his National Public Radio show as they performed two hours
of skits and songs to the obvious delight of 5,300 people who nearly
packed the Arena’s Star Theatre. Midway, Keillor devoted 4 minutes to a monologue highlighting
Spokane life. But he made an error that begs to be corrected. In mentioning the city’s signature events, such as Hoopfest, he
noted that “Bloomsday does not refer to James Joyce’s novel, ‘Ulysses,’
but to the lilacs” that bloom in spring. Wrong/Rich Landers, SR. 
on Friday — the one in which 3 delinquents in a red Geo hit a jogger with a water balloon as they passed him. The minor assault isn’t what caught my attention. Rather, I was impressed by the fact that the Post Falls police had a description of the vehicle, the license plate number, and the registered owners of the car before the three punks hit Seltice Way (via the local 911 dispatch center, illustrated by a SR file photo by Jesse Tinsley). In this era of cell phones, it’s easy for any of us to be the eyes and ears of law enforcement. Or to record news as it happens when we turn our cell phones into cameras as happened in that incident in which a Seattle officer punched the teen-age jaywalker after she assaulted him. Regularly, motorists with cell phones report suspected drunken drivers. Much of Scanner Traffic occurs as the result of mobile people using their cell phones.
firework that caused a fireworks stand to go up in
flames. The fire, which started about 8 p.m., burned two vehicles
and caused Highway 95 to shut down for a short time, authorities said. According
to a Coeur d’Alene Tribal spokesman, a minor was playing with fireworks
near Adeline’s Smoke Shop, near the old Worley Fire Station, when one
firework accidentally shot into the stand causing the building to ignite
along with the fireworks inside. The stand burned to the ground,
and two vehicles parked nearby were destroyed, authorities said. The
highway was shut down for safety reasons. No one was hurt/Spokesman-Review. (Illustrative SR file photo: Jesse Tinsley)
marks the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, a holiday now
celebrated in 50 countries around the world but whose origins are from
right here in Spokane. Sonora Smart Dodd, the woman who founded
Father’s Day, was one of six children raised by her father, Civil War
veteran William Smart, who was left a widower after his wife died giving
birth to their sixth child. It was her appreciation and love of
her father that spawned the idea and on this centennial of the holiday
her family is in town to share her story. Father’s Day started as a quiet reflection inside Central Methodist
Church/Sally Showman, KXLY. 
12 to join the Big 10,
the Pac-10 nearly destroyed the Big 12 by taking four schools and Boise
State left the WAC to join the Mountain West Conference. Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott had
a hand in most of it, and he nearly changed the landscape of college
athletics. A week ago many football fans
throughout the Palouse had visions of going to Martin Stadium to watch
the Cougars take on the Texas Longhorns in conference play. It was an intriguing idea, and one
that nearly came to pass, but last-minute wrangling by the old guard of
the Big 12 halted Scott’s vision of a super Pac-16 conference. Now Coug fans can look forward to
playing Colorado and Utah instead of Texas and Oklahoma, and that’s not
necessarily a bad thing/Sandra Kelly, Moscow-Pullman Daily News. 
former All-American football player at the University of Montana died this morning of injuries he received in an accident at the Galena Mine near Silverton, Idaho. Tim Bush, 29, sustained internal injuries in a rockfall in the underground mine, which occurred about 8 a.m., family members said. He was taken to Shoshone Medical Center. Bush was a standout wrestler and football player at Kellogg High School who later played football with the University of Montana Grizzlies as a defensive end. During his football career he was named an All-American and set the school record with 34 sacks and tackles, past news reports show/Spokesman-Review. 
always appreciated the advice that the out-going clerk, Tom Taggart, gave me. He said that if he had it all to do over again he would have taken a lower partisan profile, particularly because of the county clerk’s role as chief election official. Therefore, while I certainly have never made it a secret that I’m an elected Democrat and do many things to support my party in general, I’ve also been careful not to become overly partisan for any particular candidate. In fact, the only yard signs I put up in my yard are my own. I’ve also chosen not to even hold a precinct committee position because of my election responsibilities.
yesterday he’d appoint an ethics committee to investigate Hart’s conduct, sent a guest opinion to newspapers this afternoon defending his fight against income taxes, but making no mention of his use of legislative privilege in his fight, his service on the House Revenue & Taxation Committee while he pressed his fight, or the pending ethics action, which is aimed at those two matters. Hart’s op-ed piece (click below to read it in full) focuses on his legal challenge to the federal income tax, including a quote from a lawyer who he said called his challenge “brilliant legal work;” his subsequent problems with an IRS audit; and his concerns about revealing the names of those who bought his book, “Constitutional Income”/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. 
a company that sold self-help kits on legal immigration to America in a U.S. House of Representatives filing this year. The financial disclosure form, required of all congressional candidates, also doesn’t list Labrador Properties, LLC., according to a review of campaign and public records by The Associated Press. The form requires candidates to report any position held in the current calendar year and past two years/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. 
aide to U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick questions whether Canyon County Clerk Bill Hurst’s online campaigning for 1st District Republican challenger Raul Labrador is ethical, considering his position as chief elections officer for the county. Hurst has a pro-Labrador logo displayed on his Facebook page and also authors a blog called “Weeding Out Minnick Myths” that is critical of the Idaho Democrat. Hurst was defeated in May’s Republican Primary and will give up his elected seat in January to successful GOP challenger Chris Yamamoto. The clerk is the chief elections officer for the county and ultimately oversees the elections process of county, state and national elections/Sharon Strauss, Idaho Press-Tribune. 
for
former Aryan Nations attorney Edgar Steele. Close friends of Larry
Fairfax however describe him as a family oriented, loving
husband. Family friends Susan and John Crump still can’t believe Fairfax
is being linked to a murder for hire plot. “People do strange things,
they do things they wouldn’t normally do when their family is involved,”
Susan Crump said. The couple described the 49-year-old father of two as
a family man who cares about his friends and community. “This guy would
give you the shirt off his back and give you money if you needed it,”
John Crump said/Tania Dall, KXLY. 
I haven’t seen this ad yet, as I’ve been out of town. Cliff Hayes said he wouldn’t stoop to using this frivolous lawsuit himself and thus I presumed he wouldn’t condone its use as an election tool either. Thus I’m surprised that he and his treasurer Fred Ostermeyer have started down this path using other people to cast false aspersions on Dan English. I would have expected it from Ostermeyer, a known extreme conspiracy theorist, but I’ll be very disappointed in my friend Cliff Hayes if this is how he is going to allow his campaign to be waged.
