On December 8, 2005, at one minute past midnight, Spokane smokers turned up their collars, stepped away from the bar and stood on the sidewalk, 20 feet from the doors of every pub, tavern, restaurant and bar. While they’ve been standing out there, some of those establishments have made changes in ambiance, menu and ownership. Ben Cochran, chef at Scout in downtown Spokane, has worked in the food industry for two decades at pizza places, delis, taverns and restaurants in Montana, Minnesota and Washington. When smoking bans started going into effect, Cochran didn’t see much of a change in bar menus themselves but he did notice a change, he said, “in product mix.” “People were ordering different things… less spicy, less salty, exactly what you would think. Smokers like more flavor because they can’t taste it as well. It wasn’t so much that everybody quit smoking, it was more that non-smokers were going out and staying longer — they were so happy,” says Cochran/Annemarie C. Frohnhoeffer, Inlander. (Photo: Young Kwak)

Question: Would you say something to another diner who lit up a cigarette near you in a restaurant?

Ask a local what people do in Wallace at night and you’ll likely get a laugh, a smile, or some variant of what is apparently a standard answer. “Drink,” says 16-year-old Randy Towne, a waiter at the 1313 Club, a popular pub on Bank Street. Towne, who attends Wallace High School, has lived in this tiny historic burg since he was 2. People his age, he says, tend to party at home, in garages, cursing their rivals at nearby Kellogg High School. Bartender Liz Lane, 22, adds that most people her age already have kids, but the rest go out to the few little bars along Bank and Cedar streets and toss them back. “Hunt, mine, drink,” says Towne. “That’s our life.” Sounds good to us/Joel Smith, Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo: Joel Smith)

Question: Anyone ever sampled the nightlife of Wallace?

I am 30 years old and I have just been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It makes a lot of sense, actually. My whole life, I have been distractible, disorganized and impatient. I brainstorm a million projects and follow through on about 1 percent of them. I procrastinate like a bastard. It’s actually 3:41 am right now, the morning this story is due. I haven’t gone to bed yet. Why did it take 30 years to diagnose? I’m not sure. I did OK in school, considering what a disruptive little shit I was, and how little homework I did, and despite the way my brain would flit between a dozen trains of thought for hours without ever reaching the end of one. I always tested very well. In elementary and middle school, several teachers convinced my parents that I was bored with regular classes. They put me in accelerated ones. I still screwed off/Luke Baumgarten, Inlander. More here.

DFO: Luke goes on to provide his diary re: his first week on Ritalin.

Question: Have you or any member of your family taken Ritalin for attention deficit disorder? Would you mind sharing your experience?

The Occupy Wall Street spirit is circumnavigating the globe. Demonstrations have popped up like rabbits out of the hat in London, Paris, Rome and the Great Beyond. Off to a quiet start on Sept. 17, the youthful protest has morphed into a Movement with a capital M. The momentum has been building — acquiring the enviable Big MO — and it’s only a guess as to whether it will explode, implode or die a lingering death.My money’s on an explosion. We witnessed the Arab Spring earlier in 2011. I think we’re in the midst of the Occupation Fall/Mary Lou Reed, Inlander. More here.

Question: Do you agree with Mary Lou that Occupy Wall Street struck a note around the world — and it's not going away soon?

Gay men in Spokane are either being targeted for beatings due to their sexual orientation, or they’re getting into trouble just like anyone else. Representatives from the gay community and four recent assault victims say it’s the former. Police says it’s the latter. “They’re saying that there’s these four vicious assaults on members of their community. And now I can say that four members of the community have been involved in incidences,” says Jennifer DeRuwe, a spokeswoman for the Spokane Police Department. “I cannot say that there is a campaign of violence against gays.” Matthew Cannon, a director of the Inland Northwest LGBT Center, a Spokane-based gay advocacy group, says the assaults represent a trend/Chris Stein, Pacific Northwest Inlander. More here. (Young Kwak's Inlander photo shows victim Danny Hawkins, who sez he was assaulted because he's gay.)

Question: We've been discussing this one for awhile, w/our own GWM Digger commenting that he opposes hate-crime designation because assault should simply be considered assault regardless of motivation. Do you have any further thoughts?

A mountain of a man in combat boots is perched at the wheel of a golf cart. Thick black hair swirls across his arms, chest and wraps around his back, making his big toothy smile seem bigger — almost brighter — in the sunlight. Aside from the boots, he’s buck naked. In a flash, wandering eyes can judge whether he’s circumcised (he is), carries a spare tire around his middle (he does), prefers to shave his genitals (he does not), or if he’s wearing a wedding ring (nope). But here, well-aside from marital status, none of that really matters. “We’ve got all shapes and sizes of construction workers, farmers, bankers, attorneys, doctors and lawyers,” says Kathy Smith, 62, discussing the membership at Sun Meadow Nudist Resort in Worley, Idaho. “We’ve got everyone from newborns up to people in their 90s”/Jordy Byrd, Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo/Amy Hunter: “Aprons are allowed for the cooks in the kitchen at Sun Meadow Resort.”)

Question: Have you ever thought of becoming a nudist?

So how’s this for a Last Word: I am leaving The Inlander after almost exactly seven years. Buh-bye! OK, so I realize I just wrote at least 11 — or possibly even 12 — words, depending on your view of hyphens. (No one has ever accused me of under-writing.) Here is something I’ve yet to tell many people, a little factoid that makes moving on not so painful: In the seven years I’ve worked at The Inlander, I have never put the office keys on my key ring. Just carried them loose in my pocket/Kevin Taylor, Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo: Young Kwak)

Question: Any parting words for Kevin?

A top a bowl of Bubble Yum and Whopperflavored frozen yogurt, my 5-year-old son loaded gum drops, crushed Oreos, M&M’s, fresh kiwi and rainbow sprinkles — plus a squirt of marshmallow cream. He was in kid heaven. “That’s the beauty. You can make your own masterpiece,” says Froyo Earth owner Steve Kraft. Kraft opened his downtown self-serve frozen yogurt store last summer — and already plans to open northside, Valley and South Hill locations by the end of June. At Froyo Earth, customers choose from 10 different flavors of frozen yogurt and sorbets and more than 50 toppings. “You take and pay for no more than you want,” says Kraft/Kirsten Harrington, Inlander. More here.

Question: Frozen yogurt or ice cream?

Sen. Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, talks with Sen. Randi Becker Friday on the Senate floor.

OLYMPIA — Spokane Sen. Mike Baumgartner is taking a fair amount of ribbing from colleagues today, not for a vote he took but for one that was taken on him, naming him among the Inland Northwest's Sexiest People.

This week's edition of The Inlander lists Baumgartner among 11 people the weekly believes deserving of the honor. Arguably, he is The sexiest, considering he's listed first. (And it's not an alphabetized arrangement, like the way the Senate votes that puts him first.) Photocopies of the spread were in good supply in the Republican wings before the floor session started.

The spread also lists his appropriately Republican Turn ons, the Federalist Papers, and Turn offs, Reckless government spending. Jim Camden, Spin Control Read more.

So. Does Idaho have any sexy Senators?

Here's a riddle for you: What do you get when you crowdsource law school rankings? A highly suspect list. Now, what do you get when you compare that list against the US News peer poll — wherein schools are rated by professors and law professionals and people who have a good chance of knowing what they're talking about? Schadenfreude. When you put the numbers side-by-side, our very own Gonzaga School of Law is the 6th most over-rated law school in America. Ranked 87th-best by the hoi polloi, their peers put them closer to 108th. Almost as over-rated as their men's basketball team was at the beginning of the season/Luke Baumgarten, Inlander. More here. (Inlander photo)

Question: Do you think Gonzaga's law school is overrated?

After a one-year hiatus, we’re back with a different kind of fiction contest. This year, we shortened the word limit (to 1,500) and added a thematic requirement (tell us something about redemption). Thirty-two regional writers responded with stories involving dystopias and disillusionment, broken relationships and ghosts, the Civil War and Earth, Wind and Fire. A panel of four Inlander writers — Luke Baumgarten, Nicholas Deshais, Jacob H. Fries and I — evaluated the entries.

Here we present our favorite story, Robert Salsbury’s “Resource Management,” along with “Alive and Well,” “A New Mexico Story,” and three runners-up. Michael Bowen/Inlander

Have you ever entered a writing contest?

Minnick, in one television ad, says that he is “right for Idaho” without ever mentioning that he’s a Democrat. Just this week, Minnick is quoted in Congressional Quarterly saying he would not necessarily vote for Pelosi as speaker should the Democrats retain control of the House. “It’s pragmatic politics. It’s something that is sorely missing and sorely needed in our state government and our federal government,” says Thom George, chair of the Kootenai County Democrats. “In the Idaho Democratic Party, we have come to realize we live in a conservative state and what flies in the rest of the nation does not fly in Idaho”/Kevin Taylor, Inlander. More here.

Question: Do you think most Idaho Democrats have gotten the message that Thom George is selling about Walt Minnick in this Inlander article by Kevin Taylor — that “what flies in the rest of the nation does not fly in Idaho”?

What do you do when three titans of classic rock descend upon Spokane simultaneously  during the dog days of August to slay boredom and annihilate complacency? What else but declare a Super Rock Week! That’s just what we’ve done. Bob Dylan, Ted Nugent and John Mellencamp will burnish their respective reputations for inspiring showmanship this week (Nugent at the Knitting Factory on Sunday night, and Dylan and Mellencamp at the Greyhound Park on Wednesday). Yes, the Super Rock Trio’s power is compelling, its entertainment value is unmatched, its influence on rock as an institution overwhelming and unquestioned. Yet much like superheroes on the same team (the X-Men, the Avengers, Super Friends, etc.), Dylan, Nugent and Mellencamp each possess a singular super power that defines him as an individual/Mike Corrigan, Inlander. More here. (AP file photo from July 3: Bob Dylan performs at Hop Farm Festival in England)

Question: Got tickets?

Maybe people are simply adjusting. Anecdotes about the high cost of education are everywhere — a recent New York Times Magazine story details the plight of 20 somethings too broke to move out of their parents’ basements. Young people — and, often, mom and dad — are finishing college with unprecedented debt loads. To put it in the visceral parlance of contemporary politics, it’s like a tax on trying hard. By choosing not to fund higher ed, our leaders are over burdening the newest recruits to the working class — and potentially crippling our economic future. Some are giving up. According to a recent Delta Project report on higher ed, more college students today are abandoning their education, and low-income applicants are finding it particularly hard to take those first steps toward realizing the American Dream/Ted S. McGregor, Inlander. More here.

Question: Can you afford to send your children to college?

Spokane just finished its primary elections. North Idaho’s were back in May. But Coeur d’Alene is still stuck in 2009 thanks to its city council election, a five-vote squeaker has created a frenzy of legal issues and cries of small-town corruption. Last November, incumbent Councilman Mike Kennedy beat challenger Jim Brannon (pictured). A few weeks later, Brannon filed a lawsuit challenging the results. Idaho law allows the loser a free recount if the victory is within one-tenth of a percent — but using the same ballots and the same machines wouldn’t do, Brannon announced, demanding careful analysis of the election. In the following months, that analysis has devolved into taunts and insults on competing websites (the Spokesman-Review’s Huckleberries Online and the conspiracy-minded opencda.com) and allegations that North Idaho’s civic leaders are as power hungry as North Korea’s dear leader. How did a city council race ever come to this?/Heidi Groover, Inlander. More here.

• DFO: Reporter Heidi Groover is a summer intern for the Inlander from Hayden.
  

Question: Has Jim Brannon’s lawsuit against the city of Coeur d’Alene and Councilman Mike Kennedy prevented the city from moving ahead in any way? Or is it simply a distraction?

Parkside Bistro owner Kevin Eskelin recalls the good times. [Photo: Young Kwak]

Dollar  bills once decorated the walls and ceiling of the small but popular Parkside Bistro and Pub in Coeur d’Alene. To customers, each bill, signed by those who left it, represented a memory made at the pub: a couple on a first date, a family who came in for burgers, North Idaho College students on a pub crawl, a softball team celebrating a win with a round of beers. “It’s such a unique gem,” says owner Kevin Eskelin. “The character of the place is like none other.” But Parkside, which has been around as a hamburger joint under different names since the 1950s, will soon be history, a memory, and a stack of 728 signed bills will be one of the few things Eskelin has left of the pub he owned for nearly 14 years/Natalie Johnson, Inlander. More here.

Question: Are/were you a regular customer of Parkside Bistro?

Thomas Dixon is a red-blooded American, a military man and a citizen who absolutely despises his government. The Spokane Valley resident despises what he sees as a tyrannical president and a new health care law that will lead to Soviet-style control of his countrymen. He detests the decline of his country’s values, and the rise of left-wing radicals. He hates the politicians in D.C. who call him an extremist and belittle him and others who share his concerns. Dixon is a Tea Partier, and he wants his country back. “I’ve never felt this way before. I’ve never felt like every morning I wake up and have to see what’s being said,” Dixon says. “And nobody’s saying the right thing”/Nicholas Deshais, Pacific Northwest Inlander. More here.

Question: Will Tea Partiers eventually come home to roost in the Republican Party?

Modern-day heavy breathers now post crude, abusive comments to online newspaper articles where everyone can see. Most online media sites, Inlander.com included, require commenters to register. This way, computer IP addresses can be traced and blocked if needed. Not at the Coeur d’Alene Press, which has long been a haven for the type of posters the Internet community refers to as trolls. The Press comment threads were a writhing nest of race hate after last weekend’s fatal shooting. A post under the name Proud to Be White Girl gives the gist of it: “… all the mexicans and blacks are from cali coming over here giving us swine flu and making coeur d’ alene idaho trashy like California…”/Kevin Taylor, Inlander. More here (second item).

DFO: Izzit just me, or has the Press threads gone — thankfully — quiet since the Hagadone brain trust reinstituted registration?