Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution as he speaks during during a campaign rally at the New Life Assembly of God on Thursday in Spokane. SR story here. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

• Idaho Records/Sherry Adkins, SR
• Washington lawmakers OK tire socks for snow traction/SR
• Idaho F&G proposing cut in elk harvest/Rich Landers, Outdoors
• Editorial: Don't panic over wandering wolf/Kalispell Daily Inter Lake
• Montana judge apologizes to Obama for racist email/Clair Johnson, Gazette
• Ex-BSU player Kaiserman pitches concussion bill/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise
• Newsletter to Montana solons calls for white homeland/Charles Johnson, Missoulian
• Orbusmax Special: Washington teacher slain in Iraq from religious family here

A Secret Service agent, left, stands by as Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks at Belmont University on Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn. Santorum will be in Spokane Valley today. See below. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

• Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, will hold a rally at 3 p.m. today at New Life Assembly Church, 10920 E. Sprague Ave. New Life Assembly Church has seating for about 800, and there’s some overflow room. Santorum is campaigning this morning in Georgia, and tonight he is scheduled to appear at a campaign rally in Pasco, at Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave.
• Ron Paul returns FridaU.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas will make his second local appearance this campaign season at the Spokane Convention Center. Paul, who won the most votes in Spokane County GOP caucuses in 2008, will hold his rally at noon Friday. More here.
• Also: Paul's plans for 3 stops in Idaho Monday and Tuesday here.

Question: Did you see Santorum & Paul when they visited Coeur d'Alene/Spokane in February? Do you plan to see them again this week?

Spokane Valley police say a video posted by a car prowling suspect on his Facebook page that features suspected stolen loot will be used as evidence against him. “It'd be kind of silly for us not to,” said Sgt. John Nowels.  The video, posted two days before his arrest, shows Nathan John Calvert in a vehicle he describes as a Jeep. He focused on a large amount of property in the back and passenger seat and said he hasn’t “really figured out what I’m going to do yet.” Police believe it's the same stolen Jeep that contained about 100 items of stolen property when Calvert, 28, was arrested Friday after an attorney caught him in his truck and held him until police arrived. Police also suspect Calvert used stolen equipment to film and post the video, which they learned of from The Spokesman-Review/Meghann M. Cuniff, Sirens & Gavels. More here.

Question: A candidate for “Stupid Criminal Tricks”?

Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Nat King Cole. The names roll off his tongue with ease. Local musician Bruce Davis has worked with them all. And at 90, he’s still performing every week with his band, Variety Pak.
From his home in Spokane Valley, Davis reflected on a lifetime of making music. His trombone sits on a stand near his chair, and a mandolin and guitar hang over the fireplace. At 5 he discovered an E-flat alto horn in the hall closet. “It belonged to my dad,” Davis recalled. “But I never heard him play it. By the time Dad came home that night, I was able to play a tune.”He was also hopelessly hooked on horns/Cindy Hval, SR. More here. (SR photo by Christopher Anderson)

Question: What era do you think produced the best music?

Otis G provides this feel-good photo & cutline information from the Spokane Valley: “Each year, the City of Spokane Valley Stormwater Utility hires some summer interns to do inventory on our storm drain systems. Last week, Tim Kincaid (who is a current student with the Spokane Community College Water Resources Program) looked in a drywell and found a marmot that had fallen in. It was still alive, so he fished it out and let it go in a field.”

The handcuffed driver of a stolen car escaped from custody late Thursday when officers left him unattended as they chased his fleeing passenger, according to the Spokane Valley Police Department. Police are asking for help identifying the man who was was driving a purple Mercury Tracer that had been reported stolen in a residential burglary when Officers Mark Benner and Jason Karnitz spotted him at Pines and Cherry about 11:15 p.m., Sgt. Dave Reagan said in a news release. The car stopped in the dead end area of a parking lot and the passenger fled on foot. Benner chased after him, and Karntiz handcuffed the driver and told him to stay in the car as he joined the chase, but the officers returned to find the suspect gone. Neither officer knew his name/Meghann M. Cuniff, Sirens & Gavels. More here.

Question: Pretend that you're the public relations person for the Spokane Valley police — their Sgt. Christie Wood or Major Ben Wolfinger, so to speak. How would you spin this one?

The Discovery Playground in Spokane Valley appears to be as popular with vandals as it is with children. Parks and Recreation staff noticed yesterday that one of two larger-than-life inchworms in the Secret Garden area of the playground had been stolen (the yellow one) and the other damaged. The city is sounding the alarm and is asking that anyone with information on the whereabouts of the inchworm call Crime Check at 456-2233. Last year a giant rainbow trout was wrenched out of the concrete, but not stolen. It hasn't yet been put back as staff search for a permanent way to install it so it can't be removed again. Also last year three giant fiberglass Eagle eggs were torn out of the ground and stolen/Nina Culver, Spokane Valley Blog. More here.

Question: What could a person do with a larger-than-life inchworm, like the ones above?

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — After months of debate the Spokane Valley City Council made changes to the city's chicken regulations.Those changes make it possible for people who live with in the city limits to own chickens on small residential pieces of property.

Craig Goodwin has four chickens in his backyard right next to his children's swing set. “They have names, yeah, Eagle, Chrysanthemum, Daisy and Honolulu,” Goodwin, a self-proclaimed chicken person, said.

Goodwin says his four chickens produce two dozen eggs a week, but that is the only source of food they supply for his family of four. “I think the general rule is, if you name your chickens, you don't eat them,” he said.KXLY.com More here.

What do you think about the urban chicken trend? Do you have chickens in your backyard?

According to the report, the bullet from Deputy Hirzel’s gun hit Creach in the chest, traveled through his heart, lungs and hit his liver. It was found lodged in his lower ribcage. The report mentions scrapes and bruises consistent with what Creach may have received working at The Plant Farm, but does not mention an injury consistent with a baton strike, which contradicts Hirzel’s testimony/Marissa Bagg, KXLY. More here.

Question: Hirzel said he struck Pastor Creach with a baton before Creach went for his gun. But the autopsy report doesn’t mention a wound consistent with that claim. What do you make of that?

Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Hirzel is under investigation, not because of the deadly shooting at the Plant Farm last month, but because of a sideline business where he and his wife may have been selling sex toys online from their home.It appears that Deputy Hirzel may have been involved in an online business that sells adult novelty items. While peddling sex toys is legal it may be a violation of Spokane County Sheriff’s Office departmental policy and something the department had no idea the Hirzels were doing/Jeff Humphrey, KXLY. More here.

Question: Are you kidding me?

Item: Sheriff frustrated by vacation flap: Investigative panel allowed deputy to leave without consulting Knezovich/Thomas Clouse, SR

More Info: Hirzel “was already on vacation when I found out he was on vacation,” Knezovich said. “How do I un-ring that bell? I could have said bring him back in. But I would have just countermanded everything that the (investigative) team had done. That was not my role in the investigation. My role was to stay out of it and not influence it.”

Question: Is Ozzie protesting too much?

Item: Deputy: One shot fired in death: He saw Creach with gun, then had ‘verbal exchange’/Thomas Clouse, SR

More Info: The news release offered no explanation of what was said or by whom, or why Hirzel felt the need to pull the trigger, killing the 74-year-old pastor in the parking lot of his nursery business at 14208 E. Fourth Ave. in Spokane Valley. Creach’s daughter, Serena Creach Leonard, said she read the statement released Friday and it left the family with many unanswered questions. “We have no more answers from that press release really than we had the day after,” Leonard said. “We still feel badly for Deputy Hirzel, but we need the sheriff’s department to communicate to us as a family to let us know what happened that night. Whatever it is, we want the truth.”

Question: Does the family of the late Pastor Creach have the right to know what happened the night Deputy Hirzel shot the minister to death?

Law enforcement leaders tell us that officers don’t get special treatment. Some tell us that they ought to be held to a higher standard. But the rules are clearly different when one of them is involved in a fatal incident. It is department policy to forgo an interview with an officer for the first 48 hours. Policy also dictates that an officer not be named for the first 72 hours. That’s why the details are sketchy. But Spokane police Maj. Scott Stephens said no further information will be released until next Thursday, which is more than a week after the incident. This only raises more questions. When will the shooter be interviewed? Will he or she be named once the 72 hours has passed? If not, what’s special about this case? What about witnesses? Are there any witnesses?/Spokesman-Review Editorial Board. More here.

Question: Is the officer involved in the shooting of a Spokane Valley pastor/nursery owner getting special treatment by investigating agency?

Sheriff (Ozzie) Knezovich, shown in Dan Pelle/SR photo, acknowledged the concerns of Spokane Valley residents and the outrage many feel about what happened that night. Creach was a 74-year old pastor at Greenacres Baptist Church. But, Knezovich also says it’s important to let the investigation play out before citizens jump to conclusions. He also acknowledged the feelings experienced by the police officer who fired the shot, saying “We do our best our there to protect the public. No police officer goes to work intending to hurt one of the citizens they’re sworn to protect”/Melissa Luck, KXLY. More here.

• Sheriff promises ‘full and complete’ investigation into pastor’s shooting/Thomas Clouse, SR
  

Longtime aircraft builder Dean Wilson makes the first flight at dawn Wednesday in Lewiston. There were no problems flying the ancient but updated pusher design, making it ready for a centennial celebration in September of the first flight in  Idaho at Lewiston, made in 1910. (AP Photo/Lewiston Tribune, Barry Kough)

RE: Officer shoots Southern Baptist pastor, business owner in Valley/Mike Prager, SR

Community Comment: It will be interesting to see how the spin-moguls manage to make it sound like Pastor Creach is at fault for his own death. it. More here.

Question: What’s wrong with the police departments in Spokane County?

In Spokane Valley the Kehilat HaMashiach Synagogue was vandalized Sunday when someone smeared their sign with a red swastika.Four days later a white cloth covers the symbol but the congregation of the synagogue know all too well the meaning behind the symbol. They says they want to bring attention to this because they want people to know this type of hatred is still going on in our community.Like pulling off a bandage covering a painful wound congregation leader David D’Auria unveils the swastika left on the sign of his synagogue.“I was shocked, surprised and concerned,” he said.D’Auria discovered the marking Sunday morning.“This is a hate crime; an act of hate against Jewish people,” he said/Tania Dall, KXLY. More here.

Rebecca  Schiering is shown (in this 2005 file photo) restocking racks at the Reclothery consignment store in Spokane, Wash. Schiering and her son Phillip died in what authorities are calling a violent domestic dispute in Spokane Valley Sunday. Read Meghann Cuniff’s SR story here. (AP Photo/The Spokesman-Review)

• Idaho Records/Sherry Adkins, SR
• Monday Scanner Traffic/DFO, Huckleberries Online
  
• Highs returning to upper 80s, low 90s/Mike Prager, SR
• Coeur d’Alene police seek endangered runaways/KHQ
  
• Hayden considers launch fees at Honeysuckle Beach/David Cole, Press
• STEM charter school sought for Rathdrum/Maureen Dolan, Press
• Thrift store manager’s laptop accidentally sold/Alecia Warren, Press
• Husband of driver who hit detectives’ car goes to prison/Rob Kauder, KXLY
  
• Normal fire season predicted on state lands/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise
  
• Endowment fund: Good year in 2010 after bad 2009/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise
• Courage Award: Wasden ‘lets chips fall where they may/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise
• Idaho’s contract w/Connecting Idaho Partners now $85M/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise
  

Becky Schiering knew adversity in her lifetime; she had battled drug addiction and had bounced back to become a person who was passionate about giving back to the community. Becky’s life was cut tragically short when she and one of her sons were murdered Sunday by her ex-fiancée. Friends and family members say Becky was no stranger to adversity; she overcame an addiction to methamphetamine in order to better provide for her three young children. Becky was not afraid to talk about the problems in her past; in 2008 she talked to KXLY about how CPS had helped her with her drug addiction when she was pregnant with her twin sons Jack and Phillip. “It was a Godsend that somebody called, it was a Godsend that somebody stepped in and said something finally,” she said during that 2008 interview/Tori Brunetti, KXLY. More here.

Question: Do you know anyone who has beaten meth addiction?

Nordstrom Rack is moving east, to be closer to the highway and closer to North Idaho. Those are the reasons given by the Seattle-based clothing retailer for leaving the NorthTown Mall and taking up a 30,000-square-foot space in the Spokane Valley Plaza. It expects the Rack, Valley version, will open in October. It’s taking space last used by Linens ‘n Things, in a triplex flanked by Sportsman’s Warehouse and Old Navy, west of the Spokane Valley Mall. The Rack is the off-price division of Nordstrom that offers merchandise from other stores at significant discounts/Tom Sowa, Office Hours. More here. (SR File Photo: Shoppers pack the Nordstrom Rack in Northtown Mall as it opens in 2000.)Question: Are you more likely to go to Nordstrom Rack now that it has moved from North Town Mall to Spokane Valley Plaza?