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The Drive at 5

(S-R file photo) ( Full post )

Smoking: How did you kick the habit?

Loose Thread Friday

The unexamined life�s no different from the examined life�
Unanswerable questions, small talk,
Unprovable theorems, long-abandoned arguments�
You�ve got to write it all down. -- Black Zodiac by Charles Wright at Poetry Foundation. ( Full post )

Drive at 5

The day is done. ( Full post )

Civic Elder: Lois Stratton

(S-R photo by Rajah Bose) ( Full post )

Quality Counts

(Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich talked with children in the West Central Community Center Headstart in March. S-R archive photo by Jesse Tinsley.) ( Full post )

Loose Thread Wednesday

(AP file photo.) ( Full post )

Death by Waterboarding?

A reader called and asked if anyone had ever died from being waterboarded. If no one has, he said, why are so many people objecting to its use. I said I didn't know. I told him I'd send his question into blogland to see what response it generates. ( Full post )

Emma Wasson: Values for the ages

(Photo by Brian Plonka/The Spokesman-Review) ( Full post )

Loose Thread Tuesday

(Spokesman-Review archive photo by Christopher Anderson) ( Full post )

Letters: Gun ban ruling

The recent Supreme Court ruling on the D.C. gun ban raises a troubling question in my mind. The question is sociological rather than legal. We live in a very different world from the one known to framers of the Second Amendment. (...) The social problems of our day differ too, ranging as they do from environmental degradation to the illegal drug trade and striking disparities of economic wealth. Longitudinal crime statistics argue that we are also a more violent society, with rising rates of weapons-related homicide, rape, robbery and assault over the half-century since 1960. ( Full post )

The 1970s: We were richer then?

(The cast of The Brady Bunch is shown in this 1975 AP file photo) ( Full post )

Camp Lessons: Share yours

(Photo of Chaeanna Lett and daughter Avacyana by S-R's Rajah Bose) ( Full post )

Loose Thread Monday

(A jogger runs into the sunset along High Drive. S-R Archive photo by Christopher Anderson.) ( Full post )

Sunday's editorials

The sale of Empire Health to a for-profit, out-of-state corporation has many concerned about the quality and accessibility of care. However, with the rough and worsening financial condition of the nonprofit, we urge that the sale go through as quickly as it responsibly can. There aren't any other attractive options, and this one will only get less attractive by waiting. ( Full post )

Our Saturday view

Saturday's editorial called for an update of the 1872 mining act, which is virtually the same as it was in that year, over 13 decades ago. ( Full post )

Weekend loose thread

It's Hoopfest weekend. In the spirit of the Slice, here are a few warm-up questions: ( Full post )

Letter: Is art worth it?

The picture of the Olympic Sculpture Park on the Seattle waterfront (Sunday Outdoors and Travel section) blows my mind. What am I looking at? Is it a gigantic waste of money called "art"? Is it an example of West-Side excess that should have been devoted to the Alaska Way replacement? It seems to me to be nothing more than an expression of Seattle affluence. The next time they cry for the rest of us to share in one of their capital projects, I will advocate they have proven they can handle it themselves. -- Kay Morse, Spokane

( Full post )

Plant the trees

Today's editorial holds the city planning department and developer Jim Reugh's feet to the fire to comply with planning rules adopted seven years ago. Though some corrections have been made to a slate of problems with Reugh's surface parking lot, the season for planting the required street trees has come and gone. ( Full post )

The Drive to Live

Got a link to a video of a man dying of ALS (Lou Gering's disease) who has spoken out against a proposed intiative in Washington state that would allow people with terminal illnesses to end their lives with prescription drugs. The initiative might be on the ballot in Washington this fall if enough signatures are collected. ( Full post )