The confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor continue for the third day in the U.S. Senate, where she continues to get questions about wise Latina women and Sen. Tom Coburn , R-Okla., tries to channel Ricky Ricardo, and Sen. Al Franken, D-SatNiteLive, signs up for the…
Don't know if this is going to generate any controversy or not, but a funny thing happened on the way to Initiative 1033's ballot placement Wednesday.Initiative entrepeneur and chief sponsor Tim Eyman sent out an embargoed e-mail saying that the petitions turned in were "the…
Initiative 1033 will be on the November ballot.The Secretary of State's office announced this afternoon that it's way over the minimum for signatures required to make the grade.It turned in so many signatures that the office does a random sample check. In the check, they…
Sonia Sotomayor hearings continued Tuesday. Here's 100 seconds worth of it from TalkingPointsMemo.
Monday night's Spokane City Council meeting had plenty of discussion about Envision Spokane's proposed "Spokane Bill of Rights."Colleague Jonathan Brunt captured these two exchanges between former Councilman and current candidate Steve Eugster and Council President Joe Shogan. in the first, Eugster is saying he's going…
Sonia Sotomayor's first day of hearings coincided with All-Star Game eve. Which may explain all the baseball analogies in yesterday's hearings. Before catching Tuesday's hearings, here's a quick recap of yesterday's spin, from the folks at TalkingPointsMemo:
Opponents of the proposed "Spokane Bill of Rights" charter amendment gathered outside City Hall in the intermittent drizzle, starting about 5 p.m., warming up for Monday night's council meeting.It's an interesting coalition that includes the Spokane Home Builders as well as longtime members of the…
Opposition appears to be mounting, although not necessarily coalescing, against the proposed Spokane Bill of Rights which will get a hearing Monday evening with the City Council.Note: this is simply a hearing for forwarding the measure to the Spokane County Elections Office to have the…
Most years, Idaho’s congressional races inspire yawns among the nation’s political cognoscenti. It’s likely 2010 will not be one of those years. Idaho’s sprawling 1st District House race is at or near the top of several lists of races to watch in the mid-term election.…
The proposed "Spokane Bill of Rights" will get a hearing Monday evening on whether it should go to the next phase of qualifying for the November ballot.The Spokane City Council will hold the hearing at its regular 6 p.m. legislative session prior to a vote…
Tim Eyman and other promoters of Initiative 1033 turned in 315,444 signatures on their petitions last week, the Secretary of State's office reported today.That's significantly more than the 241,153 needed (if they are valid signatures from registered state voters) to get the proposal on the…
The Spokane Fire Department will celebrate the arrival of the new engine in Hillyard by pushing it into Station 15 Friday afternoon.What, the new truck doesn't come with a motor?For upwards of 500-grand, it definitely can run on its own power. But it seems there's…
Folks at the recently established Spokane Municipal Court report a slight problem with defendants not showing up for their preliminary hearing, and then saying they didn't know when it was scheduled.The thing is, the date is scheduled when the police officer writes out the citation…
Want a preview of what's coming up for the 2010 mid-term elections? Here's two.First, the National Republican Senate Committee is trying out a "blame everything on the Democrats" strategy, featuring Al Franken and some really somber violin music.And the Democrat National Committee is testing a…
Washington state lowered flags to half staff today in honor of Pvt. Aaron Fairbairn, a 21-year-old soldier from Aberdeen who was killed in Action in Afghanistan on July 4.Gov. Chris Gregoire issued the order early Thursday morning. The flags will stay at half staff on…
Josh Arnold, who entered the race for Coeur d’Alene mayor this week, said he’s concerned about the size, tone and responsiveness of government. Those concepts probably wouldn’t distinguish Arnold, a Republican precinct leader and 30-year-old planner for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, from most other candidates,…
At the newspaper, reporters like to talk about the Spokane vortex, in which almost every big national and international event has a link to this part of the country. Yesterday's big press conference on health care, where Vice President Joe Biden talked about hospitals pitching…
A potpourri that includes health care, Palin, Jackson from TalkingPointsMemo.
There's no picture of Vice President Joe Biden in the federal building, reader Carol Nestor notes.There's a full-color shot of President Barack Obama on the walls, but no Biden, anywhere. What gives?Turns out there's no photos of Biden in federal buildings anywhere. Ross Buffington of…
Word comes from Team Sarah, a group dedicated to the political advancement of the Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her political goals, that they're still enthusiastic about their namesake.This comes in a press release that is, admittedly, a bit dated because it got hung up…
They were still pretty hung up on Sarah Palin on Monday, according to TalkingPointsMemo. Must've been a slow news weekend?
The operator of the Spokane County Raceway insists he has no plans to shut down the track or shorten the racing season, and all contractors will be paid for work done at the county-owned facility. Bucky Austin met Monday with County Commissioner Todd Mielke, plus…
This will probably come as no huge surprised to anyone watching politics in Spokane, but Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is running for re-election.Knezovich filed paperwork with the Public Disclosure Commission at the beginning of the year, but even incumbents who don't plan to run again do…
This music video comes courtesy of reader and colleague Reiko Tateya in Yokohama, Japan, who brought to our attention a fun Web site that creates a song a day. Today's song is about Sarah Palin calling it quits. Thanks Reiko!And for those who slept th…
There's a switchblade fight going on in Congress. Depending on who wins, North Idaho could bleed jobs at some point.This is not some latter day version of the Sharks and the Jets, minus the choreography. It's even nastier than some back alley knife fight, because…
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