The Hot Seat Our Weekly Look At Who’s In Trouble

He keeps those troopers hopping

Mike Lowry ordered his loyal bodyguards from the Washington State Patrol to cooperate with investigators after a female ex-employee accused him of, er, following too close around the office. But when he got pulled over four times for moving violations on the highway, did he order the surprised state troopers to give him the ticket he deserved? Well, uh, no. He graciously allowed them to let him off. Might have seemed like the easy way out, at the time. Wrong. In Olympia, juicy secrets never stay secret for long. The rest of us, guv, have to stay out of trouble by staying out of trouble. Try it.

Run ‘em out of tune

New Orleans has its Mardi Gras, Weiser has its fiddle contest, and Sandpoint has a … zoning dispute. Every summer, Pulitzer Prize winner Gunther Schuller motors into Sandpoint with his attack baton and a gang of outlaws wearing fedoras and toting violin cases. They attract hordes of wine-swilling, cheese-gobbling rowdies, drown out the melody of passing locomotives with amplified heavy-metal cellos and clog the neighborhood with Cadillacs and Camrys. Move this nuisance, some Sandpoint residents whine, or they’ll sue. Others are looking for a new site, but money doesn’t grow on trees. Hey, Gunther, it’s a long drive to Sandpoint, anyway. How about Spokane’s Riverfront Park, or the Coeur d’Alene lakeshore?

At last, Bill finds a Republican to love

Move over, Hanoi Jane. Meet Belfast Bill. President Clinton, who’s seemed down on his luck lately, thought a little wearin’ o’ the green might put the color back in his cheeks. So he invited a terrorist leader across the Atlantic for lunch and some fund raising. His guest? Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein, political arm of the Irish Republican Army. In Adams’ honor, chefs invented a tasty new casserole: car bombes au gratin.

MEMO: The Hot Seat is a feature of the Sunday Opinion page.