A Tag For Lousy Drivers
Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton has a good idea on how to handle problem drivers: Slap a sticker on their bumpers identifying them as such. It could read something like “I’ve been caught driving drunk,” “I’m a habitual speeder” or, simply, “I’m a lousy driver.” Dick ran that idea past me as he tried to make sense of administrative assistant Darlene King’s death two weeks ago. The popular commissioners’ aide was killed on her way home from the courthouse when a driver with a laundry list of traffic violations crashed headlong into her. The other driver had tried to pass five cars on icy Idaho Highway 41. Dick’s idea would add a little shame to the judicial hand-slaps these multiple offenders typically receive.
Save posturing until county fair time
Democrat Dan Williams deserves a Hot Potato for serving up a debate challenge to U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth - in February, 3-1/2 months before he officially becomes his party’s candidate. This is the kind of stuff long-shot candidates use to gain attention during the dog days of summer. At this point, most of us are trying to survive the slushy days of winter and would be hard-pressed to name more than two Republicans running for president. (I haven’t started thinking of my garden, for goodness’ sake.) I’m all for a Dan-and-Helen series - after the North Idaho Fair.
Brand X proves poor loser in hydro debate
Could the Coeur d’Alene Press have buried the story about a petition drive against hydroplanes any better than on Page A10 Thursday?
Ex-Leadership CdA mate struts his stuff
Sweet Potatoes go to Mike Boyd, Benewah Community Hospital administrator and a 1985 Leadership Coeur d’Alene classmate. (Leadership CdA has tightened admissions since it let me sneak into the first class.) In 1992, Mike helped negotiate the purchase of a rival clinic next door and, together with other hospital officials and local doctors, worked Benewah Community Hospital out of the red and into a top-notch rural hospital. While other rural hospitals struggled or downsized, the St. Maries hospital tripled the number of doctors, doubled admissions of local patients and is expanding. For those accomplishments, the American Hospital Association named the St. Maries hospital as its “Comeback Hospital of the Year.” Officials at perennially struggling Silver Valley Medical Center (nee Henry L. Day Medical Center) would do well to follow Mike and his staff around for a day or two.
, DataTimes MEMO: D.F. Oliveria’s “Hot Potatoes” runs Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can comment on the items by calling (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125.