To Their Credit, Bureaucrats Admit Mistake

Imagine Mike Mitchell’s surprise when he received notice he was about to lose his driver’s license. Seems the state Department of Health and Welfare had lost patience with the Plummer, Idaho, man. After all, he was at least three months and $2,000 behind on his child-support payments, right? Wrong. In reality, Mike never has married, sired offspring or visited court in regard to child support. Writes he: “It makes you wonder how many of the 40,000 letters they send out are bogus.” When Mike brought the matter to the agency’s attention, bureaucrats quickly admitted the error made “through a computer interface with another agency.” All in all, Mike got off lucky. The other agency could have been the Infernal Revenue Service.

Bah, humbug

Bonner County Commissioner Bud Mueller hasn’t crossed my radar screen for so long I thought he’d taken the fall off - not just a couple of weeks - to hunt elk in Alaska. Now, our good Buddy is against giving county employees the day after Christmas off with pay. He, of course, plans to take that day off, courtesy of Bonner County taxpayers. In fact, Bud-Bud-Budmueller has taken more than a month off during his first year in office. But then, the courthouse certainly runs more smoothly when Bud’s off hunting.

Fish or cut bait

Nine months ago, thieves stole a 5-gallon jar containing $3,000 from Franklin’s Hoagies. Owner Larry Anderson had planned to feed customers free for a day after they had filled the container. Since then, he’s waited patiently for CPD Blue to solve the crime - or, if the constables can’t, to return the $2 they took as evidence. … Kudos to Tidyman’s in Coeur d’Alene for designating a parking space for expectant mothers next to the handicapped spots. … And mega-kudos to Tidyman’s, Rosauers, Albertsons, Fred Meyer and Super 1 Foods for sponsoring newspaper ads denouncing the hate mail disseminated in their parking lots. One superstore passed on the chance to participate, however. I’ll let you figure out which one. A muckety-muck in an office far, far away didn’t think it was important to make a statement. He was wrong. … A prominent Coeur d’Alene woman who was flashed by a Generation X’er last month near the public golf course told police she didn’t get a good look at the young man. Maybe there wasn’t much to look at.

Huckleberries

John Daley was concerned when he read the Nov. 6 headline in the Show-No News-Press of Kellogg: “Idaho man dies in copter crash.” But, as he continued on, he was relieved to learn the “the dead man,” B.J. Schram, had “managed to crawl away from the wreckage with only minor injuries.” … Then, we published a letter to the editor Dec. 5 with the headline, “McEeun name should grace fields.” If it does, I hope Mae’s surname is spelled correctly. … Disney has lured Bill Sommers from his beautiful retirement home overlooking the Spokane River to run its three Los Angeles radio stations: KABC, KLOS and KTZN. Bill was president of ABC’s L.A. station, and his wife, Joey, was a top CBS manager when they retired in June 1996. Now that Bill’s been back on the job for a week, rumor has it that he can’t wait to return to Coeur d’Alene for the holidays. … So, you got breathless e-mail from a friend, supposedly forwarding a message from one Bill Gates? You know the one. “Gates” writes that he wants help with a new tracing program and will pay up to 1,000 people $1,000 apiece for forwarding his message. Can you say H-O-A-X, people? I’ve received the same message from a friend in Lewiston and a brother-in-law in Northern California.

Parting shot

Hmmm. Do you suppose the Coeur d’Alene Press didn’t notice that The Boss and his top Munchkins had donated significantly to the city elections? Not a word was said in Brand X about the heavy Hagadone support for Mayor-elect Steve Judy and Councilwoman-elect Deanna Goodlander. An oversight? I think not. Once again, you can be glad this isn’t a one-newspaper town.

, DataTimes MEMO: Got a Huckleberry? Call the Huckleberry Hound Hotline at (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125 or send e-mail to daveo@spokesman.com.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria The Spokesman-Review