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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

How Can Unwanted Advances Of Sellers Be Handled Better?

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

Anyone who ever had to leave the dinner table to answer a telephone solicitor’s call probably has a reaction to Teresa Juneau’s protest.

Juneau is picketing the Spokane Fire Fighters Local 29 office because Gehl Group Telemarketing, which sells tickets to the union’s fund-raising event, keeps calling her, even though she’s asked to be put on the do-not-call list. Their calls interfere with her in-home hairstyling business, she says.

Telemarketers have to earn a living, too, of course.

Does anybody - telemarketers included - have a constructive suggestion for resolving this familiar dilemma?

Leaf’s leaving a matter of degree

Leaving Washington State University to turn pro does not make star athletes Ryan Leaf and Rodrigo de la Fuente disloyal, says Keith LaMotte of Spokane.

“In the case of Ryan Leaf, let us not forget that someone goes to college for an education and Ryan will graduate in May. So, he’s completed his education and in fact has returned what the university has offered him in terms of a degree, and in terms of his athletic ability,” said LaMotte. “I think to cut him short because he’s leaving at the end of his senior year even though he has a year of eligibility left is kind of a hard cut.”

Bagpipes asked on Tuesday if football quarterback Leaf and leading basketball scorer de la Fuente owed the school more.

As for de la Fuente, who departs just as the Cougars’ Pac-10 conference schedule begins, LaMotte said the former member of the Spanish national team came here to play basketball.

Extenuating circumstances - including the financial incentives he and his family were offered, plus Spanish professional basketball’s deadlines for adding players - created “a little bit of a different twist to that situation than a kid that leaves school after his sophomore or junior jear with both his education incompleted and his eligibility incompleted,” LaMotte said.

David Eccles of Medical Lake, also noted quarterback Leaf’s forthcoming graduation.

“If he did come back next year, it would be solely to play football and that’s not exactly what the college business is all about.”

Besides, added Eccles, Leaf’s departure frees up a WSU athletic scholarship for someone else.

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.

“Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.