In their words
“I broke down. Three ladies on the jury broke down. I pulled it together. That son-of-a-gun’s looking right at me. There’s no way I was going to cave.”
– Rape victim Michaelle Dierich, of Hayden, describing the testimony she gave in the Portland trial of Vance Roberts, one of two men charged with abducting her nearly 20 years ago, holding her captive, and raping and torturing her.
“Trying to get a straight answer out of Jack Behrens was like trying to pin a button on a custard pie.”
– Defense attorney David Marshall, who argued that his client, former Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co. executive Thomas Turner, was made the fall guy to cover up errors by Behrens, a partner in the auditing firm Ernst & Young.
“I feel more connected to the soldier, a little connected to the family, and I think they are going to be happy to have this memento back.”
– World War II student Bill Santora, of New Jersey, who gave the surviving relatives of Army Pvt. William Bernice Clark the dog tag found on Omaha Beach near where Clark is thought to have died 63 years ago during the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
“A human is not a mouse, so a lot more work has to be done.”
– Genetic researcher Marius Wernig, saying the announcement that scientists have converted skin cells from mice into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells does not mean the same accomplishment will be achieved soon with people.
“It sucks to have to buy brand new books and not use them for three months – and then they’re obsolete.”
– Spokane Falls Community College student Quinn Challinor, about the heavy expense of textbooks.
“I have seen them up, and I have seen them down, and they’re pretty down right now.”
– Taylor Bressler, Spokane parks planning and development manager, predicting that the city’s seasonal swimming pools can’t go much longer without significant repair work.
“I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere.”
– Ben Carpenter, a Michigan man with muscular dystrophy whose wheelchair handles became lodged in the grille of a semi, unbeknownst to the driver, resulting in a trip of several miles at speeds up to about 50 mph.
“We are currently investigating the veracity of these serious claims of his participation in projects that don’t align with the biblical standards and moral code upon which the ministry was founded.”
– Spokeman Mark Looy of Answers for Genesis, a creationist museum in Kentucky that has been showing a video in which Eric Linden, owner of a sexually oriented Web site called Bedroom Acrobat, stars as Adam.
“To accept more animals now, it means somebody has to die.”
– Patricia Simonet, spokeswoman for Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, where an influx of unclaimed stray dogs and cats has strained the shelter’s capacity and forced an increase in euthanizations.