In their words
“(We) surrendered her over to the cops, and that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
– Wendy Pritchett, on the day she delivered her 15-year-old daughter, Kaele, to the Spokane County Juvenile Justice Center for confinement pending charges of vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault stemming from a motor vehicle accident that killed one of her friends and injured another.
“The Americans know everything, they can do everything, they can repair the space shuttle without touching it. Why do they let these things happen here in Iraq?”
– Custodian Abu Muhammad, 55, as quoted by the New York Times in the aftermath of an apparent suicide bombing that killed dozens of Iraqis Tuesday at Baghdad’s Shiite al-Khilani mosque, where he worked.
“In hindsight, should we have mentioned that? Yes, we should have.”
– Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Jeri Rowe in Seattle, acknowledging that VA representatives who escorted U.S. Sen. Patty Murray through the psychiatric ward in Seattle should have told her about a violent incident that necessitated police response the night before.
“We simply did not anticipate Americans’ willingness to comply so quickly with the new law.”
– Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty, explaining the massive backlog of passport applications that have brought the State Department under criticism as the government struggles to implement a law requiring passports for travel to and from Canada and Mexico.
“This is not going to be a meeting for the sake of a meeting. We want to accomplish something.”
– North Idaho College spokesman Kent Propst, speaking of plans for college representatives to get together with Coeur d’Alene business figures in hopes of improving the relationship that led last year to a letter expressing the business community’s lack of confidence in Michael Burke, then president of NIC.
“I think we’ll never know who done it on this one.”
– Idaho Potato Commission President Frank Muir, saying it’s unlikely that DNA testing of the nematodes that caused Japan to ban import of Idaho potatoes is unlikely to pinpoint how the pest arrived in Idaho, probably decades ago.
“Get a map and a highlighter and mark the places where it’s acceptable for people and then present that to the homeless coalition.”
– Cherished One Ministries director Kevin Kram, in reaction to the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association’s opposition to using the city’s historic federal building as a facility for helping the homeless.
“Zero is really good with me.”
– Weiser, Idaho, rancher Harry Soulen, expressing his preference for the number of wolf packs that should be preserved under the state management plan that is being developed with help from an advisory committee on which he sits.
“They managed to survive two major extinctions on this planet. Now they’re in decline worldwide. If that doesn’t wake you up, what will?”
– Hatchery technician Eric Wagner, who works on the Kootenai Indian tribal project to prevent the disappearance of white sturgeon, an ancient and endangered species native to the Kootenai River.