Hope they don’t choke on the air

And the readers’ choice is … Kerri Thoreson. In a poll last week to decide who’d be the best choice to stop the never-ending revolving door at KVNI radio, the Post Falls councilwoman was easily the pick of my Huckleberries Online readers, capturing 40 percent of the vote among the seven choices. Another 28 percent said they “don’t care” who parent company KXLY picks to handle the morning host slot recently vacated by Rick and Teresa Lukens, a possible indication that the continuing changes since Dick Haugen left have taken a toll on listeners. Haugen attracted 15 percent of the vote. Brett Bowers and octogenarian Bob Hough each gained 6 percent of the vote, while Dave Walker finished far back with 5 percent. Actually, an entry finished behind Walker. Only one of my Berry Pickers wants to see KXLY send out someone from its downtown Spokane office again. BTW, Candace Smith, an ad exec with KVNI’s parent company, KXLY, sent out a private e-mail Tuesday (which was forwarded to Huckleberries HQ by a Berry Picker) asking for suggestions re: changes the local station can make to expand its audience. You can tell Candace what you think by writing to her at CandaceS@ KXLY.com. But you need to do so by midnight today because she has a ha-huge meeting re: KVNI’s future with higher-ups Monday.

Trashing Tubbs Hill

Walkabout, another colorful character who inhabits Huckleberries Online, isn’t impressed with the trash that tourists and visitors leave behind on Tubbs Hill during the summer, particularly off the main trail, which is kept fairly tidy. Walkabout’s mission in life is to pick up after the litterbugs on her beloved hill. Recently, there was so much trash she had to take a break. It included: glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles and cups, diapers, fish in plastic bags, blankets, towels, shoes, cigarette butts, shirts, and shorts, flip flops, and doggie poo. Comments Walkabout: “None is this much fun to clean up but I like how much better things look when I do. I wish people would treat Tubbs like the special park that it is instead of a garbage dump and a toilet.” Bingo.

Huckleberries

A majority of the locals like tourists – somewhat. In a Hux Online poll, 39 percent said tourists make them realize how fortunate they are to live in North Idaho. Another 30.5 percent considered tourists to be a necessary evil to prod the local economy … BTW, you need look no further than a Hux Online poll last week to see how far out of mainstream Idaho are the Idaho Republican Party delegates who OK’d that plank calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment (which allows citizens rather than state legislators to pick a state’s U.S. senators). Ninety percent of my blog readers opposed the ridiculous Repub plank … Dan Gookin, a former Libertarian whose Republican pedigree has been questioned in the past, isn’t going to win friends among mainstream elephants with this quote in a OpenCDA.com comment: “Honestly, we have the largest collection of do-nothings in the legislature.” Also, Gookin considers the collective IQ of the Republican Legislature to be 80 or below … For those keeping score at home, embattled state Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, now tweets. I was one of his first five followers on Twitter. Five reporters and an enviro (Terry Harris of Kootenai Environmental Alliance) were among his first 10 followers. He now has 15 followers.

Parting shot

Councilman Mike Kennedy didn’t think much of the top-of-front-page play that the Coeur d’Alene Press gave Bill McCrory’s affidavit “scoop” in the never-ending Jim Brannon Coeur d’Alene election challenge case, stating for Facebook and Hux Online readers: “the bottom line is the claims are completely and totally irrelevant to the electoral lawsuit in the slightest. Aside from which they are false, defamatory, and politically motivated. Other than that, what’s not to love?” Me? I’m still waiting for the Press to treat state Rep. Phil Hart’s tax problems with the same passion as it does all things Brannon and against the Bloem administration.