Over barbecue lunches, a group of Spokane social-service advocates gathered in a round room beneath the capitol rotunda recently to make their case that state budget decisions are putting vulnerable kids in real danger.

To illustrate that, they'd rigged up a couple of toy trains which, on cue, ran headlong into a ragdoll tied to the plastic train tracks.

And just in case anyone missed the point of who's driving those trains, the advocates handed out gifts to lawmakers, including blue-striped train engineers' caps.

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