She couldn’t have been 5. Her face was painted like a tiger. There was a pink ribbon in her hair. She had just “won” a stuffed husky. It was too early to have a name picked out for the puppy dog, but the few being discussed indicated gender wasn’t going to be a huge concern.
In more than 150 years, just three women have served on the Idaho Supreme Court, and the three have some interesting insights into why that is, and what could change it.
Whatever your pet theory regarding school shootings, the events at Freeman High could satisfy it. Do you blame easy, continual access to guns? Check. Do you blame mental illness and a dearth of caretaking services? Check. Do you blame bullying? Check. Do you blame a violence-saturated culture of play violence? Check. Do you blame media coverage and the potential of a copycat effect? Check. Do you blame – with all the ease and comfort of hindsight – a failure to recognize and act on warning signs?
Parents filled the parking lot outside the high school, waiting for word, desperate for news. Texting furiously. Phones to their ears. Eyes wet, faces red. Hands over mouths. Some had heard from their children inside, and some had not.
In the annals of feuding you may recall the Hatfields and McCoys or the Capulets and Montagues. Soon historic records may include the tale of the Hvals and the Squirrels.
Randall and Steven, and people like them, represent perhaps the toughest frontier in the effort to combat homelessness – people who, for a host of reasons, remain unhelped, unhoused, un-“fixed”.
Last week, in a story set here, a national publication referred to Hillyard as a “suburb of Spokane.” As you no doubt know, it’s actually been a part of the incorporated city of Spokane for almost 100 years. But no matter.
When Congress quickly and overwhelmingly passed a Hurricane Harvey relief and government funding bill late last week, it did so with the backing of only half of Idaho’s congressional delegation.
They called it a “free speech rally.” A better description of the gathering at WSU’s Glenn Terrell Mall might have been “Alt-Right Melodrama,” starring Washington’s most famous bigot bro: James Allsup.
Thanks to our recent experience with Beijing/Mexico City air quality, we already know what will be the Northwest’s catch-phrase, if we make it to December.
