Column

Columnist Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman scoffs at the idea that Lake Coeur d’Alene is the “best damn thing” about Idaho. Two writers from the New York website Thrillist picked the crown jewel of Kootenai County lakes for their “best damn thing” list for each state. Barker claims that Lake Coeur d’Alene isn’t even the best lake in North Idaho. He prefers Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille. This from someone whose most talked about attraction is a 50-mile parking lot known as Interstate 84.

Another dreary, desperate day in Spokane. The skies are gray. Our hopes are dim and dimming. We wander listlessly, zombies scouting for vestiges of community, trying not to get robbed. There’s rust on the Ferris wheel, the carousel is closed, the streets are piled with the cooling bodies of the murdered…

The Zags are likely the smartest team to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Fifty-five years ago, senior editor Leonard Gross of Look magazine launched a 50-page spread about this region with the sentence: “The one great mystery of the Pacific Northwest is why all of us aren’t living there.” At that time, only 5.5 million people lived in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana). Back then, Northwesterners had an attitude toward newcomers that's much the same today: Let’s lock them out.

Forget dog whistles and go for something humans can hear, too.

The calls were immediate. Emails quickly followed. Now the stamped letters are arriving at our building on West Riverside. There have been a lot of changes to The Spokesman-Review over the last few months. We hear about them all. Almost instantly. Most have been met positively. Though we get an earful often enough. But nothing we’ve done to try to improve our newspaper has received the response that we got from the return of Dorothy Dean.

On July 4, 1890, the day after Idaho became a state, the soldiers at Fort Sherman gathered with the rough-and-rowdy residents of Coeur d'Alene for a parade and a day of picnics, games, swimming and fireworks. The festivities was held in a corner of the fort's property -- a place that's now known as City Park. Jon Mueller, a landscape architect and native son, has written a 200-page book, chock-full of photos, about City Park. It'll be published in early May.

If you had 100 different people take turns going down into your basement, how many of them would report that “There’s a funny smell”?

Gloria Ochoa-Bruck came to America as an undocumented baby. She went on to law school and now serves in Spokane Mayor David Condon’s Cabinet.

The Legislature’s joint budget committee finished setting state agency budgets on Friday, appropriating more than $3.4 billion for next year, a 5.4 percent increase from this year’s budget.

Still, graduates of the designated GU opponent have every right to root for their own school. And there’s always the charm that attaches itself to underdogs.

Doug Clark’s weekend getaway to Seattle with St. Patrick impersonator Tom Keefe ends in a questionable staged kidnapping.

Before you complain, please prove your vegetarian status.

Maybe a movie wasn’t the best idea.

Steve Green, 69, of Coeur d’Alene, agrees with a recent Huckleberries column. You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy. Steve grew up on a farm, near Weippe, Idaho, that didn't have indoor plumbing until he was 8. So he grew up peeing outside. And he sees no reason to quit now.

She may be otherwise occupied.

Cindy Hval became a Court Appointed Special Advocate, fulfilling a pledge she’d made 10 years ago when 4-year-old Summer Phelps died after being abused by her father and stepmother.

Twenty-seven years ago today, the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce thought it was a good idea to bring back hydroplane races to Lake Coeur d’Alene. Some thought at the time that the chamber was running interference for resort owner Duane Hagadone, who had tried to restore the controversial races to the lake. But there has only been one weekend of races since, in 2013. And there’s none planned for this year either.

So Coeur d’Alene schools Trustee Christa Hazel is in Las Vegas last week to celebrate her 17th anniversary and catch a Gonzaga basketball game at the WCC tournament. She was enjoying herself when she spotted a high-roller at the craps table with an excited crowd around him. As she approached, she saw that the gambler in the hoodie with the dreadlocks looked familiar.