Column

Before Rachel Dolezal became a punch line for late-night talk shows, she faced down six white supremacists near the western entrance to downtown Coeur d’Alene. The neo-Nazis were demonstrating against the annual Martin Luther King celebration for fifth-graders at North Idaho College. Rachel was bravely counter-protesting against the racists. All. By. Herself.

It’s no secret, what you’re doing.

Columnist Doug Clark imagines what a robotic version of himself might be like.

Funding for a justice reinvestment program to provide mental health treatment to newly released criminals was cut in half in the Idaho Legislature’s joint budget committee on Friday, and one North Idaho lawmaker tried unsuccessfully to eliminate it entirely.

Picture worth a thousand questions.

Future so bright, you gotta wear shades.

Relax. No need to be embarrassed. I’m not here to judge.

It’s a good thing there are science teachers in Idaho to stand between students and the designs of state lawmakers. Otherwise, they might be getting the kind of “balanced” view of climate change that some members of the House Education Committee would like to see taught. You know – the view that “balances” science with faith and guessing and polluter-funded research. Based on the resistance in the House, an Idaho Senate stripped the subject of climate change and the consensus scientific view of the human role in it from new science standards for students in public schools.

Bob Templin, the entrepreneur who launched two important water side resorts in Kootenai County, is remembered in many ways. Visionary. Mr. Hospitality. A good man. But the children near his Post Falls home remember him for being a kind man who gave out good candy on Halloween.

Sunnier climes, it seems, always come with a shocking price tag.

I saw something frightening inside Spokane’s River Park Square cinemas last weekend. Chilled me to the bone, in fact.

Shed no tear for Suzy the Elk. The erstwhile grand dame of the Coeur d’Alene Wapiti Elk Ranch on Rockford Bay Road is in better shape today than she has been in awhile.

I don’t know about you, but I get a whole bunch of unwanted phone calls. They are a scourge, though some have a certain black humor to them.

The mayor seems to have learned one very clear lesson from the Frank Straub debacle when it comes to the hiring and firing of top administrators. Too bad it’s the wrong one.

Geese aren’t the only strange birds that come in “gaggles,” according to Merriam-Webster. Reporters and photographers come in gaggles, too, because they fit the Merriam-Webster description of “a group, aggregation or cluster lacking organization.”

No challenge too big, no marmot photo misidentified.

Like the old “Poltergeist” movie, John and Deena Austin of the Medimont area realized during a walk along Lake Coeur d’Alene that “they’re heeeere.” The couple were hanging out at Harrison, Idaho, recently when they decided to grab a sandwich at One Shot Charlie’s. That’s when they understood that they weren’t alone.

The future is now. Or maybe not.

BOISE - The best thing Idaho can do for its kids, its workforce and its economy is invest in early-childhood education, citizens told a state senate committee last week. The array of presenters was diverse, including a longtime judge, a kindergarten teacher, the state’s lieutenant governor, a school superintendent and a bank chairman.