Column

That woman standing behind Michelle Obama at the first lady’s farewell speech last week looked familiar because she was Jeralyn Mire, the 2016 Idaho School Counselor of the Year, was captured smiling in several Associated Press photos and on TV during the emotional speech.

Mac McCormick, 72, is a true believer in his family, in paying cash, and in solar energy.

Coeur d’Alene Deputy City Administrator Sam Taylor was thinking dark thoughts about his Honda Civic after he got stuck in an unplowed Post Falls street just out of his driveway Monday. But he had no such thoughts for his boss, Coeur d’Alene City Administrator Jim Hammond, who dropped everything to pick up his snowbound assistant and bring him to work.

The one good thing about Snowmageddon is that it’s perfect soup and stew weather.

As the nation slowly stands down from its counterproductive and expensive war on marijuana, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has staked out a unique position.

Patrick Jacobs, the late, local restaurant reviewer, appreciated the gritty Lakers Inn on Coeur d’Alene’s Second Street because it was a throwback at a time when downtown bars were focusing on upscale customers. The longtime establishment was unpretentious and offered a strong drink for the money. Patrick didn’t even mind the prevailing cigarette smoke. What would he think now that Lakers has gone smoke-free?

Soemtimes change actually is for the better.

Doug Clark talks about his two-month absence for knee replacement surgery.

The Slice asked readers what they found in the wallet or purse of someone who had passed away.

Idaho state Treasurer Ron Crane has announced that he won’t seek re-election in 2018 to a sixth term, and will retire instead.

An individual’s pickup policy might actually be quite nuanced. What’s yours? Paul Turner asks.

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger provides a reality check for Huckleberries readers who are grousing about the small berms Coeur d’Alene snow plows have left across driveways this year.

After years and years of dependable service, seemingly ordinary objects can achieve the status of prized possessions.

When the governor announced that he would seek major tax increases to fully fund schools and meet other pressing state needs, he called it “bold.” You know what would have been more bold? To have told everyone before the election that he intended to be so bold after it.

Some of the warm comes from the cherished memories.

Huckleberries begins today with a word association game. You say: Tom Richards. Huckleberries responds: Snake Pit. Or Enaville Resort. You say: Snake Pit. Huckleberries says: Rocky Mountain Oysters. Testicles. And there’s even a hall of fame for those who have partaken of said Snake Pit delicacy.

And so the new year has begun. After the tumultuous year that was 2016, I think a good start to 2017 would be to look to the positive and focus on the happy – namely, chickens.

A preteen on a Christmas Day flight from Spokane to Portland didn’t get an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle that day – nor the glass of wine he ordered from an amused flight attendant working her last of six flights that day.

Did Cathy McMorris Rodgers actually vote to eliminate the ethics watchdog that gave her a big old bite in 2014? The answer seems to be: She would’ve if she could’ve.