Column

Today, Dave Keyes, of Sandpoint, manages a string of newspapers for a Billings, Mont., newspaper group. But 30 years ago, he was a rookie reporter for the Bonners Ferry Herald in need of a Diet Pepsi. His quest for the pop placed him at the wrong place at the wrong time, as he ended up looking down the barrel of a rifle.

Scott Jacob doesn’t really have a choice. He has to keep getting home delivery of the newspaper. You see, it’s important to his dog.

Bird’s eye view of home give mom a reason to worry.

Dana Freeborn suggested “Spokane Man” might have acquired mental superpowers when his brain reacted in a totally unexpected way to being jostled and jarred by driving on the city’s pothole cratered streets.

Former U.S. Attorney and current director of the Spokane Police Department Jim McDevitt should be aware that many people will not agree with his assessment on race and crime, and he should be ready to hear them out.

If your reality leans a bit more toward going to Rosauers for canned vegetables and watching “Jeopardy!” it could be that you suffer from lifestyle image envy.

Spokane made the list of America’s “coziest cities.” That applies to our politics, at least.

I’d like to go on record as being a friendly person. But, if one more stranger asks me “So, what are your plans for today?” my response may not be friendly. In fact, it may force me to permanently forfeit any future friendly awards.

Remember the great downtown panic of 2013? A sense of desperation about hooliganism and visible homelessness reigned. Business owners complained about unruly crowds. Tales of aggressive panhandlers were told in the chambers of the City Council. STA Plaza crowds and skate rats were freaking out the gentry. A bar patron was sucker-punched on a sidewalk, and it was captured on video and replayed repeatedly on the TV news, becoming a symbol of a downtown that was dirty and dangerous.

It’s time for an installment of Furry Talk, the interactive pets column that answers questions from Spokane area cats and dogs.

It says here that talking to your dog during walks isn’t the same as simply talking to yourself.

Doug Clark feels vindicated by published reports bemoaning the change to LED street lights.

Jon Ruggles, the Wallace man who complained about Confederate flags displayed on a pickup at the Shoshone County transfer station, continues to attract criticism in the public square. On Martin Luther King Jr Day, Ruggles saw two Confederate flag emblems on a vehicle belonging to a county employee, and complained to county officials. On Thursday, a Mullan woman defended the Confederate flag in a half-page letter to the Shoshone News Press and told Ruggles to go back to California

BOISE – Hundreds of people filled the state Capitol’s largest hearing room Friday morning to press for expanding Medicaid to help Idahoans who don’t have health insurance, reforming the state’s foster care system, raising reimbursements to Medicaid service providers and more. Medicaid expansion was by far the most-sought change, with people from around the state, many fighting tears, sharing heart-wrenching stories of their or their family members’ experiences with uncovered illness, both physical and mental.

“Being a bean counter, I look at it this way: Six round trips a year times two security screenings a trip (minimum) times five years = 60 screenings divided into $85 = a little less than 12 bits a screening. A bargain in my book.”

Valentine’s Day in Washington a perfect chance to swing your partner and do-si-do.

When it was discovered that Henry the therapy dog had gotten out, guests bailed on Susie Schmidt’s Super Bowl party and searched for the wandering basset hound.

Gavin Seim called it a miracle. But even if you don’t see the hand of the almighty in it, the live-streamed phone calls that Seim orchestrated from his Ephrata home with the holdouts at the Malheur bird preserve was an improbable, unprecedented and altogether gripping experience.

In the broader Air Force world, does the Spokane area still enjoy a four-star reputation as a retirement destination?