Column

This probably won’t surprise anyone, but I normally don’t keep tabs on who wins the Business and Professional Women of Wenatchee’s “Woman of the Year” award. Welcome to Exception Day.

Idaho’s legal bill for challenging a federal judge’s decision overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage has now topped $80,000. And that was before Gov. Butch Otter’s latest appeal to the 9th Circuit. In response to a public records request, Otter’s office released an Oct. 7 agreement with Washington, D.C., attorney Gene Schaerr to pay a flat fee of $10,000 for two specific legal briefs: one appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay, to keep its decision legalizing same-sex marriage in Idaho from taking effect; and another appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court for the same thing.

David Bond, whose father, Dick, was a longtime legislator from Washington’s 6th District, is one of many Idaho Republicans turned off by the current crop of GOP state and county candidates. In his latest Wallace Street Journal column rant, Bond boasts of his pedigree as the son of a Republican “troglodyte” who plans to “pull a straight Democrat lever come next month’s county and state elections.” Bond said he respects and admires Republican Gov. Butch Otter and his wife, Lori, “but the reality is that loonies are running the asylum.” Quoth Bond: “Never in Idaho politics has extremism so suffused Idaho’s governance.” Bond reserves his harshest words for the religious right, whom he portrays as “vicious” and pharisaical. He concludes: “Let’s toss the Pharisees out. If we have to replace them with Democrats, sorry Dad, so be it.” Unfortunately, Bond isn’t exaggerating about the lack of good Republican candidates in Idaho this fall, particularly Kootenai County. Tying one on

It’s OK to admit it. You have never had a desire to run for an elected office. But there is one particular aspect of political campaigning that strikes you as intriguing.

The Slice asked if readers had ever been kissed in a grain field. “Oh, yes,” wrote Susan Almeida.

It was always clear that for many, matrimony is a holy sacrament. Apparently, so is gettin’ hitched.

Maybe you have considered unplugging your TV as a way to give your life more depth, more meaning. That’s certainly an option. But there are several things you might want to take into consideration. For instance …

Today we celebrate the winners of my Sign Gripe Contest, which rewards readers for picking the most hideous examples of real estate infected by campaign signs. Before getting to that, however, I would first like to name the contest’s undisputed loser.

The sold-out crowd at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle erupted into cheers Sunday night when a small figure in a white hat strode onto the darkened stage. “This is the best day of my life!” my son Zach said.

Let me share one more of these and then move on to new business. “Many years ago, my mom and her sister were driving back from Seattle,” wrote Lea Sammons of Sandpoint.

Spokane’s new citizens commission charged with overseeing police complaints opened its first meeting with many of the dreadfully dull but important questions that government work is made of: scheduling meetings, deciding leadership duties, learning the ropes of Robert’s Rules of Order and the state public meetings law. But before the night was over, the Office of the Police Ombudsman Commission was already engaging serious issues, formally asking the Spokane Police Department to more thoroughly investigate two complaints, including one that has been the most significant point of disagreement between the ombudsman, Tim Burns, and police Chief Frank Straub.

This is a historic moment for Spokane government. It came with news that City Councilwoman Karen Stratton is running a marijuana grow operation with Chris Wright, her hubby and park board member, plus others.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. Society as we know it would cease to function in Spokane if all the grandparents disappeared.

Let’s talk about forgetting what’s on top of your car. “A few years ago we put our big, plastic car-top carrier on our car for camping,” wrote Karen Schiffner. “Upon returning from errands, I promptly tried to park in the garage again. It doesn’t fit. To make matters worse, I did it again a couple of years later. We no longer use that carrier.”

We journalists pride ourselves on being nonpartisan, except, of course, when we’re not. Like now, for example.

A friend up in Pend Oreille County saw the Slice item about relative humidity. She and her husband used to visit her parents in Florida. “By the end of our week there, my skin was so soft.”

A neighbor phoned Harry and Joyce Hansen with a warning. A big porcupine that had left some quills in his Great Dane was last seen headed for their 5 acres south of Liberty Lake.

Diane Folland has a pet peeve. “It seems no matter where I am or what I’m attempting to purchase, I’m apparently not shopping fast enough for someone.”

Washington lawmakers have decided that there really is such thing as a free lunch – as long as they don’t gobble more than a dozen of them per annum. This shocker of a ruling came this week from the Legislative Ethics Board, which, I believe, is part of Olympia’s larger Office of Contradictions in Terms.