Idaho Voices

Maybe you made a New Year’s resolution to read more. Even though more than two months have passed since we flipped over the calendar to a new year, it’s never too late to follow through on a resolution already made or make a new one. Why not begin close to home with locally published books that focus on North Idaho? The Museum of North Idaho is well known as a repository of artifacts and collections that physically preserve the rich history of our region, but it is also a publishing house.

Today “Amadeus” – 2:30 p.m., Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave., Coeur d’Alene, (208) 667-1323.

BOISE – George Sayler taught government to high school students for 31 years, but when he arrived in the state Legislature eight years ago, he said, “I had a lot to learn.” He understood how the system worked. “But actually seeing it in effect – seeing the role of a committee chair to deny hearing a bill, or how personalities could affect the process, was a bit of a revelation,” the four-term Democrat from Coeur d’Alene said. “It made me more aware of the strategy that has to go on.”

At A Family Runs Through It, local blogger Phil Corless has had it up to here with negative stereotypes aimed at home schoolers. Phil is a home schooler. Also, Phil has talked to his two kids about stereotypes “and how unfair it is to label a person based on misplaced assumptions.” Seems that talk hit home with his daughter. Earlier this month, Phil was driving his kids down a residential street when he spotted three or four teens throwing rocks at a cat that was trying to escape up and over a wooden fence. Phil, who brakes for cat abuse, spun his van around and roared back to the scene of the crime. The punks scattered, Phil explained in a blog post, “like cowardly rats before I could even roll down my window to chew them out.” Watching from the back seat, Phil’s feline-worshipping daughter piped up: “That was really mean of them. They must go to public school.” Hats off to Junior

It has now been over a month since the last measurable snow in both Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. There is still a good chance that this year will go down in the records books as the least snowiest for both locations. In case you needed a reminder, the snowfall total for Spokane stands at 13.7 inches, with 17.8 inches for Coeur d’Alene. For comparison, snowfall in both Kansas City and Tulsa, has put them on the top five list of snowiest winters. In the Northeast, Philadelphia and Baltimore have seen their snowiest winters ever, even beating out snowfall totals in Anchorage as of early this month. Though snow is probably the furthest thing from our minds here in the Inland Northwest, there is an interesting site to check out snow statistics across the entire U.S. on any given day. Visit NOAA’s National Snow Analysis site: www.nohrsc.nws.gov/nsa/. From this site I was able to see that on the first day of spring, 27.2 percent of the U.S. was covered in snow, compared to 52.2 percent a month before. Interesting statistics for weather nerds such as myself!

For 03-21-2010

Filings from Feb. 22-March 1. Chapter 7 (liquidation petitions)

Coeur d’Alene D.A. Davidson, 608 Northwest Blvd., commercial, interior remodel, valued at $200,000.

For 03-21-2010

A Course in Miracles Study Group – Meets Wednesdays, 6:45 p.m. for musical meditation, then 7-8:30 p.m. at Unity Church of North Idaho, 4465 N. 15th St. (208) 664-1125. Brown Bag Bible Study – Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Community United Methodist Church, 1470 W. Hanley Ave. Bringing a lunch is optional. (208) 765-8800.

Story ideas We want to expand our coverage of North Idaho neighborhoods and we need your help. All you have to do is let us know when something is happening that affects your neighborhood. We’ll take it from there. Contact Jeff Jordan, Voices editor, 13208 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley, WA 99216 or e-mail idahovoice@spokesman.com.

COEUR D’ALENE – A spaghetti feed, raffle and auction will be held for Anthony Thomas-Estello on Monday at the Best Western Coeur d’Alene Inn, 506 W. Appleway Ave., at 6 p.m. Anthony was born in January 2009 with a rare vascular tumor on his face and neck. He will undergo surgeries at a children’s hospital in San Diego in April. The dinner and auction will help raise funds for his trip and medical costs.

Priorities. Ask anyone what their priority in life is and the answer most likely will be something that relates to the well-being of their family. For parents, many will say their top priority is giving their children the best upbringing possible – including a good education. But as I turned on the television to watch the Academy Awards earlier this month, I once again wondered what the real priority is in our country. I am continually amazed at the amount of money that goes into filmmaking and the salaries made by all involved in the industry. And what about professional athletes and the tax money being spent to build bigger and better stadiums?

Lakeland High School recently announced students named to the first semester honor roll for the 2009-’10 academic year. Students are listed by their grade level. Seniors

BOISE – Idaho lawmakers say they want to protect state colleges and universities from future state budget swings by creating a special reserve fund – though there’s hardly any money yet to put in it. The state Senate voted unanimously, 33-0, in favor of creating a “higher education stabilization fund,” to hold money deposited in good years to help see the state’s colleges and universities through down times. Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, the Senate sponsor of HB 544, said, “This is an idea that many of us wish we had come up with a while ago.”