Idaho Voices

Post Falls High School Class of 1959 – Aug. 11. Picnic potluck dinner is 5 p.m. at Q’emiln Park Pavilion, 408 N. Spokane St., Post Falls. Contact Susan Neufeld Meyers at (208) 773-9120, (208) 262-6378 or susancmyers@gmail.com. Coeur d’Alene High School Class of 1989 Reunion – Aug. 21-22. Check-in at noon Aug. 21 at Coeur d’Alene City Park. Register, purchase tickets and see more details at http://1989chsreunion 20.myevent.com.

BOISE – One of my favorite Idaho reporting anecdotes is about the time I called then-Gov. Phil Batt’s press secretary, Amy Kleiner, and a voice that clearly wasn’t Amy’s answered, saying, “Amy Kleiner’s office.” It was Gov. Batt. Well, it just happened again. I put in a call to Mark Warbis, communications director for Gov. Butch Otter, and a voice that didn’t sound like Mark’s answered, “Hello.”

Earlier this month, we had a debate within the newspaper about whether Century 21 owner John Beutler was enough of a public figure to warrant a print story re: his arrest after his two-vehicle crash at 3rd and Walnut. Alcohol was alleged to have been a contributing factor. The S-R thought so and printed a short story. The Press didn’t. The Merry Hucksters at Huckleberries Online thought so, too. In a Friday poll, they ranked Beutler, who is one of the nation’s top Realtors and a regular contributor to local charities, No. 6 in a poll of nonelected, nongovernment VIPs in the Coeur d’Alene area. Duane Hagadone easily captured the top spot. And there weren’t surprises in the Nos. 2 through 5 spots either: 2. Marshall Chesrown, 3. Charlie & Susan Nipp, 4. (tie) Tony Stewart and John Stone. Rounding out the Top 10 were: 6. Beutler, 7. Tom Addis, 8. Jim Elder, 9. Gary Norton, and 10. (tie) Steve Meyer, Duane Jacklin, and Mary Souza/Dan Gookin. Bottom line? You need to behave yourself if your name is on that list. You don’t want to attract unwelcome headlines. Healthy hazard?

Filings from July 2-9. Chapter 7 (liquidation petitions)

COEUR D’ALENE – The Barnyard Market will be open at the Meadow Ranch Fridays from 2 to 7 p.m. through Sept. 4. The ranch is located west of Fred Meyer in Coeur d’Alene. The market offers earth-friendly specialty foods.

Coeur d’Alene

For 07-26-2009

This week Living Water Camp Meeting – Week-long services Aug. 9-14, delivered by preachers from all over the country. Sunday services at 8 and 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Weekday services at 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Post Falls Baptist Church, 1608 N. Spokane St. Nursery care provided for children up to age 5, free dinner each weekday at 5 p.m. (208) 773-5870.

Coeur d’Alene High School announced students named to the second-semester honor roll. Students are listed by grade level. Seniors

BOISE – Although neither the incumbent governor, Butch Otter, nor a major Democratic challenger has yet announced, the 2010 Idaho governor’s race is shaping up with a plethora of candidates. Among those who’ve filed initial paperwork so far:

Mother Nature is playing by the book this month, bringing some of the hottest temperatures of the season right on schedule. The last week of July and first week of August are climatologically the hottest times of the year. Though average highs (a 30-year average) for the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area are in the upper 80s, the threat for triple-digit temperatures is usually looming toward the end of the month.

Today Carl Rey and the Blues Gators (Blues) – 2 p.m., Dover Bay Marina, 651 Lakeshore Ave., Dover, 263-6139.

Health care is on everyone’s minds. Turn on the news and nearly every newscast has a report on how the new administration is going to reform our health care system so that every citizen has access to affordable medical care. But for many there is no time to wait. Just walk by the offices of Panhandle Health District in Sandpoint on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The line begins to form at 5:15 p.m., and each person there has a story. They are people seeking help with medical issues, prescriptions and referrals to specialists, and each hopes to be one of the eight patients the volunteer doctor will see that evening.

Several years ago, I unwittingly found myself blacklisted by the former owner of the Olympia Restaurant. My roommate at the time had written them a bum check, and Mr. Olympia was not going to mess around when it came to settling the debt. The phone calls started, sometimes waking me at the crack of dawn. “Hello?” I’d croak, and Mr. Olympia would be on the other end, carrying on angrily in a thick Greek accent. “You a thief! You bring money or I call police! I put you in jail!” I’d explain to him that I had nothing to do with the situation. Either he didn’t understand or he didn’t care, threatening me with “you bring my money today or I call you over and over” before hanging up.