D.F. Oliveria

The three Indian tribes behind Washington state Initiative 651 are trying to bribe and dupe voters into supporting unregulated gambling. They (the Spokane, Puyallup and Shoalwater Bay tribes) want you to think the measure will bring jobs and prosperity to the state's 26 tribes - and a little kickback for voters, too. But this harmful initiative will benefit just a few tribes, while opening Washington's doors wide for Las Vegas-style gambling and organized crime. That's why almost half of Washington's tribes oppose it.

If sinking miles of U.S. Highway 95 into a Bonner County bog isn't enough, the Idaho Transportation Department now is out to sink north Coeur d'Alene businesses. Actually, department officials have proposed to eliminate a left turn off Highway 95 at Haycraft Avenue - and possibly four other intersections nearby. But the plan would eliminate access to several businesses. And kill them. Why the proposal? Too many accidents, say the pencil pushers. In the past year, there were seven at busy Highway 95 and Haycraft. That's not many, though, considering the thousands of vehicles passing through that intersection daily. They include ones driven by locals like me who use that left turn to avoid congested Appleway. Send this one back to the drawing board. Idaho State Police has a bad idea, too And here's another bad idea: Some Idaho lawmakers are considering bringing back unmarked Idaho State Police cars. (As if motorists aren't subject to plenty of special traffic patrols and speed traps now.) We haven't seen unmarked cars since they were outlawed in 1979 after a politician allegedly was stopped by a trooper driving one. Said ISP Maj. Tom Thompson: "If you're not violating the law, you don't have anything to worry about." Right. And I wonder how many ISP troopers drive the speed limit after they have pointed their cruisers toward home. If the state police wants to make a greater impact on traffic speeds, it should run out a few more black-and-whites. That'd slow us down. Besides, a motorist would have to be crazy nowadays to stop at night for someone in an unmarked car. Fan mail from Helen Chenoweth U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth gave me both barrels for the "Hot Potato" on Tuesday questioning her honesty on campaign disclosures. I was commenting on an Associated Press report that she'd fudged on the rules by securing a bank loan without a guarantee. The Idaho Republican said she'd given West One Bank a personal promissory note to get the $40,000 loan after receiving her counsel's OK. In a letter to The Spokesman-Review, she wrote: "I have assumed personal responsibility for this loan, and I have been keeping current on the interest and have made significant payments against the principal. The fact is, that although some of my contributors are well-off, I am not a wealthy person, and neither are most of the people who contributed to my campaign. I felt strongly about the need to make a personal commitment to paying off the debt. That's how people do things where I come from. The plain reading of the regulations governing the loan reveal there is no illegal transaction."

Incredibly, Sandpoint businesses and residents are bellyaching about plans by the Festival at Sandpoint to shift half its concerts to Kootenai County next year. Where were these boo-birds when festival director Connie Berghan hunted vainly for support to keep the festival at Sandpoint's Memorial Field? Where were they when a handful of loud, angry neighbors persuaded the City Council to evict the festival from its lakeshore setting after the 1997 season? Where were they when Berghan and other organizers were breathing life back into the festival after years of red ink? If Sandpoint wants to keep the festival, it should pull together (for a change), quit its whining and do everything possible to save it.

Environmental agencies should provide second and sometimes third chances to commerce and industry trying to comply with their rules. But they shouldn't give fourth, fifth and sixth chances to callous polluters - corporate or individual. Violators, like pampered children, ignore environmental officials when threats are not backed up with strong enforcement. Schweitzer Mountain Resort, for example, has winked at warnings and compliance deadlines for the past four years as expansion work and rainstorms funnel muddy water into Schweitzer Creek and ultimately Lake Pend Oreille.

Eric Amodio might be alive today if Spokane had a curfew in place last year. In July 1994, the 15-year-old and three friends were bored about 2 one morning so they rode their bikes through Riverfront Park looking for excitement.

The usual suspects were out in force Tuesday in Coeur d'Alene to support our broken welfare system. And to trash a remarkable reform package forged by Gov. Phil Batt's bipartisan Welfare Reform Advisory Council. "The council has presented us a recipe for disaster," fretted Alan Wasserman, an Idaho Legal Aid Services attorney. "You're punishing the child for the parents' lack of responsibility," complained ex-Democratic legislator Barb Chamberlain. State Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d'Alene, had a knee-jerk reaction, too (but wasn't as quotable). Don't listen to them, though. This package offers the first real hope that the welfare monstrosity can be tamed. First, it limits compensation. Then, it forces the able-bodied to work, parents to assume responsibility for their pregnant teenage daughters and holds deadbeat boyfriends accountable. Basically, it seeks to transform welfare from the de facto entitlement it has become back into the helping hand it originally was. NIC committee didn't get buffaloed

We won't know for years whether Idaho Gov. Phil Batt made a pact with the devil Monday when he agreed to accept 1,133 more shipments of high-level nuclear waste into the state. History says he has.

There are four good reasons why the fourth coming of the One Percent Initiative will make the 1996 ballot and be passed: ex-Gov. Don Samuelson, Silver Valley millionaire Harry Magnuson, Coeur d'Alene property manager Jack Beebe and Kootenai County Republican leader Kathy Sims. In the past, most of the aforementioned wouldn't touch One Percenter Ron Rankin and his tax initiative with the proverbial 10-foot pole; in 1992, Beebe campaigned against it. But now, three of them are among about 100 supporters who have donated a combined $24,000 to help pass the measure. And Samuelson, a straight-arrow Republican, cheered Rankle'Em and his supporters recently by signing a petition during a Bonner County "taxpayer rescue." Now, Rankin has money to pay for signatures and far less opposition than he has faced before. Democrat Hollister needs to get a grip I can't understand why Democrat Buell Hollister objects so much to Kids Voting. He says such an exercise, which encourages children to accompany their parents to the polls, is one of many things that deprives them of their childhood. Apparently, my children are deprived. I've allowed both of them to share in the democratic process by punching my ballot (with my choices). My 9-year-old was thrilled to vote for Helen Chenoweth last year because she'd met the congressional candidate at school and had gotten her autograph. (Hey, some of you vote for candidates for worse reasons.) I'm for anything that encourages civic interest in young people - although this idea was founded by our rivals, the Coeur d'Alene Press. Which goes to show you that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

The United States faces a dilemma as federal law enforcement investigates a possible domestic terrorist attack against an Amtrak train. We need a strong FBI to infiltrate extremist groups. But the FBI has proven trigger-happy at Waco and Ruby Ridge and untrustworthy as top agents tried to cover up blunders after the Weaver shootout. Also, the agency has a history of espionage abuse that caused Congress in the 1970s, prompted by civil libertarians, to demand that its intelligence division be reined in. Under the guise of fighting communism, the FBI harassed and spied on such disparate groups as the Ku Klux Klan and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Teenager Danielle Muncey received a life sentence on June 1 - a split second after she had run a Post Falls stop sign. Now, she lives with the knowledge that she killed another person in a moment of inattentiveness. Worse yet, her victim, Christina Finney, was a popular student athlete at her high school.

Apparently, state legislator Lisa Brown of Spokane likes to do her arm-twisting in private. Recently, she backed out of a Priest River, Idaho, meeting on field burning after learning that the media had been invited, too. And that's not all. Brown, a Democrat and House minority whip, apparently reneged on a promise to help underwrite expenses for the meeting, according to organizer John Savage, who's out about $1,000 in phone bills. Meanwhile, Idaho state Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, met with Savage & Friends - though, as a grass grower, he was exposed to their criticism and local news cameras. Now that the field-burning summit has unraveled, legislators such as Brown and Meyer need to search for a solution to this irritating problem. That's hard to do, though, when a camera-shy legislator turns tail and runs every time someone yells, "Roll 'em."

This is the best of times and the worst of times to consider public financing for a new stadium for the amazing Seattle Mariners. It is the best of times: Lou Piniella's Boys of October captivated the Pacific Northwest with their "refuse-to-lose" miracle drive to the American League Championship Series. And the state has $700 million in surplus to help build a new stadium with a retractable roof as demanded by the ballclub's intractable owners.

A Borah High teacher deserved the reprimand he received for allowing a show-and-tell condom demonstration in his sex education class. Seems a Planned Parenthood representative used a wooden model of a penis to show high schoolers how to apply a condom. Now, that might not bother some of you "with it" parents, but this ol' fuddy-duddy believes such touchy-feely goofiness has no place in the classroom. In calling for Planned Parenthood to tone down its demonstrations, Idaho Family Forum Director Dennis Mansfield summed up my concerns: "Mothers and fathers did not send their children to school to have this kind of bankrupt 1960s philosophy impressed on their minds."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prides itself on being a cando organization. But for some reason it can't muster the will to try to save the world-renowned kokanee fishery in Lake Pend Oreille. The corps has yet to commit to a promising experiment, recently endorsed by the Northwest Power Planning Council, that would leave the lake level 3 to 5 feet higher than normal the next three winters. Idaho biologists say the extra water is needed to cover shoreline gravel, giving kokanees more places to lay their eggs.

He's called me and mine "murderers" for demanding that convicted killer Don Paradis be used as target practice; I've called him "shameless" for defending the Death Row inmate. And that's just one of several issues Coeur d'Alene Press columnist David Bond and I disagree upon. Field burning? He's thumbs down. I'm thumbs up. Thong man? Just the opposite. Still, it was fun Monday to share a platform with Bond at a North Idaho College "Popcorn Forum" on journalism. For an hour, Bond and I tried to justify to skeptical high schoolers why two of the richest men in the area pay us - two middle-aged former hippies - to tell you what we think. (Frankly, we can't figure it out ourselves, but we like it.) For a day, it was refreshing to drop the "them-against-us" mentality that fuels the North Idaho Newspaper War. The North Idaho chapter of the Idaho Press Club deserves Sweet Potatoes for organizing the event. (Of course, today's a new day - and another chance to kick Bond and those egg-sucking dogs from Brand X.) Chaney stands by his (Fuhr)man I made the mistake Tuesday of driving down Euclid Avenue en route to a jayvee football game between Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint high schools at Memorial Field. Now, I know where Mark Fuhrman's house is. Television crews and vans were everywhere slowing traffic and annoying neighbors. Meanwhile, Sandpoint Mayor Ron Chaney was lurking in the bushes threatening to have police arrest anyone who stood on the sidewalk or shined a light on the Fuhrman house. Chaney's done this before - with Q-6 reporter Tobby Hatley. But the nation's eyes were on the Fuhrman house Tuesday after the ridiculous Simpson verdict. It was a bad time for a meltdown by the mayor of a neat community fighting an undeserved racist image. Only 33 shopping days left till the municipal elections.

I once poked fun at Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce manager Pat McGaughey for suggesting that "Volunteers" be the mascot for the new high school. He wasn't talking about the rugged fighters for which the University of Tennessee sports teams are named. Nope. Pat wanted to honor this community's volunteerism. At that point, volunteers and fundraisers had given us a new senior center, library and cancer center. Now, you can add the Walden House, Rotary Bandshell and the Cultural Center. Thank goodness those who dared dream of a Cultural Center didn't know that it'd take seven years and $250,000 to make the project a reality. But it's done now, and another group of Lake City volunteers deserve a Sweet Potato. Still, Volunteers doesn't sound as good as Lake City Timberwolves. Or Vikings. Or Minimum Wage Earners, for that matter. Quit county government beauty contests The county clerk's office is one of several key positions that should be an appointed position rather than an elected one. Others include the offices of treasurer, assessor, coroner and possibly prosecutor. Too often those key spots are decided by a popularity contest. Kootenai County Assessor Tom Moore, for example, almost was beaten by a little-known Republican in last year's Republican landslide - despite the quality job he's done for nearly a decade. Now, Democratic Clerk Tom Taggart is moving over to become the county's first administrator, after getting his department in tiptop shape. Five Democrats are vying to replace him. Let's hope the three candidates forwarded to county commissioners by local Democrats are qualified and not merely political hacks. Then, let's consider a change in county government that will guarantee us quality clerks, assessors, coroners and treasurers at all times.

Coeur d'Alene tribal members are damned if they do, damned if they don't. On one hand, New York and New Jersey congressmen are trying to block the Coeur d'Alenes from staging a national lottery. On the other hand, a conference committee has recommended deep cuts - $205 million or 19 percent - in a Bureau of Indian Affairs budget that supports all tribal governments.

The 32 Lake City High School students busted Friday noon for trespassing on private property got what they deserved. Arrests. Handcuffs. And an all-expenses trip to "juvie" (where they were forced to lie down, face-first, when they became unmanageable). No landowner should have to put up with surly teens, smoking and loitering illegally on property clearly marked "private." The lack of respect the Lake City 32 showed for the wooded area across from the school was reflected in the abundant litter left behind. Yet, two angry parents had the nerve to call Principal John Brumley and complain about the bust. Seems those parents thought Coeur d'Alene police had overreacted to comparatively venial sins. After all, kids will be kids. And who cares if a couple of them occasionally rut in private outbuildings? Such tolerance for insolence turns my stomach. When did Fox become a tax-and-spend politician? Anne Fox's plan to pay for school construction by temporarily adding a penny to the sales tax has three problems. One, there's no such thing as a "temporary sales tax." Legislators are loath to give up revenue once they have received it. Next, incredulous voters have to ask themselves: Is this the same Republican who ran for Idaho superintendent of schools as a fiscal conservative? Didn't Fox, as a matter of principle, reject $448,714 in federal Goals 2000 funding before being overridden by the state Board of Education? (By the way, she was right on that one.) Third, Idaho's 5 percent sales tax is high enough now. If the Legislature truly wants to help local districts address building needs, it would lower the percentage needed to pass bond elections from two-thirds to 60 percent.

Environmentalists and the timber industry agree about as often as Halley's comet comes around. So, when the two sides are in harmony, people should pay attention - particularly U.S. Forest Service officials. Surprisingly, timber interests and conservationists agree that a stand of ancient red cedars at Upper Priest Lake is worth saving. Industry representatives fear they would face a public relations disaster if Riley Creek Timber Co. began hauling off trees, 12 feet in diameter and an estimated 1,500 years old. Said industry spokesman Ken Kohli: "Anybody with two eyes over the age of 6 would have to realize this is an ecologically unique place. ... Most people in the industry would say that's the kind of place that should be set aside."

The nation's taxpayers and several Northwest communities are harvesting the fruit of decades of polarized timber debate and environmental obstructionism: lumber-mill closures, layoffs and a subsidized bailout. In Colville, lack of timber supply and unfair Canadian competition has forced Vaagen Bros. Lumber to accept a Chryslerstyle bailout, which preserves 250 jobs. Federal taxpayers are fronting the $7.75 million loan package to keep the third-largest private employer in Stevens County afloat. Meanwhile, Louisiana Pacific has decided to close two mills and lay off 218 well-paid workers in Post Falls and Walla Walla.

The Legal Services Corp. casts itself as a friend of poor people, valiantly manning courthouse ramparts to protect them from illegal eviction, abusive mates, bill collectors, blah, blah, blah. And maybe some legal-aid beagles do these things - when they're not busy defending drug dealers from public-housing evictions, fighting to expand the welfare system, stumping for prisoners' rights, and harassing farmers and small-business owners under the pretense of protecting workers' rights.

In spring 1987, when Coeur d'Alene businessman Duane Hagadone took his greyhound-and-pony show to Boise to promote dog racing, legislators were assured the dogs would be treated well. Eight years later, those assurances ring hollow. Now, there's compelling evidence that greyhounds routinely are mistreated and slaughtered - sometimes callously. Trainer Larry Conarty, who calls Coeur d'Alene Greyhound Park "the Auschwitz of greyhound tracks," says he saw three dogs electrocuted for sport while trainers sipped beer, smoked marijuana and snorted cocaine.

What arrogance! A committee that could influence the future of North Idaho College athletics has decided to meet behind closed doors. Some committee members (sniff!) are too timid (sniff!) to speak frankly and openly about athletic spending (honk!). Spare me. Many of us (out here in the public that this committee is suppose to represent) believe certain forces are trying to torpedo the renowned athletic program. The closed door Tuesday adds to those concerns. Then, there are myopic residents who'd like to see NIC's baseball field converted into another parking lot. Both sides deserve to know what's going on. Shame on chairman Bill Nixon and the college for locking the public out. UI, BSU sing jailhouse blues

Hauser Lake property owner Garth Everett has learned a hard lesson during the last three years: The locals don't like newcomers shutting off historical access to North Idaho's waterways. Those who try generally meet stiff resistance. Unless they can produce clear title to such property, landowners deserve to be challenged. Every square foot of public access along North Idaho's waterfront is precious and worth fighting for. There's so little of it.