Doug Clark

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Doug Clark: Corporal Clark talks cops, crooks, downtown violence

Sun., Feb. 2, 2014

Corporal Clark returns to address your concerns about cops, crooks and your odds of getting a black eye after dining out in downtown Spokane. Q: Wasn’t it terrible what happened to Bruce Palmer, the citizen who was attacked by street punks outside the Steam Plant the other night?

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Keyboard Cat halftime star of pup show

Thu., Jan. 30, 2014

I probably don’t have to remind you that Sunday might be the biggest sports day in Washington history. Most of you have already made plans to gather in front of the tube with your friends and your Cheetos so you can watch Spokane’s Keyboard Cat provide the halftime entertainment for Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl X.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: South Hill institution putting his mortar and pestle aside

Tue., Jan. 28, 2014

By the powers concocted by me, I hereby proclaim this day in Spokane – Jan. 28, 2014 – to be … Tom Stanley Day.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Taking in Billy Tipton’s legacy, 25 years later

Sun., Jan. 26, 2014

It all began 25 years ago with a tip from Spokane County Coroner Graham McConnell. “Clark,” he told me, “you’re not going to believe this, but …”

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Villainy lurks behind surge in Seahawks adulation

Thu., Jan. 23, 2014

We met in a downtown parking lot after midnight. The little guy wore an overcoat a size too big at least. His face looked like it hadn’t felt a razor’s edge in days.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: All the joys of farm life, without all the acreage

Sun., Jan. 19, 2014

It’s the Year of the Horse, according to the Chinese calendar. But here in Spokane, 2014 could be the Year of the Small Pig, Handful of Chickens and Maybe a Pygmy Goat if the new urban farming ordinances go into effect.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Race for sheriff is debate-intensive

Thu., Jan. 16, 2014

DOUG’S SHERIFF’S DEBATE DIARY: Wednesday, 4:57 p.m. – We’re an hour and counting away from OZ vs. ORR I, the first debate* between Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and his opponent, Douglas Orr, a Spokane detective with a Ph.D. in criminal justice.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Local CEO heads ‘Inequality’ showing at Bing

Tue., Jan. 14, 2014

It’s only natural to think about racial inequity on Martin Luther King Day. This year’s holiday in Spokane, however, will also give people a chance to think about unfairness of the economic kind.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Tales of a life spent dealing with death

Sun., Jan. 12, 2014

I couldn’t help but experience a phantom twinge when I heard that Dr. Robert West was including me in a book he’s writing about his many years as a deputy coroner and the coroner for Kootenai County. Dr. West did give me a vasectomy, after all.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: ‘Face of Spokane’ needs tattoo makeover

Thu., Jan. 9, 2014

I’ve never been so municipally mortified. With all the debate over gun control, I think it’s high time we also had a serious discussion about …

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Mix crack and pot and you have geologists’ Spokane Fault

Tue., Jan. 7, 2014

The city of my birth is once again being treated like the dopey kid who stuck his tongue to the frozen flagpole. We just can’t catch a break when our civic image is at stake, it seems.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Your yearly dose of Budnick quirk

Sun., Dec. 29, 2013

And now, for those who thought (hoped? prayed?) that the following impudence couldn’t possibly last more than, oh, 20 or 21 years, I bring you … The 26th annual Budnick Awards.

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Doug Clark: Couple’s hobby is creating trailer treasures

Tue., Dec. 24, 2013

The bare bones facts are simple and straightforward. Doug Johnson and Teresa, his wife of 35 years, have taken up the ambitious hobby of restoring and modernizing vintage travel trailers.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Elk’s new reindeer burger goes down in history

Sun., Dec. 22, 2013

Gather ’round, boys and girls. Uncle Doug has a Christmassy story to share about Santa’s most famous four-legged friend. You know, the one with the shiny red nose?

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Score your level of Christmas Chaos

Thu., Dec. 19, 2013

We’re less than a week away from that magical day when that Holly Jolly Fat Man makes his annual appearance. And for the record I mean Santa, not rare sightings of the county prosecutor.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Ombudsman Lite still lacking in flavor

Sun., Dec. 15, 2013

It’s a big moment at City Hall on Monday night as members of the Spokane City Council plan to vote on Mayor David Condon’s proposed ordinance about independent police oversight. Which essentially amounts to …

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: EWU grants mascot status for band fan

Thu., Dec. 12, 2013

Eastern Washington University’s Academic Senate passed a recommendation this week that I become the “official mascot” of the EWU marching band. I couldn’t be more stunned.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Cloud hangs over potential Davenport Hotel catchphrase

Tue., Dec. 10, 2013

Selling a product is always easier when it’s attached to an unforgettable slogan. “The Most Interesting Man,” we all know, drinks Dos Equis. Likewise, Coke will forever be the “Real Thing.”

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Mother Nature gave my EWU gig a chilly reception

Sun., Dec. 8, 2013

ICE STATION CHENEY – How cold was it Saturday at Eastern Washington University’s triumphant football playoff game? So cold the band couldn’t perform outside with instruments.

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: John Ahern’s recount strategy compounds big loss

Thu., Dec. 5, 2013

Nobility sometimes rises out of a crushing defeat. It’s our way of romanticizing lost causes like Gen. Custer’s futile last stand at Little Big Horn, say, or those brave Alamo holdouts, so outnumbered and outgunned.

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Doug Clark: Giving back to our meth-slingin’ felon star

Tue., Dec. 3, 2013

Ah, the holiday season, that traditional time of tinseled trees, pretty poinsettias and catching up with friends, family and … Felons?

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Professor Pilgrim weighs in on turnips, herbs and Apple bashes

Thu., Nov. 28, 2013

Cover your giblets, ladies and germs. It’s time for another edition of America’s favorite Thanksgiving Day advice column: Ask Professor Pilgrim. Before the professor starts addressing your concerns, we’ll take a moment like we always do to announce the following holiday closures:

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Eastern Washington football needs alumni band members

Tue., Nov. 26, 2013

Secret negotiations have been going on at the very highest levels of Eastern Washington University concerning my eligibility for returning to the EWU band during the football playoffs as a redshirt, I mean red-faced, trumpet-tooter. Which is to say that I called up Eastern director of bands Patrick Winters on Monday and left a voicemail message that, to paraphrase, was essentially …

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: It’s not just a truck, it’s a demon on wheels

Sun., Nov. 24, 2013

Today we pose the physics question … Can anyone recommend a good exorcist?

Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Cheering at Mississippi school added to JFK assassination horror

Thu., Nov. 21, 2013

I wasn’t surprised by the many responses I received following my Tuesday column on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which hits the half-century mark on Friday. If there’s one topic guaranteed to get baby boomers reminiscing, it’s the horror and heartache we felt after gunfire in Dallas turned the world upside down.