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Gary Crooks

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Reform earns bad ratings

Let’s say there’s a movie critic with his own business reviewing films. His business is publicly traded, so he relies on shareholders. He is also reliant on studios to provide him sneak previews, so that he can hold forth before the general public sees the movie. Let’s say that he honestly assesses a few duds and some studios threaten to cut him off. The critic would lose market share and shareholders would begin to grumble. What now? Well, when the next stinker arrives, he proclaims: “Dazzling! Amazing! Rob Schneider has outdone himself this time! Oscar will come calling!”
Opinion

We interrupt this news …

Barbara Walters is a pioneering journalist who has anchored the evening news and traveled the globe interviewing heads of state, so it is fascinating to discover who she thinks is fascinating. She also provides another example of how the lines between news and entertainment have been erased to the detriment of journalism. Either that or I wouldn’t know fascinating if it danced up to me in a Lady Gaga get-up.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: Cutting containment carries cost

Not being a math genius, I have to wonder how Congress would hope to control health care costs by subtracting provisions that do so. A group of prominent economists doesn’t think this adds up, according to Time magazine’s Karen Tumulty. It seems in the horse-trading for votes, negotiators are emasculating some strong cost-cutting provisions that drew praise in the first place. So the economists drafted a letter and sent it to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. One change that rankles is delaying the recommendations of the Medicare cost-control panel until 2019. Another is changing the formula for when the panel can get involved. Initially, it was to act when the rate of Medicare spending outpaced overall economic growth, which happens routinely. The change would only trigger panel activities when Medicare spending growth outstrips the pace of overall health care spending, which is hardly ever.
Opinion

Who’s sounding alarms now?

Multiple investigations have opened due to the contents of e-mails swiped from computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit in Great Britain. The university is delving into the issues raised in the e-mails and has sidelined the head of the climate unit. The chairman of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said allegations stemming from the e-mails would be investigated. Penn State University said it would probe the work of one of its scientists, Michael Mann. Good. Many of the e-mails expose some bitter battles and possible collusion in avoiding public records requests. Getting to the bottom of that makes perfect sense. Transparency is wise.
Opinion >  Syndicated columns

Smart Bombs: McCain wastes a good idea

The debate over health care reform keeps getting wackier. The first amendment out of the chute in the U.S. Senate would protect Medicare from spending reductions, which are needed to help pay for the near-universal coverage plan. U.S. Sen. John McCain led the charge, noting:
News >  Spokane

Spokane’s leaner than the mean

The 2010 budget for Spokane shows that city government is comparatively lean. Some examples: Revenue per person in Seattle and Tacoma is $1,540. In Spokane, it’s $863.