Gary Crooks

I grew up loving football, frequently pedaling my Stingray to Skaggs to buy the trading cards. The drugstore had only the American Football League version, so I became an expert on those players. Ask 9-year-old me about halfback Paul Lowe, and I could tell you he was 6 feet 1 inch, 205 pounds, out of Oregon State. His running mate was Keith Lincoln, No. 22, from Wazzu. It was like flashcards, and I was a highly motivated learner. Hadl to Alworth. Parilli to Cappelletti. Lamonica to Biletnikoff. These were the lyrics of my childhood.

Rested, recharged and ready to hit the rumpus room. So grab some coffee – but not the barista – and let’s get started: “We voted on Monday night to have the House and Senate negotiate – and to delay the individual mandate and repeal the Obamacare subsidy for members of Congress – because if the American people have to bear the burden of Obamacare, so too should their representatives in Congress.” – U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers

When I was a teenager, I couldn’t wait to drive. I’d make any excuse to grab the keys. Low on milk? I’ll get it! Then I’d take the long way to the store, which ensured more time to be seen behind the wheel. Driving was cool, but it seems to be losing its cachet. At some point, we may need to adapt our licensing laws to this reality. Over the years, I’ve noticed that neighborhood teens were awfully casual about getting their driver’s licenses. Some waited until they were 17 and beyond. I thought it bizarre, until my son hit 15 ½, the age at which he was eligible for a learner’s permit. He, too, seemed disinterested. Whenever we practiced, it was at my urging.

“Boy, oh, boy.” That was a stock phrase for Jim Gintonio, who died of cancer last Sunday at the age of 65. You don’t know him, and it doesn’t matter, because this is about another illness.

News of former President George W. Bush’s stent procedure provides a jumping-off point to discuss a couple of health care issues. The clogged artery was discovered during a routine examination, which included a stress test. That’s interesting on two fronts. First, it’s unusual to have an annual stress test, which entails walking on a treadmill as cardiac functions are monitored. Second, the practice of stenting when patients haven’t reported pain or any other signs of distress is controversial. Bush apparently had no symptoms.

For politicians who are truly interested in attracting more businesses to the state, there’s compelling information to change the shopworn narrative that Washington is a high-tax, high-spending state. The Tax Foundation, a pro-business outfit, recently released a chart showing that only seven states slowed direct spending more than Washington from 2001-2011. In the West, only Alaska’s decade of austerity beat ours.

The headline on my last column was, “Play fair on Obamacare.” It’s naïve to think that will happen, but the dishonesty is still appalling. If this reform is so obviously horrific, why fudge the facts? That’s a question for Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, who chose to put out a misleading number on the price of premiums on the state’s health care exchange. Then the national Republican Party pounced.

Warnings of a train wreck for the Obamacare Express take me back to the early days of Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit that was tacked onto the health care plan for seniors (with the cost tacked onto the deficit). That bill narrowly passed at the crack of dawn 10 years ago, as the scheduled 15-minute vote turned into three hours, which is how long it took House Republican leaders to complete their unprecedented arm-twisting session. One of the final converts was then-Rep. Butch Otter of Idaho, who initially held out because the new benefit wasn’t paid for (unlike Obamacare).

To avoid offending local energy hogs, I’ll reference a study of a Swiss village that found 21 percent of households emitted half the town’s greenhouse gases. The authors of the study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, noted that the energy used to power homes and vehicles accounts for 70 percent of the greenhouse gases belched into the atmosphere, where it stays for a century or more. Most remedies are aimed at industrial suppliers of fossil fuels, but if we are to ever enact serious act global warming policies, we’re all going to have to take responsibility. That’s why a carbon tax makes the most sense, but I can hear the wailing already: Will ruin the economy. Will devastate the poor. Will impose a crushing tax burden.

With momentum clearly on the side of gay rights, some longtime opponents are scrambling to get on the right side of history. They were never for discrimination. No sir. They simply wanted to preserve marriage for one man and one woman. This revisionist position is embodied in statements like this, from U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who said in April: “I do believe this could be solved greatly by a civil union law that would give gay people the same rights as married people. I think we can solve this problem without undermining the very basis of marital law in our country.”

The American Medical Association has voted to consider obesity a disease in the hopes that this will spur more direct communication between doctors and patients. Plus, it might increase the pressure on insurance companies to pay doctors for having these discussions. It seems some physicians aren’t comfortable telling patients how to live, but if the discussion is about treating a disease, they’ll be more likely to weigh in. I got an email last week from a reader who wondered why doctors aren’t more aggressive in pointing out patients’ poor health habits. I’ve wondered the same, noting that I get more directives from dental hygienists and plumbers than any doctor I’ve ever had.

Community Health and Providence Health Care are squaring off over the $58 million medical park the latter is building in Spokane Valley. Normally, Providence would need a Certificate of Need before beginning construction, but the state has granted an exemption. So, it’s, “Gentlemen, start your bulldozers.” Except Community Health, the company that bought Valley Hospital and revived its fortunes, doesn’t appreciate Providence’s expansion onto its turf, even if it is an outpatient facility. So it has filed a legal challenge to the state’s waiver.

After the Coeur d’Alene City Council voted to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance that protects gay and transgendered citizens, Pastor Stuart Bryan of Trinity Church said he would advise parishioners to follow their consciences and break what he calls an unjust law. Easy for him to say. He wouldn’t be the one paying a $1,000 fine or spending up to six months in jail.

Politicians don’t care much about press freedom as a stand-alone issue. When they do express concern, it’s because it’s a handy cudgel with which to pummel political rivals. When the Pentagon Papers were first published by the New York Times, Republicans called the editors traitors and sought the imprisonment of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked them. When the warrantless wiretaps and secret prisons of the Bush administration were revealed, reporters and editors were beat up by Republicans for compromising national security. When the WikiLeaks secrets were published on the Internet, some conservative pundits called for death sentences.

Activists from Envision Spokane and Spokane Moves to Amend the Constitution successfully urged the City Council to put two initiatives on the ballot. Even Tim Eyman, the initiatives entrepreneur, showed up to make pro-democracy-sounding arguments on behalf of measures he would vote against if he lived here. Let the people decide! What could be more principled than that? It’s one thing if the issues are, say, red-light cameras and light rail. It’s quite another if the goal is to shrink the basic rights of others. Let’s turn to the history books to see why.

In the wake of the schoolhouse massacre in Newtown, Conn., Idaho’s lawmakers rallied to ensure that the state’s gun owners remained safe from government intruders. They passed four minor bills, because there aren’t many major changes left that could make the state more Second Amendment-y. “It’s getting hard for us – there’s no easy fixes anymore,” a vigilant state Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, said in April.

Come on down! You’re the next contestant on the “The Price Is What?” The first item is major joint replacement. The price for this procedure in Inland Northwest hospitals is: A) $77,553.

How many people does it take to persuade some Americans to change from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps? One. To understand the punch line, you first need to know about a recent study on environmental messaging, which was reported by The Atlantic Cities website. The research, which was recently published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, provides yet another glimpse into America’s polarization on just about any topic.

Spokane City Councilman Mike Fagan was sporting a “Let Voters Decide” T-shirt in a photo that ran in Thursday’s edition of this newspaper. Did he decide to be consistent and allow two proposed initiatives to be placed on the ballot? Did his citizen activist colleague, Tim Eyman, persuade him to drop his “father knows best” attitude? Because Fagan is part of an outfit called Voters Want More Choices, what choice does he have? Well, there’s always the political two-step, and it looks like he’ll go with that.

Before last week, I had never fired a handgun. However, I did attend military school in seventh grade, where I had to handle an M1 Garand, the semi-automatic rifle that Gen. George Patton called “the greatest battle implement ever devised.” I say “had to,” because I really didn’t want to after they warned of “M1 thumb.” To insert the ammo, your thumb enters the chamber. If you don’t pull the bolt back far enough, it can release and smash into your thumb. Anyway, I joined some newsroom colleagues at Sharp Shooting Indoor Range and Gun Shop last Wednesday to learn more about guns and blaze away. I practiced with a 9 mm Glock, which is safe to load, but I was still wary. Dave McCann, a local businessman and firearms aficionado, was my trainer. He detected my flinching and instructed me to concentrate on the squeeze of the trigger and the target, not the coming sound.

Heartless. Immoral. Thief. There’s a lot of names you could call Jeramie Davis, but murderer isn’t one of them. The Spokane man was sent to prison in the 2007 porn shop death of John G. “Jack” Allen, though the DNA evidence on the murder weapon, a baseball bat, pointed elsewhere. Subsequent DNA tests revealed another suspect, Julio J. Davila, who was convicted of the murder, and the judge agreed to vacate Davis’ murder conviction and 40-year prison sentence. It should’ve ended there, but Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Dale Nagy had a hunch Davis was still involved, so he pushed for a new trial.

Alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana. If we could do it all over again, which of them would a rational society place off-limits? Each year, Alcohol kills about 75,000 Americans. The massacre of Connecticut schoolchildren was certainly horrifying, but do you recall the 1988 Kentucky tragedy when a drunken driver killed 24 students when plowing into a school bus?

Fear can be a rational emotion that saves your life, or an irrational demon that ruins it. The strong reaction to the fatal shooting of alleged car thief Brendon Kaluza-Graham demonstrates that fear in Spokane is widespread. But is it warranted? In 2008, a similar shooting took place in Seattle. From his apartment balcony, Douglas Sheets saw three people trying to break into his car, so he got his rifle and returned to his perch. When the thieves saw him, they fled. One of them, Jhovany Hernandez, was carrying a large subwoofer he had taken from Sheets’ car. Sheets trained his sights on Hernandez and ordered him to stop. He said a fleeing Hernandez turned back and appeared to reach into his waistband. Sheets pulled the trigger, and the bullet struck Hernandez in the back of the head, killing him.