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Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: At the Supreme Court, the justices use the right word for torture

Sun., Oct. 17, 2021

When Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett referred last week to the actions devised and implemented by Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell on one of the most well-known of the long-term detainees in the War on Terror, she used a clear, simple, accurate word.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Kootenai County GOP gives thumbs-up to anti-Semitic carpetbagger

Fri., Oct. 15, 2021

What do you do when you hear that a dude who’s running for school board once claimed that it was a “mistake” to give women the right to vote or that women should not be allowed on social media?

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: In age of bully politics, school officials bear brunt of rage

Wed., Oct. 13, 2021

Debbie Long has been on the Central Valley School Board for 18 years.

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Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Mayor’s new shelter budget is a just one step, but it’s promising

Sun., Oct. 10, 2021

The good news is that Mayor Nadine Woodward has proposed building a new emergency shelter to address the number of people living on the streets and the possibility that an already-dire problem could worsen.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Million-dollar salary for WSU’s Schulz not what it seems

Fri., Oct. 8, 2021

In a time of financial sacrifice and falling enrollments, the latest news about Washington State University President Kirk Schulz was bound to turn heads.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: We shouldn’t need mandates, but we do — vaccines are how we put out this fire

Wed., Oct. 6, 2021

Maybe public safety just isn’t their thing.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The surge of ‘mini-insurrections’ reflects evolving pandemic extremism

Sun., Oct. 3, 2021

The images from the anti-mask demonstration run amok last week in Coeur d’Alene were too familiar for comfort.

Opinion

Shawn Vestal: The Greyhound sweeps will end — three years after the strong mayor let them go on

UPDATED: Sat., Oct. 2, 2021

The end of discriminatory fishing expeditions at the bus station is good news if you like civil liberties – though, frankly, if you like civil liberties you’re also wondering what in the world took so long.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Redoubt realtor wants only right kind of buyers

UPDATED: Thu., Sept. 30, 2021

The dream of an exclusionary homeland for the far right in the Inland Northwest has had a long and sordid history.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: Property crimes – an unfortunate hallmark of our civic identity – are steadily going down

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 27, 2021

Comparing year-to-date Spokane Police Department crime reports on the same date for the past five years - Sept. 11 - shows a 37% drop in property crimes.

News

Shawn Vestal: Conventional wisdom on hiring crisis isn’t holding water

Fri., Sept. 24, 2021

As the sun sets on the expanded federal unemployment benefits, it’s interesting to note how the conventional wisdom about the effect of these extra payments has panned out.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Tales from the COVID units, told by WSU-trained nurses

Wed., Sept. 22, 2021

After 12-hour shifts as an ICU nurse at an Arizona hospital, Jody Lund hears the relentless sound of a ventilator as she tries to sleep.

News

Shawn Vestal: The problem is the pandemic, not the ‘divisiveness’ of public health

Sun., Sept. 19, 2021

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who is fiddling like Nero as his state’s COVID-19 crisis rages, says he’s concerned that the president’s vaccine mandates will create “divisiveness.”

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Maybe Risch should have slept through this hearing too

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 17, 2021

Jim Risch, if you recall, fell asleep for about 15 minutes during the first impeachment trial of the last president.

News

Shawn Vestal: Twenty years later, indelible memories of a grim day in Manhattan

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 15, 2021

It was an earlier-than-usual morning on a perfect bluebird day.

News

Shawn Vestal: Caught in political stalemate, the street homelessness crisis worsens

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 14, 2021

On the question of the deepening crisis of homelessness, we’re now caught in a political Catch-22.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: GU report raises important question about Jesuit scandal, then skips an answer

Fri., Sept. 10, 2021

On Page 29 of the report issued by a commission at Gonzaga University charged with delving into the role of the university in the long-standing, but now ended, practice of sending retired Jesuit priests accused of sexual abuse to live at GU, there is an important question: “WHO KNEW WHAT WHEN?”

News

Shawn Vestal: Recovery from pandemic-related food crisis coming along slowly

Sun., Sept. 5, 2021

Lainie Woolway knows how to turn a nearly empty cupboard into a full meal.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Obituaries paint a portrait of a community

Fri., Sept. 3, 2021

One obituary is a portrait of a life. Several taken together form a portrait of a community.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Time and time again, researchers link mask use with lower rates of infection

Wed., Sept. 1, 2021

About one year ago, schools in North Carolina opened for in-person instruction. Some followed a program of strict pandemic protocols – strict mask wearing, distancing and hand-washing – and some did not.

News

Shawn Vestal: Idaho initiative ruling puts the people before the Legislature

Sun., Aug. 29, 2021

In the case of the Idaho Legislature versus the people of Idaho, the people won by a knockout.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: SPS board president used his gavel to stop circus before it could begin

Fri., Aug. 27, 2021

If there’s ever been, in the history of local government meetings, a more satisfying rap of the gavel than the one Jerrall Haynes delivered this week, I haven’t heard it.

News

Shawn Vestal: Our narratives often roar past the facts, but the Sturgis facts, again, are bad

Wed., Aug. 25, 2021

If it’s a pandemic August in South Dakota, it must be Sturgis time – time again to count the rising cases, watch the divergent narratives spin out, and reflect on the unshakeable persistence of belief over fact.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Populations continue to stall in rural counties, the Census shows, and Eastern Washington may be a prime example

UPDATED: Sun., Aug. 22, 2021

In 2019, the tiny town of Starbuck, Washington, updated its comprehensive plan.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Feeling oppressed by masks in schools? Here’s the perfect solution

Fri., Aug. 20, 2021

Memo to the freedom-loving patriots burning with rage about the tyranny of mask mandates in schools: I have some truly excellent news regarding your liberty.