Shawn Vestal

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News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: ‘Shock and disbelief’ after wildfire razes homes in Medical Lake

UPDATED: Sun., Aug. 20, 2023

When Mike and Stephanie Zappone left their home early Friday afternoon, they noticed a little smoke in the rearview mirror. It wasn’t a particularly unusual sight this time of year.

News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: Judges push back on claims that they’re releasing people because the jail is crowded

Fri., Aug. 18, 2023

When public officials lined up Monday to make a pitch for the $1.7 billion sales-tax increase to build a new Spokane jail and fund public-safety programs, one of their arguments was that judges are releasing defendants – including those facing “dozens” of new felony charges – because the jail is full.

News

Shawn Vestal: Spokane couple helps those suffering after Maui wildfires

Tue., Aug. 15, 2023

What they noticed first was the wind.

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News >  Local government

Shawn Vestal: A stray comment, a controversial figure, and the push for a homeless plan draws fire

Sun., Aug. 13, 2023

Four years ago, developer Larry Stone offered his cure for Spokane’s homelessness – and drove a wedge into the political debate about the issue.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: The corrupt underside of the age of the selfie thrives online

Sun., July 30, 2023

When the former editor of this newspaper, Steven A. Smith, was arrested and accused of purchasing pornographic images and videos of children, a disturbing fact stood out: The young victims appear to have taken and sold the material themselves, using Instagram as a marketplace.

A&E >  Dining

Shawn Vestal: One family, one restaurant, four generations

UPDATED: Fri., Aug. 11, 2023

Eddie K. Eng was born more than nine decades ago in the Taishan region of China, an area that historically produced so much emigration to America that it bills itself as the “First Home of the Overseas Chinese.”

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The tables have turned on Spokane in the tale of the bused-in homeless

Sun., July 16, 2023

There is a long-running fable about homelessness in Spokane that goes something like this: We are suffering from a crisis that has been exported from the urban hellholes on the coast.

News >  Higher education

WSU students had an early role on Titan project, years before implosion

Sun., July 9, 2023

A pair of students who were in the process of graduating in engineering from the school's Everett campus were involved in early planning for the company, but left in 2019, a school spokeswoman said last week. 

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Part of SPD’s resource challenge is the need to deploy more officers to calls

UPDATED: Sun., July 2, 2023

Last year, a whole lot of police cars filled my street one afternoon – six or seven units, including a K-9 rig.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Idaho web site presents mass killer as a defender of children

Wed., June 28, 2023

OK – who had “taking up the defense of a quadruple murderer” on their right-wing nut job bingo card?

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Team Cathy helps drive local politics, but mum’s the word

Sun., June 18, 2023

If the Cathy McMorris Rodgers machine is hand-puppeting some of the fund-raising, policy-making and PR ploys of conservative politics in Spokane city government – an undercurrent that was illuminated in detail last week in the Inlander – the question is: Why do the local politicians she’s helping tie themselves into knots to keep it quiet?

News >  Washington

Retired Washington judges call on Roberts to act on ethics

Wed., June 14, 2023

More than 90 retired Washington state Superior Court judges have signed a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts expressing “grave concerns” about revelations of ethical quagmires on the court and calling on him to take measures to preserve the court’s integrity.

News >  Education

Shawn Vestal: For elite young pianist, it’s not all about the notes

Sun., June 11, 2023

In the photograph, 11-month-old Jeslyn Cai sits at a piano, hands on the keys, eyes lifted toward the music.

News >  Idaho

Shawn Vestal: ‘A big deal for our little town,’ Athol opens its first sidewalk

Sun., June 4, 2023

ATHOL – If you’d seen the big, ceremonial scissors biting into the thick band of red ribbon, you might not have guessed what all the hullabaloo was about.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Once again, citizens need the courts to shut down legislative secrecy

Sun., May 28, 2023

A little more than three years ago, the Washington Supreme Court did its best to make clear what should have been obvious: state legislators are subject to the Public Records Act.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Religious leaders push back against hateful viral video

Fri., May 26, 2023

It was appalling, if not exactly surprising, to see a viral video of a “pastor” of a local “Christian” “church” calling for the execution of LGBT people.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Shawn Vestal: A referral to drug treatment is the first step on a long, complicated journey

UPDATED: Tue., May 23, 2023

James Tillett did not quit using drugs when he went to jail for three months.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Houston’s example puts permanent housing at the forefront

Wed., May 3, 2023

Among the lessons we might learn from Houston’s response to homelessness is the way that city clears camps.

News >  Nation/World

Shawn Vestal: Spokane seniors weigh in on age and the presidency

Sun., April 30, 2023

Ronald Reagan was invoked twice – in very different ways – during a discussion about age in politics last week among a group of Spokane retirees.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Accountability requires answers, not slogans

Wed., April 26, 2023

The accountability mayor held a press conference – backed by a Greek chorus of supporters, applauding her every utterance as if she were at, say, a campaign stop – to make it clear that she would not follow the city charter and investigate the police chief.

News >  Features

Shawn Vestal: Awaiting a very important call, Bishop with lung disease embraces the spiritual meaning in her diagnosis

Sun., April 23, 2023

Gretchen Rehberg, the bishop of the Episcopalian Diocese of Spokane, has had a constant companion in recent months: a small black backpack with an oxygen unit.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Next up for the anti-education ideologues — North Idaho’s libraries

Sun., April 16, 2023

How will we know when Idaho has been made great again?

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The shelter system faces deep problems, but Family Promise finds some success

Fri., April 14, 2023

Last year, as the Woodward administration moved toward opening a homeless shelter in an unsuitable warehouse halfway to Post Falls, I asked a local guy with many years of experience in homelessness about his view of the proposal.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Spokane judge’s ruling demonstrates all that’s wrong with Texas finding

Wed., April 12, 2023

The best way to see all that’s wrong with the Texas judge’s attempt to impose a national ban on the abortion pill is to read it side by side with the sober, serious ruling issued by a federal judge here in Spokane.

News >  Religion

Shawn Vestal: The pronounced shift away from mainline churches in Spokane continues

Sun., April 2, 2023

Kyla Scott always wanted to attend the same religious denomination in which she was raised.