Shawn Vestal

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News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: From downtown developer to federal convict, the fall of Ron Wells is stunning

Wed., May 1, 2019

A superstitious person might wonder if there’s a curse on the Ridpath Hotel, whose history has been marked by saviors who turn out to be con men.

News >  Spokane

The question still follows GU President Thayne McCulloh: Did he know? Some are certain that he did

Sun., April 28, 2019

In recent months, a refrain has arisen from many people who live, teach and study at Gonzaga University: There’s no way Thayne couldn’t have known.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: GOP needs to rid itself of Matt Shea

Tue., April 23, 2019

Guardian report suggesting Rep. Matt Shea supported surveillance of protestors should be enough for the GOP to push Spokane Valley legislator out of its ranks.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Catholic Charities takes heat for its low-barrier housing, but closer examination of Starbucks ‘patrons’ tells different story

Sun., April 21, 2019

Most days, a group of people gathers inside and out at the Starbucks coffee shop at Second and Division – one block from the gateway to the city off Interstate 90. A person might drive by and think:

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Years of citizen effort has brought Expo ’74 butterfly back to Riverfront Park

Fri., April 19, 2019

For the first time in decades, a steel-framed butterfly towers above the north-bank entrance to Riverfront Park.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: School layoffs and renewed push for higher local taxes show school funding far from fixed

UPDATED: Wed., April 17, 2019

After our local school district has revealed it will lay off hundreds of employees if it is not rescued – now, somehow, we are again considering the very money-generating mechanism that the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in the first place: raising local levies to cover a budget shortfall.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The ‘Not Nadines’ have a point about lack of coverage of their Spokane mayoral campaigns

UPDATED: Mon., April 15, 2019

When Nadine Woodward announced she was running for mayor, local media covered it as a capital-B capital-D Big Deal. When most other candidates announced, not so much.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Union reps’ push for private negotiations reason enough to raise questions against such secrecy

Fri., April 12, 2019

An officer of the Spokane firefighters union – representing the men and women whose paychecks constitute a large portion of the city’s budget – says, unsurprisingly, that transparency in labor negotiations would be a bad idea.

News >  WA Government

Shawn Vestal: McMorris Rodgers plays both sides too much, even for the president

Wed., April 10, 2019

When Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers arrived at Trump Tower in December 2016 for an interview with the president, the envelope full of media clippings ‘detailing various times McMorris Rodgers had spoken out against him’ likely wasn’t what she expected.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Tax breaks are the weapon Boeing uses to mug Washington state

Sun., March 31, 2019

A mugging.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Idaho lawmakers inexplicably keep demanding Medicaid work requirements

Fri., March 29, 2019

Even though Idaho citizens voted by initiative to expand Medicaid after years of legislative resistance, legislative resistance has not gone away.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Homelessness isn’t a singular problem. So why do we treat it as such?

Sun., March 24, 2019

We don’t have

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Hoax chiseled into Whitworth history

Wed., March 20, 2019

A pair a students at Whitworth College etched an elaborate hoax in stone that captivated historians and the press for months during spring 1942.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: A parent makes the choice, but it’s not their consequence alone

Sun., March 17, 2019

As the Washington Legislature considers tightening up vaccine requirements for kids entering public schools, anti-vaxxer opponents have taken up the argument that it’s a simple question of parental choice.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Gonzaga’s College Republicans left empty-handed by conservative Ben Shapiro

Fri., March 15, 2019

The College Republicans at Gonzaga University deserved better from Ben Shapiro. Or at least from his bookers.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: ‘Constitutional sheriffs’ who reject new gun laws are a threat to democratic principles

Wed., March 13, 2019

A number of county sheriffs from Washington are declaring themselves monarchs who will decide which laws to enforce, rather that public servants sworn to enforce laws passed by the people.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: 61 percent growth in WSU students over past 30 years is nothing compared to 861 percent growth in administrators

UPDATED: Mon., March 11, 2019

A lot has changed at Washington State University in the past 30 years, but nothing quite like the number of administrators.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The state slow-walked horrific abuse reports and three children will pay for a lifetime

Fri., March 8, 2019

The system is failing three children at the center of an abuse case that one nurse called “child torture.”

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: If kids in Idaho want attention from the Legislature, they should point a gun at a federal official

Wed., March 6, 2019

If children in Idaho are looking for love from the Legislature – or simple protection from zealot parents – they’re not going about it the right way.

Opinion >  Column

Less than 13 years into a 20-year sentence, family of Linda Strait is fighting to keep her killer behind bars

Sun., March 3, 2019

On a May afternoon in 1983, a man asked two 8-year-old girls outside Trent Elementary to help him look for the keys to his car. He then pushed the girls into the car and drove off. One of the girls escaped; the other was raped and choked repeatedly, then left for dead in a wooded area.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Cathy McMorris Rodgers cast principled vote in opposing Trump’s emergency declaration

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 27, 2019

She’s not in leadership anymore, but Cathy McMorris Rodgers just put on a one-vote exhibition in how to lead. By example. By doing the hard thing, rather than merely saying the easy one.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: Legislature considers sales-tax refunds for Washington’s poor

Wed., Feb. 27, 2019

When compared to the tax-paying woes of the rich, the tax-paying woes of the poor get too little consideration in Washington state.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: For Spokane man, years of family mystery ended abruptly with DNA testing

Sun., Feb. 24, 2019

Don Sullivan has seen this photo most of his life, though the woman was always a mystery to him. When he was a child, growing up in the Los Angeles area, his parents told him it was a photo of his Aunt Betty. Thanks to DNA testing, Sullivan has solved many mysteries of his birth family, including about the woman once known to him as “Aunt Betty.”

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: ‘Bribes’ to opt out of sex ed are a lousy use of federal dollars

Fri., Feb. 22, 2019

Let me get this straight: Federal funding is being used to pay $20 “rewards” to Spokane teenagers who skip sex-ed courses and take an online abstinence course instead?

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Risch the loyalist could take a lesson from the lineage of Idaho’s outspoken senators

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 20, 2019

Idaho has brief, though deep, history of electing senators who distinguished themselves as truth-tellers and swimmers-against-the-tide while chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Now comes Jim Risch. One wonders what kind of legacy he will leave.