Shawn Vestal

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Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: SkyRide naming decision shows just how far Spokane will go to monetize parks

Sun., Feb. 17, 2019

Does everything have to be for sale? Even the amenities in our cherished Riverfront Park?

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: The Legislature’s terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad public-records bill promotes secrecy, not openness

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 15, 2019

The members of the Washington Legislature are demonstrating, repeatedly and at great expense, that they simply will not abide by the spirit or the letter of the 47-year-old Public Records Act, which declares the citizens the owners of their government and which requires public officials to do their business openly.

News >  Spokane

Shawn Vestal: The miracle and wonderment of the ice crystal

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 12, 2019

It is often said no two of them are the same. It is also often said that given the vast variety of shapes they assume – coupled with the uncountable number of ice crystals that have fallen and are falling and will fall upon the earth – that it is impossible to make such a claim. That we should be humble about the limits of the knowable.

News >  Spokane

Vestal: Prop 2 ruling should be warning to politicians

Sun., Feb. 10, 2019

Lawmakers eager to water down Idaho’s voter-passed Proposition 2 should not forget the drubbing Brent Regan took at the state Supreme Court.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Cursory Google search would have caught red flags in Spokane school resource officer hire

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 8, 2019

An internal affairs report deepens the questions about how Spokane Public Schools hired a former deputy for a job at Ferris High School. Even if Shawn Audie was justified in his use of force to break up a fight at Ferris High School, the school district compromised itself by hiring him.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Latest crack in fight against vaccinations has officials and schools scrambling

UPDATED: Mon., Feb. 4, 2019

They call them nonmedical exemptions, and the resurgent measles virus loves them.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: City Hall bullying report underscores problems between administration and council

Fri., Feb. 1, 2019

A couple of months back, the city received the results of a “fact-finding report” regarding concerns of city staffers who felt they were mistreated, and possibly even bullied in violation of city policy, by members of the City Council.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The 100-mile rule runs contrary to reasonable searches

UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 30, 2019

In 1967, a Mexican citizen with a legal work permit was pulled over by Border Patrol agents on a California state highway.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: It’s not a shutdown, but Condon and the council have found themselves in quite the stalemate

Sun., Jan. 27, 2019

In his lame-duck final year, Mayor David Condon is testing the limits, acting in ways that, to some, seem more like a civic emperor.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Fears of minimum wage hikes ruining economy fall flat

Fri., Jan. 25, 2019

You may have heard, sometime over the past year, that minimum-wage increases in Seattle were an economic disaster – leading to job losses and cuts in hours that actually cost low-wage workers money.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Riccelli fighting for a nutritious plan

Wed., Jan. 23, 2019

Rep. Marcus Ricelli introduced a bill to create a “state fruit and vegetable incentives program” to help people living in or near poverty get their hands on healthier food.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: ‘Determinants of health’ can come down to the neighborhood

Sun., Jan. 20, 2019

Where you live can have a big influence on your health.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Tonasket mayor discovers there is such a thing as bad press

Wed., Jan. 16, 2019

Well, that’s one way to get your hometown some national attention.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Author Chris Crutcher bears witness for youth traumatized by school shootings

Sun., Jan. 13, 2019

Schools struggling to move past tragedy are right in Chris Crutcher’s wheelhouse: the places that combine his service as a therapist for traumatized kids and his career as an author of novels about the highs and lows of adolescence.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Rechecking the stats on pot and violence

Fri., Jan. 11, 2019

Has legal pot ushered in a more violent era in Washington? That’s the possibility put forth in a New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell, the popular science writer and lightning rod who frequently draws criticism for elevating the hints and possibilities of scientific research into absolute natural laws.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: It’s not too late for flu vaccine

UPDATED: Wed., Jan. 9, 2019

A century ago, as Spokane was welcoming a new year, it was also tallying the dead.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: The birth of Jesus reminds us we should provide shelter in our community

Tue., Dec. 25, 2018

And I’m hoping that we, as a community, as a people, can hold in our hearts a sense of their humanity, of our shared humanity with them, and not retreat from the duty to give them a roof and a warm space and the help they need with the problems that most of us – safe and cozy in the inn – can’t even imagine.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: McGrath says it’s a nice bridge, but…

Sun., Dec. 23, 2018

It is, George McGrath acknowledges, a very nice bridge – this span that he has pugnaciously insisted on calling the Bridge to Hookerville.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Hey Ben Shapiro, you think media exaggerate abuse by priests? Take a stroll to the Bea House at Gonzaga.

UPDATED: Wed., Dec. 19, 2018

Here’s an idea. Gonzaga University could invite professional conservative martyr Ben Shapiro to reprise the topic of one of his recent Daily Wire podcasts: Has Catholic Church Sex Abuse Been Exaggerated?

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Project in Spokane will bail accused low-level offenders out of jail in bid to even the field

UPDATED: Mon., Dec. 17, 2018

The Bail Project is intended to fight fundamental inequities built into the cash bail system, and perhaps help reduce crowding in Spokane’s perpetually cramped jail along the way.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Shea finds questioners in Poland more to his liking

Fri., Dec. 14, 2018

Good news, everyone: Matt Shea has found a couple of interviewers he apparently doesn’t consider too dirty, godless or hateful to answer.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Police union again undermines independent oversight by ombudsman

Wed., Dec. 12, 2018

The ongoing battle to achieve independent oversight over the Spokane Police Department – a value that voters in this city have supported overwhelmingly – is again being thwarted by the police officers union and compliant city administrators.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Homeless volunteers get to work through Goodwill Hope Works program

Sun., Dec. 9, 2018

Hope Works is run by Goodwill in partnership with the city of Spokane, Catholic Charities and the Downtown Spokane Partnership. The goal is to reach out directly to panhandlers, gather information about them and try to connect them to services that might help them get off the street.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: A thank you to regulators who nixed Avista deal

Fri., Dec. 7, 2018

Those of us who pay Avista to heat our homes owe a big thanks to Washington state regulators today.

Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Proposed rule changes in immigration policy don’t favor ‘huddled masses’

UPDATED: Tue., Dec. 4, 2018

Maybe it’s time to revise that slogan on the Statue of Liberty.