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Shawn Vestal

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Downtown police presence must not be forgotten in shift from STA Plaza

Remember the great downtown panic of 2013? A sense of desperation about hooliganism and visible homelessness reigned. Business owners complained about unruly crowds. Tales of aggressive panhandlers were told in the chambers of the City Council. STA Plaza crowds and skate rats were freaking out the gentry. A bar patron was sucker-punched on a sidewalk, and it was captured on video and replayed repeatedly on the TV news, becoming a symbol of a downtown that was dirty and dangerous.
Shawn Vestal
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Let’s flush panic out of restroom discussion

Maybe you didn’t know, but there is a group of people allowed in public restrooms who are putting women and children at risk. These people, for the most part, are law-abiding, decent, respectful folks. We should not demonize or taint all of them with the misdeeds of a few. But a few members of this group pose such a threat to children that prudence and common sense dictate we should not allow them into public restrooms.
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Two visions of Ridpath’s future still battling to take control of shuttered hotel

It is only natural that the long, strange trip that has unfolded over the past several years at the Ridpath Hotel would continue to get longer and stranger. Two potential buyers, each with much different designs for the building, have been vying in a Nevada bankruptcy court for ownership of a key piece of the long-closed downtown hotel – the tower floors with most of the hotel rooms.
Shawn Vestal
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Yuletide Moon last rose when ‘Star Wars’ first came to town

If there’s a break in the clouds tonight, go outside and look up: That big, bright, full moon doesn’t appear for Christmas very often. For the first time since 1977, we’ve got a Yuletide Moon. Only every 38 years does this happen – a full moon falling on Christmas. This year’s moon will be high in the sky overhead, and if the clouds give it any room to shine, it’s expected to provide an extra luminous glow.
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Preventing homelessness a worthy goal

Some 3,000 Spokane County kids don’t have a home of their own to go to after the school bell rings. About three-quarters of them are “doubled-up” – staying with family or friends, dangling dangerously near to living in a car or on the streets or in a shelter. The prospect of having nowhere to sleep is real, but not yet a reality.
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Idaho legal battles a financial boon to liberal causes

Here’s a delicious conspiracy theory. Idaho’s Constitutional Defense Fund – a taxpayer-funded account to pay for the state’s culture-war legal battles – is actually an elaborate, stealth operation to funnel money to organizations and attorneys supporting abortion, gay marriage and Occupy Boise. It is a secret strategy for Idaho lawmakers to finance the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and teachers unions.
Opinion >  Column

Shawn Vestal: Book fair at Mead school just part of data-driven effort to help kids

In December, Shiloh Hills Elementary School will have a book fair for kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders. Lots of elementary schools have book fairs, of course. But the Shiloh Hills fair represents new strategies in fighting old challenges of poverty and education – one in which schools, charities, businesses and public officials collaborate, combine resources and look to research and data in developing initiatives to close the “opportunity gap” among poor students and children of color.