Shawn Vestal

Bill Robinson is training for his 27th Bloomsday. Doing a little running on the treadmill. Working on his core. Fixing the crack in his beak …

Want to feel a little happier? Maybe you should simply act happier – or at least more outgoing.

When a trio of local legal experts – a retired judge, a former federal prosecutor and a longtime local attorney – examined the criminal justice system, they identified Spokane County’s Drug Court as a “pocket of excellence.” The court, which puts drug-addicted criminal offenders through a yearlong march of treatment and intensive oversight in exchange for a dismissal of their charges, drives down the recidivism rate and saves money – and should be expanded, the Spokane Regional Criminal Justice Commission concluded.

One obituary is a portrait of an individual. Several are a portrait of a place. The following represents a random sampling of some people who passed away recently in the Spokane area – a police officer and a nun, a business owner and a banker, a World War II hero and a Kaiser worker. These brief sketches have been condensed and edited from recent obituaries.

Do you know what marijuana smells like? How about bull manure?

If you think you understand “the” evangelical Christian perspective on gay marriage, you might want to read a letter Julia Stronks wrote and hundreds of people signed. Stronks, a political science professor at Whitworth University, was disappointed last month when World Vision, the Christian international charity based in Seattle, retreated from a new, welcoming attitude toward hiring married, gay Christians. World Vision first announced it would hire such couples – and then reversed course immediately, after an outpouring of complaints. Some 10,000 child sponsorships were withdrawn. Helping impoverished children loses its charitable luster, apparently, if some of a charity’s gay employees are married.

Public records laws are important tools for citizens to use in the battle against government secrecy and power. Anyone who has ever used them is familiar with occasional stonewalling and foot-dragging from public officials – just as they are familiar with the occasional harassing, burdensome requests to agencies from gadflies and journalists.

Pure, knee-jerk cynicism is exactly as simpleminded as pure, knee-jerk naiveté. And among the many things that have dripped toxins into the relations between the city and the police, this is a part – just one part – of the problem. A certain number of residents look at police officers and always see only demons. It’s Benghazi syndrome, an unshakable conviction of conspiracy in which all evidence contrary to the conspiracy can be simply considered to be part of the conspiracy itself.

Allarae Prigan has forgotten her whistle. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to shirk. Prigan is on crossing-guard duty at Audubon Elementary School, which calls for whistle, or whistle-like, notifications when she enters the crosswalk, when it’s safe for others to cross, and when she is leaving the crosswalk.

Does Spokane have a bad case of sprawl? Or is the condition in check? As the City Council, mayor and County Commission have engaged in the contretemps over growth policy – and the problems of vesting projects for development even while they’re being challenged – there has been an underlying assumption that this area, and the county in particular, has a sprawl problem. I have taken this line myself.

Whew. Uncertainty averted. Maybe. Probably.

An internal affairs investigation into the work of a Spokane County sheriff’s detective – who helped convict three men who were imprisoned for years before their convictions were thrown out – has found he failed to file reports properly, but clears him of the most serious misconduct accusations. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said the investigation was a thorough attempt to examine the claims made about Sgt. Doug Marske, who now heads up the department’s Major Crimes Unit. But it did not satisfy critics, who questioned the independence of the investigation, conducted by a longtime colleague of Marske, and who criticized the report for failing to interview a key witness who was allegedly coerced by Marske into not testifying on behalf of one of the defendants.

So here it is: Money-where-your-mouth-is time for the Spokane Police Department. Officers shot a robbery suspect to death on Wednesday night, right outside his front door. Chief Frank Straub described what happened in this manner: The man refused “multiple verbal commands” to drop his gun and comply with officers, and officers were “engaging” him both inside the house and when he emerged from the house. “At some point,” he said, officers feared for their own lives and the community’s safety, and shot the man.

Twelve years ago, Spokane seemed to be on the cusp of a war on poverty. In April 2002, the health district produced its first comprehensive report on the issue, showing that the city fared worse than the rest of the state on just about every measure. The report came at a time when many were talking about concrete ways of trying to combat poverty, as part an overall strategy to improve the community’s health. Not long after the report, Spokane Mayor John Powers convened a summit intended to put poverty into the crosshairs.

When Aubrey Shults landed in jail in January, it was the end of a long, sad slide. Her longtime boyfriend had left her, and Shults – a drug-addicted 38-year-old who has lived on Spokane’s streets since she was 14 – descended into a blizzard of self-destruction.

Idaho’s legislators and governor should – but most probably will not – pay attention to a new batch of statistics about gun safety in Washington. As accidental gun injuries rise, the most common age of those who unintentionally hurt or kill themselves or others is 22.

When Tom Westbrook’s children were young, and he had guests over – as he frequently did – he liked to call in the kids for a little performance. What, he’d ask, does the dog say? Bow-wow, his kids would dutifully reply.

The papal Spokane County Commission – which issues edicts and sends messages – is on the receiving end of a message, for once. The Spokane City Council took a big, fat swipe Monday at the county’s regular and intentional skirting of state growth management laws, closing the loophole through which commissioners push improper or illegal developments onto the backs of city taxpayers. In essence, the new city law blocks the county’s chess move of choice, in which commissioners expand the county growth boundaries without following the rules; developers quickly file plans that are immediately considered “vested,” or grandfathered in; and by the time the county’s moves are overturned, it’s too late.

Emily Languell filed her taxes as quickly as she could this year. She was behind on her car payment, phone bill and other expenses. She needed the refund. Before January had expired, she was at an H&R Block office in north Spokane. Because Languell – a 24-year-old single mother who works at McDonald’s – had not filed her taxes for two years, she wanted help. Expecting a refund, she brought along her bank account information to set up a direct deposit.

The members of the House Appropriations Committee were gathered, in one of those Capitol hearing rooms in Olympia, ostensibly for the purpose of gathering public testimony on legislative proposals. It was 10:45 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 10.

The Air Force said what? We have been assured – over and over again – by the institutional voices of reason that we cannot tolerate a new casino from the Spokane Tribe near Fairchild Air Force Base.

Who killed Don Foster? The question lingers, almost two weeks after the shameful, ugly spectacle of Foster’s death. Police are still looking for a gold or tan SUV – a Jeep or something similar – that smacked into Foster in the darkness of a Sunday night as he crossed Mission Avenue at South Riverton Avenue in Spokane. The driver of that SUV did not stop. Foster was then struck at least two more times by other vehicles, the drivers of which also did not stop.

When Karen Fritz retired from a career at Rosauers Supermarkets nine years ago, she began taking care of her aging mother. Soon, it became apparent her mom, Alice Newton, could no longer look out for herself. Her vision was failing. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Fritz moved in with her. It was a challenge, but it was also a joy, Fritz said. They planted a garden together. Fritz would put her mom in her wheelchair and take her out shopping.