Public Periscope

Gotta be quick in court

Looking down from the Spokane County Superior Court bench last week, Judge Michael Donohue listened as an assistant public defender entered a guilty plea for a client charged with assault. “Would that be an Alford or an Albert plea?” Donohue said, awaiting a chuckle. Or at least the drum roll that late-night talk show hosts get for their monologues … An Alford plea, courthouse habitues know, is a type of guilty plea. Marv Albert, the former NBC sports broadcaster who was the subject of a lurid trial last week, was the stuff of numerous courthouse jokes … Problem was, attorney Dennis Dressler didn’t get this one. Donohue called him over after the hearing and tried the pun a second time. Again, it went right past Dressler … “I got it a minute later,” Dressler confessed. “What with moving to a new house and a trial I’m doing, I just wasn’t all there.”

Why parents get gray hair

Half of all respondents in a national survey by the American Automobile Association guessed that drug addiction was the greatest threat to teens. Beeep. Wrong answer. Actually, the AAA reports, car accidents pose a much bigger danger … Young drivers are far more likely than older folks to crash their cars, especially during the weekend or after dark, AAA reports. The news is especially disturbing in Idaho, where 21 percent of the corpses pulled from crash scenes in 1995 were children. That compares to 14 percent in Washington … The AAA has launched a campaign to reduce the danger, by urging states to keep young drivers off the road at night and revoking the licenses of teens who drink and drive, even if they’re not drunk. It also offers an instruction kit for parents teaching their kids to drive … Available in book or on CD-Rom, the kit costs $24.95 for AAA members or $27.95 for non-members. It’s available at the three Spokane AAA offices.

Just a little off the top, please

Homeowners with chain saws aren’t the only ones who butcher trees in the name of “pruning.” County commissioners recently had to spend $8,000 to replace 30 trees at Pavilion Park near Liberty Lake … The young deciduous trees of various species took a beating during November’s ice storm. But the real blow came in May when a part-time parks worker hacked off far too much wood after being told to remove the dead branches … Twenty-seven of the 10-to 12-foot trees were salvaged and moved to Valley Mission Park. Pavilion Park got new trees in time for concerts that drew crowds this summer. Money for the replacements came from the proceeds from logging damaged trees at other parks.

Kudos due

Spokane County’s Public Works Department has been piling up the awards lately. It picked up two awards at the national City/County Communication and Marketing Association for its program to try to keep folks from running red lights, and another honor for the Argonne Underpass Opening, which was named Most Creative with Least Dollars Spent … The League of Women Voters gave it an award for the best education program on the Growth Management Act, and its exhibit at the Interstate Fair picked up a ribbon for Outstanding Commercial Exhibit.

, DataTimes MEMO: Public Periscope, published Mondays, is compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports. You can contact us at PO Box 2160, Spokane, 99210; or by fax at (509) 459-4582; or by e-mail at jimc@spokesman.com

This sidebar appeared with the story: HOT TOPICS Tuesday: The Hearing Examiner holds a hearing on the shorelines permit needed to build the Lincoln Street bridge, 3 p.m., council chambers of City Hall, 808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Wednesday: County Commissioner Kate McCaslin holds a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m., Liberty Lake Community Church, East 8th and South Garry Road.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by Jim Camden from staff reports