They Didn’T Know What They’D Missed
A KXLY reporter and a photographer were covering the Kootenai County elections Tuesday when they tuned in the 5 o’clock news on rival Q-6. There, they learned a woman who had run down a Post Falls middle schooler last fall had agreed to a plea bargain. So, the KXLY pair raced to the closed courthouse next door and begged a bailiff to let them in. The duo pleaded that all they wanted to do was to talk to prosecutors. At that point, the bailiff asked if they knew whom they were looking for. “No,” the photojournalists replied as both deputy prosecutors assigned to the case marched out between them. Sorry, the bailiff said, the building’s closed.
Red tape
Recently, the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality sent out an S.O.S. at closing time, warning people to stay out of the St. Maries River. The sewage spill that triggered the emergency happened much earlier. But the bureaucrats had to run things through channels. First, the local office provided information for its Boise flack to write up. Then, the flack sent back a draft of a four-paragraph press release. Next, there was a fax malfunction. And yada, yada, yada. We got the news at 4:36 p.m., which is an hour later in the Kingdom of Ada. So, no one was around to explain the release except the local DEQers, who should have done so in the first place.
Edinger goes polling
Contrary to claims made by a Coeur d’Alene Press columnist Bob Paulos, Fort Grounds residents don’t mind living behind Memorial Field’s left field fence. Councilman Ron Edinger learned that factoid last week during an informal poll of homes near the historic softball diamond. Residents weren’t bothered by the lights or the occasional softball that bounced into their yards. And they certainly preferred a lush softball field in the neighborhood to a nondescript parking lot, the goofy idea proposed by Brand X’s opinion writer.
Summer fun?
Last Tuesday, Chairman Dick Compton asked several high schoolers attending the weekly commissioners meeting how they planned to spend their summer. One by one, they responded that they’d be busing tables or working at an animal hospital or waitressing. Evidently, Compton didn’t recognize the new IS-R reporter who’d covered several meetings and apparently didn’t look much older than the teens. Asked he: “How about you, young lady?” Well, she said, what I do this summer depends on what you guys do this summer.
Huckleberries (on parade)
The marching bands from Coeur d’Alene and Lake City high schools make the Fred Murphy Pioneer Days parade superior to the one on the Fourth of July … Which band was better? The 12-year-olds in front of me preferred the Lake City band. The music? Nope. It was the only parade entry that handed out candy … So many Shrine entries marched in this year’s Memorial Day parade that one viewer observed: “This reminds me of one of those water buffalo conventions that Fred Flintstone and Barney go to” … The “Moonshriners” float from the Spokane Valley provided a show, particularly Grandpappy Amos, who rode the parade route with the fly to his overalls open … Mayor Steve Judy preferred to glad-hand the crowd rather than ride in an entry bearing his name, causing viewers to wonder aloud if “that guy in the white beard” was CDA’s young mayor … My favorite entry? The one featuring Janessa Daum aboard her horse. By day, Janessa is an outfielder on my girls’ fastpitch team; by night, she’s an Idaho O-Mok-See princess. Saaa-lute.
Parting shot
There’s a reason Councilman Ron Edinger is grinning these days. The Coeur d’Alene School District custodian is hanging up his dust pan June 12. At age 62 (as of May 22), Ron now has one short-term goal: to collect at least one Social Security check (although Huckleberries hopes he’s around to cash in a heckuva lot more).