Public Periscope
At least there aren’t any campaign ads
The election isn’t over for folks who live in three small Spokane County precincts where voting is done by mail. … Elections officials who stuffed the envelopes forgot to enclose ballots for precinct committee chairs. A judge gave the county permission to mail out the ballots last week, and the votes will be counted Tuesday. … The unopposed candidates are Democrat Charlie Greenwood in City Precinct 343; Republican Curran Dempsey in Plaza 089; and Republican Lorene Harris in Southbank 181. While the three could serve without an election, that would disqualify them from voting in statewide elections for leaders of their respective parties. … Harris is the wife of county Commissioner Phil Harris, by the way, and it was the commish who caught the oversight.
Reading through the lines
Before releasing paper copies of two Spokane County employees’ e-mail messages to reporters last week, a county attorney used a Magic Marker to black out everything he considered personal. Since the story involved sex, many who saw the bold lines of black ink - covering perhaps 1 percent of the e-mail content - assumed what was underneath was all steamy stuff. … But personal doesn’t always mean scandalous. A line blacked out on one page was found unedited on a duplicate page the attorney apparently missed. Its content? A planner was confessing that - brace yourself - her father is an engineer.
Near the end of a Kodak Moment
Tom Hopkins spent years trying to develop the camera repair program at Spokane Falls Community College, but nothing seemed to click. At least not until this newspaper exposed his decision to end the program for lack of students. … The class has 14 students this fall, one of the biggest groups in years. Only four students were enrolled last spring, said Hopkins, SFCC dean of professional and technical education. … The college is sticking with plans to end the program, but camera repair instructor Charles Bertone will continue teaching through fall 1999 so the new class can complete its training.
At the Vu, pubic is public
We’re betting that the county inspector who wrote about code violations at the Deja Vu strip joint meant to add an “l” to the eighth word of this sentence: “Arcade booths do not open to the pubic room …”
Black ink
County bean-counter Marshall Farnell told commissioners the county will end 1998 with an $11 million budget, higher than expected. The surplus was a dangerously low $517,000 in 1995, but hit $4.5 million a year ago and has been climbing steadily since then. … There are a lot of reasons for the increase, but they basically boil down to increased revenue and tighter purse strings. … The county spends more than $200 million a year, but about half of it is state and federal money earmarked for specific projects.
And while we’re making bets …
We’d wager that the scientist who wrote a salmon story for Western Outdoors magazine in October taught at Western Washington University. The magazine reported that John Palmisano is a former fisheries biologist for Washington State University in Bellingham.
It’s too late …
To drive over Cayuse and Chinook passes in Washington’s Cascades. The two avalanche-prone routes closed for the season last week, after storms dumped more than three feet of snow.