Public Periscope
Take your best shot
Last year’s hepatitis A epidemic appears to be over. But that doesn’t mean folks who received a vaccination can skip the second shot. The protection is lost unless the second dose is given within 12 months of the first, said Jan Palmer, clinical services supervisor for the Spokane Regional Health District. … Speaking of shots, vaccination critic Dawn Winkler reminds parents that the state cannot require immunizations as a prerequisite for attending public schools. Parents who think vaccines do more harm than good - or parents whose children are allergic to something in the shots - can get a “philosophical exemption” form at the health district or school. … Palmer said that’s true but warned that unvaccinated students must stay away from school for two “incubation cycles” if there’s an outbreak of an illness a vaccine can prevent. In the case of measles, that could be a month.
Buy George
A new portrait of the state’s namesake soon will be gracing the walls of the governor’s mansion in Olympia, just in time for the bicentennial of George Washington’s death. And it’s a Rembrandt - as in Rembrandt Peale, an American artist who reportedly was the last to paint George’s portrait while he was still alive. … The Governor’s Mansion Foundation recently bought the painting from a New York gallery to hang in the mansion’s drawing room. The painting is due to arrive next month, but about the time it gets here, so will Baby No. 2 for Gov. Gary and Mona Locke. … While the baby adjusts to its new surroundings, mansion tours will be suspended, so the foundation plans to take the painting on the road and raise a little cash. Stops in the Seattle area are being planned, and a visit to Spokane is being discussed.
Bye, George
The promise by a national term limits group to wage a multimillion-dollar campaign next fall has prompted a few national news stories about the election plans of Rep. George Nethercutt, the one-time poster child for the movement. The Spokane Republican congressman still hasn’t decided whether he’ll quit after three terms, but in the meantime, Democrats are floating a few names of possible candidates for the 5th Congressional District seat. … Three people mentioned recently all are Spokane attorneys - Mike Ormsby, Steve Crumb and John Allison. The last may be better known as a former news reporter for KXLY-TV.
Give the lady a worm
The Periscope Early Bird award for the 2000 presidential sweepstakes goes not to Democrat Bill Bradley, who already has been money-hunting in Seattle, or Republican John Ashcroft, who already has been in and out of the race. Instead, our citation goes to Tennie Rogers, a retired teacher and nurse from Tulsa, Okla., who is entering the GOP race for the third straight time. … The 71-year-old woman gets points for tenacity but wins the award because she is the first to send out bumper stickers. We suspect they are left over from her previous campaigns, but what counts is: She got them in the mail.
A consolation prize should go to former Vice President Dan Quayle, who got a bum rap as a “Miss Manners reject” last month when Pope John Paul II stopped in St. Louis. The original story - that Quayle became so flustered while meeting the pope that he slapped the papal back and told JP2 he was doing a fine job - received prominent play. A follow-up noting that the incident probably never really happened got short shrift.
Speaking of politics
An esteemed colleague recently noted that in the Spokane Yellow Pages, listings for “Political Organizations and Candidates” are followed by “Polygraph and Lie Detection.” Seems fitting, somehow.