In their words …
“Why are we fixing something that’s not broken when we have so many other problems?”
– Wayne Rounseville, executive director of the Children’s Home Society and a member of a panel of health providers who concluded that cost containment problems blamed by a county official on Spokane Mental Health were unsubstantiated.
“It was like Mayberry. Now it’s like Mayberry on acid.”
– Spokane tavern owner John Hiatt, a native of Livingston, Mont., lamenting the consequences suffered by his hometown after its aquifer was contaminated by diesel fuel from a BNSF Railway facility there.
“He’s spanking them and then he’s kicking them while they’re down. It’s kind of a bully thing.”
– Washington state Rep. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, criticizing Democratic colleague Hans Dunshee of Snohomish, chairman of the House Budget Committee, for refusing to fund a biotechnology lab Washington State University wants to build in Pullman.
“As adults, we are always a little behind what the kids are doing, but this happened at the speed of light.”
– Tom Hedrick, co-founder of the Partnership for a Drugfree America, reacting to a survey in which the non-profit organization concluded that millions of American teenagers abuse legal drugs they find in their family medicine cabinets.
“We must accept the burden of a bad decision that was made before us, pay the price, and move on.”
– Spokane City Councilwoman Mary Verner, explaining her vote in favor of a settlement in which Perkins Coie, the city’s former bond attorneys, will pay the city of Spokane $4.25 million to settle their lawsuit over advice in the River Park Square development.
“I think we are winning. I think we’re definitely winning. I think we’ve been winning for some time.”
– Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explaining during a Pentagon briefing that despite an increase in car bombings and other insurgent activity in Iraq, the United States is prevailing.
“We have a lot of little gang wannabes in this block.”
– West Central neighborhood resident Jo Ann Hoke, describing the area where a dispute among teenagers turned violent and resulted in the shooting death of one of them.
“I think there has been an editorial in every paper in the country saying this is wrong.”
– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offering her explanation for why House Republicans decided to reverse a controversial rules change that would have allowed them to prevent an ethics investigation of Republican Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas.