Question: When it comes to sensitive topics like the plight of the mentally ill of Spokane, why can’t the newspaper keep the names of the people they interview for stories on mental illness anonymous?

Can’t you write about mental illness and use the HIPAA law to justify keeping identities secret?

How can people ever come to realize that mental illnesses are treatable, incurable, genetic or environmentally caused and visible on MRI and other medical machines if you refuse to write about them in a way that will protect the victims and their families from the ignorant in this community? Especially the county commissioners!

How about it? Do we have to live in the Dark Ages forever? – Margaret Powell

Answer: The HIPAA law does not apply to the newspaper and it would be wrong of us to cite it in declining to run names.

In general, newspapers prefer to put real names on real people for most stories. Real people help us explain problems and situations in a way that helps readers relate and understand. We will withhold names if there is an overriding reason – publication puts the individual at risk, jeopardizes their job, etc. And we don’t publish the names of juveniles in certain circumstances.

In the case of stories on mental health issues, the people we quote most often have given us permission to do so. There may be times when we publish names contained in official reports without permission, but that is in keeping with our responsibility to detail the daily history of our communities.

Personally, I think withholding names furthers the Dark Ages response to mental illness. Talking about such issues without shame is the only way we’ll ever educate the ignorant in our community. – Steve Smith, Editor

Is there voting information online?

Question: I received my mail ballot today (I am in a mail-only precinct). As I sit here at my PC attempting to get additional information about the issues and candidates on the ballot, I find that I am not able to find any information on The Spokesman-Review Web site.

If it is there it apparently is not conveniently located with clear and easy links. You could be serving a great public service if you had a page with clear and easy links for stories, articles, and endorsements for each election. – Harold T. Casstevens II, Greenacres

Answer: The link to our election coverage is near the top right corner of our home page. You’ll see “S-R.com 2005 Voters Guide” with a graphic image of a check mark, which links to this page. I hope you find what you need there. – Ken Sands, online publisher

Dorothy Dean cookbooks?

Question: Can Dorothy Dean cookbooks still be purchased? – James Sandy, Spokane

Answer: As it said in the recent article, although there have been ongoing discussions at the paper about putting together the best of Dorothy Dean into a new cookbook, it has never been done.

There was never really a Dorothy Dean cookbook, per se. What people refer to as the cookbook were actually the three-ring binders people used to collect monthly leaflets that were sent out to subscribers. About three years’ worth fit into each binder.

The newspaper does have all of the years of Dorothy Dean leaflets and recipes on file in our library, so we could search for a particular one for you to make a copy. But we don’t have any that are for sale.

If you don’t care which year or years of Dorothy Dean you get (they were produced from 1935 through 1983), you might try going online. The last time I checked there were a few binders for sale on the Web. – Lorie Hutson, food editor