Huckleberries Best of the Northwest — 9/29/05

Seattle catcher Dan Wilson is shown trying to apply a tag to Minnesota’s Shannon Stewart last year. Now, Wilson’s about to catch his last inning as a Mariner. See Item No. 4.

1. So, what do you do when a semi-naked woman and her PETA gang take to your downtown streets to protest a circus coming to town? If you’re Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark , you grab a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and offer them some. Read all about it here .

2. In a victory for indecency, The Oregon Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional today a state law against conducting live sex shows and a local ordinance regulating conduct of nude dancers here .

3. Reps from the Southern California town of Beaumont traveled to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, yesterday to thank the courageous Denny’s waitress who helped rescue 8-year-old Shasta Groene from the clutches of a registered sex offender and possibly to solve an old murder in their town here .

4. Dan Wilson , a long-time favorite of Seattle Mariners fans, will catch one inning at the start of Friday night’s home game against Oakland and then retire here .

5. Bill Gates , the world’s richest man, is finally earning $1 million per year from Microsoft here .

6. IMHO-NW: Robert L. Jamieson Jr. /Seattle PI ( War foes find their voice, but … ), Missoulian ( Montana open-container law ), The Daily Inter Lake ( Another disgrace for W.R. Grace ), Brandon Hanson /EWU Easterner ( What’s wrong with Spokane? ), and Martin Garcia /WSU Daily Evergreen ( Hard questions for WSP ).

Olympian Poll: 63% say Tom DeLay should resign his congressional seat after being indicted for breaking campaign finance laws.

*Billionaires are overrunning the resort town of Whitefish and other parts of Montana here .

*About 250 Idaho National Guard members in more than 100 vehicles rolled out of Boise for a month-long mission to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast here .

*Western Washington natural gas rates reach record level here .

Orbusmax provides the rest of the Northwest here .