Pictures from an expedition to the nation’s capital

WASHINGTON – Think of this as Mr. Spin Control goes to Washington – being embedded with a delegation of 51 representatives of five local Chambers of Commerce.

Listening to presentations by members of Congress, walking the hallowed halls of the Capitol, attending a fancy reception for several hundred friends of the Inland Northwest. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

The delegation list from the chamber reads like a regional Who’s Who of commerce, politics and academia. Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession, along with Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke and Councilman Brad Stark.

Executives from banks, from utilities, from hospitals, from real estate corporations. Rodolfo Arevalo, the new president Of Eastern Washington University. Gary Livingston, president of Community Colleges of Spokane. Four from Washington State University, including the head of the sleep and performance research center, Dr.Gregory Belenky.

They’re doing lots of research on sleep and performance standards for certain jobs, such as drivers, Belenky told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

“Do you study members of Congress?” she asked.

To protect and secure

In the post-Sept. 11 world, security in the nation’s capital is heightened.

Not necessarily consistent, but heightened.

Walking through a metal detector to enter a government building is de rigueur, but the process varies, even at different entrances to the same building.

Go in one door of the Capitol, and a guard will warn that all metal – coins, pens, foil gum wrappers – should come out of the pockets, and laptop computers out of their cases. Go in another, and the guard will shrug at a few coins in the pocket, and look offended that a visitor thinks his scanner can’t tell that’s a computer inside your case.

Show the driver’s license at some buildings, but not others.

Turn on the cell phone to show it works after it has been x-rayed at some entry ways. Grab it and go at others.

Most forgiving screeners are at the congressional office buildings, where constituents regularly bring in things to show or give their representative, and have to fit them through the scanners.

Toughest security, if measured by metal detection systems, is at Ronald Reagan National Airport. But that’s just seconds by air from the key buildings like the White House, Pentagon and Capitol.

I’m so blue

Expected guests at the key government buildings are issued white lapel stick-ons, with a name or room location where they are supposed to be.

But there’s a trick to the white stickers: walk outside with them, and they turn blue from the sunlight, so you need to get another one when you get back in.

Walking around in the Capitol or some other secure building with a blue tag means you’ve been outside, and somehow – don’t ask me how – got back inside without going through the metal detectors.

Which would probably bring security out of the woodwork in a heartbeat.

Making news

When long-time community leaders meet with their legislators, not much that qualifies as “stop the presses” news comes up. But there were things that were at least newsy.

The Washington congressional delegation had breakfast with Boeing Co. executives, and later reported the airline manufacturer was very happy about Monday’s announcement by the Air Force to start the process for buying new air refueling tankers.

Under those rules, Boeing’s major competitor for the new plane, Airbus, will have to disclose information about the subsidies it gets from European governments.

On a lighter note, Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Spokane, revealed that she has, in fact, set a wedding date with fiancé Brian Rodgers. It’s Aug. 5.

Good reviews

Among the presentations by the chamber delegation that drew the most interest from congressional staffers was Marshall Chesrown’s description of Kendall Yards, the development planned for the north bank of the Spokane River west of the Monroe Street Bridge.

It involved a major cleanup of contaminated soil in what the government calls a brownfield, he said. But it will be worth it for the views of the living units and the commercial offices and retail space.

Most communities in the region probably have an area they’d like to clean up and develop into a gem like Chesrown has planned, said Peter Fischer, chief of staff for Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo. Maybe they’d want to come and study it.

Jennifer Griffith, a Gonzaga University alum who serves as legislative director for Cantwell, had a more basic question: “Where do I put my name on the list for Kendall Yards?”