“So it’s a case of, in essence, for future activities, how much can we afford to be losing?”

– Spokane County Fair and Expo Center Director Dolly Hughes, reflecting on lessons learned after the county went $107,000 in the red on the recent Orange County Choppers event held there.

“You don’t join the military just to blindly follow whatever orders you’re given. An order to go to an unlawful and immoral war based on false pretenses is no different than to kill innocent civilians.”

– Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who faces court-martial proceedings over refusing to go to Iraq and encouraging other soldiers to throw down their weapons.

“That’s what rural America is all about. No matter what happens, people want to help you without expecting anything back.”

– Agribusinessman Chuck Hughes, commenting on a threshing bee last Monday in Endicott, where neighbors turned out with trucks and combines to harvest the wheat crop of Marv Hergert, who died last month.

“There are so many things we do for the community besides criminal (work) that it doesn’t make sense to follow the criminals.”

– Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor, questioning whether all the county’s Superior Court departments should be relocated to a new criminal justice complex that county commissioners are considering building, probably near the airport.

“Literally 2,200 acres of the burning is what is in essentially a subdivision. I don’t know anywhere else in America where that would be allowed. That’s not prudent. That’s not safe.”

– Anti-field-burning activist Patti Gora, of Sandpoint, criticizing Idaho state laws and regulations that allow the region’s bluegrass farmers to burn crop stubble in the late summer.

“There’s no special red-carpet tax loophole for the stars.”

– Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson, noting that Hollywood stars who received gift bags filled with goodies said to be worth about $100,000 have to declare them as income and pay the appropriate taxes.

“In short, defendants have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”

– U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, in a 1,742-page opinion ordering tobacco companies to change the way they market cigarettes.

“We are optimistic, but it’s wait-and-see. We’ve been patient for nine and a half years, what’s a few more months?”

– Pamela Paugh, JonBenet Ramsey’s aunt, commenting as authorities continue to check out John Mark Karr’s claim that he killed the 6-year-old Colorado girl 10 years ago.

“You’ve just got to kind of lie to yourself a little bit – just say, ‘I feel good, I feel fresh, I’m not sore’ – and just get out there and give it my best and trust that the coaches are going to take care of you.”

– Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, talking about the rigors he and his teammates are enduring at preseason training camp in Cheney.