JohnA; DFO & I Go Way Back

DFO and I go back exactly twenty years, when I went to work for Shirley Deitz. From there, we traveled through his research and copyrighted articles on Sheriff Merf Stalder and its implications when Tom Taggart ran against Mrs. Deitz. Then, at the city, it was with the Mayor for Life, the delightful Ray Stone, to the great contributions of Al Hassell, to the unfortunate Boy Mayor, who shall remain nameless.

Along the way, it became clear to me that DFO not only gives readers what they WANT to read, but also what they NEED to know, often the first to report it, or to comment on it. Of course, he often gave readers what they DIDN’T want to read, especially for those of us who cared for the well-being of his various targets, but nonetheless it was always relevant.

I hope the guy can keep it going, even when he’s attacked for providing the content he does. It’s not always easy to read, but it’s vitally important to the community.

John Austin /Punster Extraordinaire

DFO: I didn’t post out front to air John’s gracious comments (although they’re nice and I appreciate them). I posted it because of the history he’s discussing here. Few go that far back any more. John, obviously, remembers my original column that was called Kootenai Grapevine. And he had a front-row seat to one of my two ha-huge investigative articles that resulted in three incumbents being bounced from office over the course of two years. I never expected to ever be in one place this long, to establish such a history with readers. But I’m delighted that it played out this way.