Hot Potatoes — 2/8/07

Pepper’s better half is helping to organize the effort to have a house built for Shasta Groene. See item below/Jesse Tinsley, Spokesman-Review.

* Cd’A Police chief search expanded: Carpenter intends to retire this year, but hasn’t set a date / Marc Stewart , Coeur d’Alene Press — I’ve known four police chiefs during my 23 years in Coeur d’Alene: the late Frank Premo, Dave Scates, Tom Cronin and Wendy Carpenter. Premo was hard-nosed and a casualty of the Ray Stone purge of the ‘80s. Cronin was a tad odd. The best were the two promoted from within: Scates and Carpenter. Any questions?

* ‘Home for Shasta’ gains momentum: Labor, materials, money donated / Taryn Brodwater , Spokesman-Review — Nothing will replace the loss suffered by Shasta Groene and her father, Steve, but this is a nice way to let them know that the community will always think of them.

* Could Idaho’s car registration fees go up 75 percent? / Betsy Russell , Eye On Boise — State Transportation Director Pamela Lowe and the ITD board seem to think that there’s something wrong that Idaho has one of the lowest vehicle registration fees in the nation. I don’t.

* Cop fired for lying after crash: Man also accused of using now-banned donkey kick / Jody Lawrence-Turner , Spokesman-Review — Hmm. A Spokane Deputy Dawg can give a barista a peep show of his privates and be protected by the civil review board. But a rookie cop gets dumped for lying about not wearing a seatbelt. He must feel as though he got donkey-kicked.

* Dual enrollment students lift NIC to record spring numbers / Linda Ball , Coeur d’Alene Press — The record number is even more impressive when you consider that College of Southern Idaho, the only other official community college in the state, dropped 6 percent this spring. Hat Tip to outgoing prexy Michael Burke and his NIC work hands.