“Liberty Lake is the rich people on the other side of the river. We are the redheaded stepchildren.”

– Otis Orchards resident Carole Stansberry, speaking at a May 15 hearing on tax incentives sought for the River District Revenue Development Area, which straddles the Spokane River north of Liberty Lake.

“There was an earthquake happening here for months. I’ve got a huge hangover, and I’m carrying some baggage.”

– Tom Power, managing partner of the Fernwell Building, which is next to the empty spot where, after years of off-and-on historic preservation efforts, the Rookery and Mohawk buildings now have been leveled, apparently to make way for surface parking lots.

“Slaughtering little babies is not going to bode well for these agencies.”

– Spokeswoman Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign, predicting Montana state officials will reap adverse publicity if they resort to killing 300 bison – 80 of them new calves – that officials say pose a disease threat to commercial livestock if allowed to roam free.

“All Iraqis live in violence. They are sick of it, and al-Qaida overplayed its hand in the murder and intimidation campaign.”

– Maj. Gen. Walter Gaskin, commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq’s Anbar Province, saying sectarian violence being perpetrated by insurgents is costing al-Qaida the grip it recently had over civilian sympathies in that area.

“We like the United States of America, but we do not like your Waschbaeren.”

– Kassel, Germany, resident Dieter Hoffman, expressing his feelings about the raccoons, or “wash bears,” that Nazi leader Hermann Goering imported from America in the 1930s and that are now overrunning parts of the country.

“He does come up with some good ideas, and he likes to stir the pot, and in this case it’s definitely a pot that needs to be looked at. I wish it hadn’t been stirred so radically.”

– Spokane City Councilman Rob Crow, after fellow Councilman Brad Stark touched off a flurry of public comments by announcing his support for asking voters to raise property taxes.

“It sounds ridiculous, but you feel guilty that you’re back home safe.”

– Army Maj. David Rozelle, 34, who lost a foot to a land mine in Iraq but returned to combat and conducted reconnaissance operations as before.

“It’s fiction – cooking the books – and the river is going to suffer.”

– Center for Justice attorney Rick Eichstaedt, criticizing federal consideration of a plan that would set discharge limits in Washington as though the Spokane River were a new stream where it crosses the state line rather than one already carrying a heavy load of contaminants from Idaho polluters.

“I think it is positive, and the U.S. president’s speech makes it clear that no one can avoid the question of global warming any more. This is common ground on which to act.”

– German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host of this week’s G8 summit, reacting to a call by President Bush for a new global framework, instead of a planned U.N.-led process, to address greenhouse gas emissions.