In the wake of the murderous May 19 rampage by janitor Jason Hamilton, Moscow officials are looking for ways to prevent a recurrence. One Lucky Girl, a pseudonym for a young woman whose family moved to rural Latah County years ago, sez they should go to the root of the problem by checking the hinterlands. “At any given time,” she comments on my Huckleberries Online blog, she could pick out from her high school steps “three drug dealers’ houses, two to three meth houses, and four to five people who constantly drive drunk. … But anytime a Latah County officer was called to do anything about it, it was swept under the rug.” She continues: “A known drug dealer, rapist, meth manufacturer, and child molester was on the streets from the time I was 12 until a year after I graduated high school.” One Lucky Girl opines that Hamilton was probably ignored as a troublemaker because he lived in a trailer court outside of Moscow. She concludes: “Things will only continue to get worse if they don’t start paying attention to the source, and most of the source is in all those little towns and the outlying rural areas of Latah County, (where) citizens are constantly overlooked.” One Lucky Girl’s theory on how to deal with the problem is as good as any I’ve heard.

Indeed, fame is fleeting

Your Comment Tater hears from a mutual friend that survivor Pete Husmann is tired of the publicity he’s gotten from the Moscow shootings. Two thoughts: Young Pete is lucky to be alive to tell his story after riding his bike into harm’s way with a pistol to duel mad-dog killer Hamilton. Secondly, he should enjoy his 15 minutes of fame because modern Americans have short attention spans. He’ll be forgotten soon … Was ex-Zag star Adam Morrison a boom or bust in his first NBA season? He finished second in scoring among NBA rookies. But he averaged only 11.8 points per game. Your call … French Fries (or “why are we so interested in Paris Hilton?”): 1. Anna Nicole Smith is gone, 2. We love self-destructing rich brats, 3. Prison stripes become her, 4. Princess Di’s gone, and 5. She’s proof that money and looks can’t buy your way out of jail all the time.

E-mails worth waiting for?

Golden Oldie: Hot Potatoes dedicates this golden oldie to Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and e-mail penpal Marina Kalani: “Tired of Waiting for You” (Kinks, 1965). (BTW, guys, congrats on delaying public access to your 1,060 e-mails for two-plus years. Soon, we’ll see why you fought so hard to keep them private) … So, Spokane Deputy Dawg Joseph Mastel flashes an Airway Heights barista and the Spokane County Civil Service Commission, with a judge’s OK, reduces his punishment from a firing to forced retirement? You can hear that hand slap from Coeur d’Alene … This edition of Hot Potatoes was brought to you by the No. 1. Or the percentage of Native Americans in the student body of the University of Idaho, between the Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene reservations. Or pathetic. The UI’s right to try to attract more Indian students.