“We are no longer in a crisis, we are in meltdown.”

– Kootenai County Undersheriff Tad Leach, telling county commissioners that other law enforcement agencies’ higher salaries in North Idaho and Eastern Washington make it hard for his office to retain patrol deputies and jail staff.

“No government official should ever be rewarded for misleading taxpayers, and the VA should not be handing out the most lucrative bonuses in government as veterans are waiting months and months to see a doctor.”

– U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Ariz., head of the Senate Veterans Affairs subcommittee, reacting to reports that officials in the Veterans Affairs Department received bonuses as high as $33,000.

“In the old days, when a cop told you to do something, you did it. Now (suspects) don’t not only not do what they’re told, they go home and whine to mommy and daddy if the officer touches them or does something.”

– Los Angeles County sheriff’s Detective Mike Bumcrot, quoted in a Spokesman-Review story as saying that a spurt of police-related shootings may result from social conditions law enforcement officers now face on the streets.

“Eileen’s probably talking to God;

and looking down on you and me;

and asking God in her own way;

‘Have you ever belonged to the NAACP?’ “

– Alice Moore‘s poetic tribute to her friend, Eileen Thomas, former head of the Spokane branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who died recently in North Carolina.

“It’s almost like we have had a death. I have had flowers sent to me and cards dropped off that say, ‘We know it’s a tough time for our small community.’ That’s the kind of attention we are getting right now from our parents.”

– Northport High School Principal Patsy Guglielmino, after a student at the Stevens County school was arrested in connection with a notebook in which he allegedly threatened to kill 20 to 30 people.

“I think I’ve gotten more techs from black refs than white refs. That’s reverse racism probably.”

– Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant, one of six black players in the National Basketball Association expressing skepticism about a paper in which a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell graduate student conclude that white NBA referees call fouls on black players more regularly than on white ones.

“A lot of people are saying it’s not enough to be pro-life, we need to be pro-children as well.”

– Michael Monroe, co-founder of an adoption and foster care ministry at Irving Bible Church in Texas, talking about a movement to encourage evangelical Christians to adopt children or become foster parents.