“My heart sank when we heard of these horrible men who claimed to be Muslims. They are testing us all. Testing our ability to retain that tolerance. I pray that they have not damaged the goodwill of our community.”

– Farhat Biviji, a founding member of the soon-to-be-built Anjuman-I-Fakhri Mosque in Cherry Hill, N.J., where three Albanian brothers are among those arrested in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to attack soldiers at Fort Dix with assault weapons.

“I never seen where those two combines went.”

– Salesman Terry Gaul, after pulling into a farm implement dealership to wait out a storm that turned out to be a tornado that leveled Greensburg, Kan.

“Who exposed what and how much varies depending on the person.”

– Washington State Patrol Capt. Jeff DeVere, about an internal affairs investigation of Trooper Mark Haas, who goes to trial next month on charges that he told a woman motorist and her passenger he wouldn’t issue a speeding citation if they would expose themselves.

“It is hard for me to imagine that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his garbage, but he does not have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in his body makeup”

– Chief Justice Gerry Alexander of the Washington state Supreme Court, asserting there is an inconsistency in last week’s ruling that DNA, like fingerprints, is not entitled to the kind of privacy protections that earlier rulings have established for the contents of trash cans.

“We own that art. I feel violated.”

– Chicago lawyer Corri Fetman, after city officials, citing a technical issue, ordered the removal of the law firm’s controversial billboard depicting a partially disrobed man and woman and the phrase, “Life’s short. Get a divorce.”

“I don’t believe in the tyranny of the minority.”

– Spokane City Councilman Brad Stark, explaining that while he opposes a camera-based red-light enforcement program, he voted for it anyway out of fairness to two other council members who favor the plan but were absent from last Monday night’s council meeting.

“You don’t want to penalize a parent because they’ve served their country. On the other hand … you don’t want to penalize the child.”

– Judge Dale Koch, president of the national Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, talking about situations when military deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan causes single parents to lose custody of their children.

“Like much of Washington, it turns out this is pretty dull stuff.”

– ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, explaining why his organization decided not to air the names listed in phone records turned over to the network by so-called D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

“Mr. Cover, for whatever reason, having done his research … found out the criteria of theft by deceit is very difficult for the state to prove. And indeed it is.”

– Spokane County Superior Court Judge Robert Austin, explaining that defendant Sam Cover was acquitted of 14 of the 28 theft charges against him because in those cases he did at least some work on the pole barns he promised customers.