The Falls: Top of the Morning

You can read Shawn Vestal’s Spokane blog, The Falls, here .

It’s Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007. There’s a new mayor in town. Mary Verner took the oath of office at a ceremony yesterday evening. “I submit myself in service to you, the members of my community, and I look forward to serving you as your mayor,” she said in her speech. We should all thank departing Mayor Dennis Hession for his time in a tough job, and wish Verner well. Here’s Jonathan Brunt’s story on the swearing-in.

Today in Your Sexy Government: It appears a two-pronged property tax strategy is shaping up for Washington’s legislative special session – put back the 1 percent tax cap, and allow low-income households to defer part of their taxes until they sell their home. It sounds like a dubious form of “relief,” but it’s being touted as such. Rich Roesler does the math here , and finds financial experts consider it a “trivial benefit.”

Someday this case will end: Several Idaho school districts have taken the long-running legal challenge over school funding to a new level – suing individual Supreme Court justices. The districts have won their case for better school funding in court but repeatedly failed to see any concrete change. Read Betsy Russell’s story .

Taking the deal: “It was up to Zack whether he wanted to flip a coin for his future.”

—- attorney Frank Cikutovich, referring to his client, Zack St. John. St. John was the only one of the Spokane 17 – the Fourth of July protesters who got into it with police – to face a felony charge, and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor Tuesday. Read Jim Camden’s story .

Weather: Again, cold with the possibility of snow. Here’s the five-day forecast.

The morning drive: Check the traffic and the most recent gas prices.

In passing: Sherwood “Woody” Jones, 81. “He grew up in Sprague, graduating from Sprague High School in 1944. After graduation, he was drafted for service in WWII. He served with General George Patton’s Army, 94th Division, in the Battle of the Bulge. He served in Europe for two years, returned to Sprague and attended Eastern Washington College. He met the adorable Miss Adams County, Sara Ann Cooke, of Ritzville in 1949, and they married five weeks later. They celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary this year.” For more of this and other obituaries, go here .