Blogroll

Jan. 15 – The Rockstar Outdoor Classic was a wild success off and on the ice for the Spokane Chiefs.

Not so much for the Kootenay Ice. The first-ever Western Hockey League game to be played outdoors, before a standing room only crowd of 7,075 at Avista Stadium, was an 11-2 romp by the home team, just hours after the Ice had registered a 6-2 win in Cranbrook, B.C.

Jan. 14 – During a public meeting Tuesday in Spokane attended mostly by hunters and anglers, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department Director Phil Anderson was asked why the state isn’t more aggressive about killing wolves.

Anderson explained the recent federal court ruling that returned the gray wolf to the endangered species list. He said gray wolves were under federal jurisdiction at this time, leaving states few lethal control options to manage wolves.

To that, a man in the audience blurted out, “Why don’t we shoot some legislators?” Several people gasped. Anderson stood speechless at the front of the room. A few men quietly commented “That’s not funny,” and “You can’t say that.”

Bravo to those who didn’t let it slide. 

Jan. 14 – Carmen Suarez, the UI’s director of human rights, access and inclusion, said the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Feb. 7 visit will be a learning experience for Idaho students. “This is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in the presence of history,” Suarez said. The university will pay Jackson a $17,500 honorarium for delivering the speech and visiting with about 25 student leaders to be selected by the Associated Students of the UI.

Question: Is $17,500 a reasonable price for cash-strapped UIdaho to pay to bring Jesse Jackson to the Moscow campus?

Jan. 11 – One of Sen. Patty Murray’s first public appearances since the shooting in Tucson, Ariz., will be in Spokane on Wednesday afternoon at a very secure location.

The Spokane Police Academy.

The location has nothing to do with the slayings in Arizona, however. The police academy received federal money through the Recovery Act to help retrofit it to be more energy efficient, a spokesman said, and was chosen to serve as an example of clean energy. The location also was chosen before Saturday’s shooting.