Blogroll
A glance at what Spokesman-Review bloggers have to say
Outdoors blog
By Rich Landers
Sept. 22 – Three cheers for Gonzaga University student Molly Sullivan Roberge and others who’ve been putting up posters recently to help the mountain-going public learn how to be good neighbors with the mountain goats that highlight our high-country hiking trips.
The posters printed by the Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness (in cooperation with state wildlife officials) identify a few practices that hikers should follow when hiking in goat territory.
Huckleberries Online
By D.F. Oliveria
Sept. 22 – Moments ago, the police scanner reported that a strange guy from a Jeep Cherokee was walking up to Post Falls Bank of America customers using the ATM, carrying a black box. One customer ordered the guy to back away. Dunno about you, but I feel awkward standing in line at an ATM because it’s hard to tell how far to stand behind the person using the machine. At my bank, I stand back about 10 to 12 feet because the bank doors divide the space.
How much distance should those waiting in line give the user of an ATM?
Office Hours
Sept. 20 – Our takeaway from Washington State University’s announcement of a $27 million gift from Washington’s fruit tree industry is the diversity with which growers responded to a plan to tax themselves in order to raise that amount.
Apple and pear growers said, OK, we’ll do it. Cherry and stone-fruit growers voted no. The question was formally presented as a yes-no vote put to the state’s fruit growers, with each group having a say on whether it would tax itself.
The increases – or proposed increases – are in addition to existing self-imposed annual fees that fruit growers in Washington now pay.
Spin Control
By Jim Camden
Sept. 20 – The folks at the Office of Financial Management and Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program have developed a new website – accessible through http://fiscal.wa.gov/ – for looking up who makes what in state government.
The website is a follow-up to the release last month of the names of all the people who got their money from the state in 2010.
It’s an interesting site, but we like ours better; it’s at http://data.spokesman. com/salaries/state/. Try both out and decide for yourself.